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Professor Emerita Dervilla M.X. Donnelly
1930-2024
The School of Chemistry is mourning the loss of our colleague and friend Professor Emerita Dervilla Donnelly who has passed away after a short illness. We send our heartfelt condolences to her niece (Frances), nephews (Charles and John), grandnieces, grandnephews, great grandnieces, relatives and friends.
Having achieved a 1st Class Honours in her BSc Chemistry at UCD Dervilla went on to complete a PhD in the field of flavonoid chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Thomas S. Wheeler also at UCD when the then Department of Chemistry was based in Merrion Street. After her PhD she moved to Los Angeles where she undertook research as a postdoctoral fellow in University of California with Professor Ted Geissman.
In 1956 she returned to her alma mater having been appointed as a lecturer in Chemistry and quickly gained international renown in her specialist field of phytochemistry. She was particularly interested in wood chemistry and her research combined organic chemistry, structural studies, mycology and ecology and tried to address some of the problems being encountered within the Irish forestry industry at the time. In 1979 she was appointed Professor of Phytochemistry at UCD Dept (now School) of Chemistry in recognition of her scientific and teaching achievements.
Prof. Donnelly published over 150 research papers and insightful review articles and supervised a large group of 85 PhD students during her academic career at UCD. She was very proud of all of her PhD graduates and had a keen interest in their subsequent careers and was a mentor to many who went into the pharmaceutical industry, biotechnology and academia. She was a leader in the promotion of the benefits of collaborating across disciplines and internationally to science and chemistry in particular. She spent time as a visiting scientist on many occasions in both Stockholm and Gif-sur-Yvette in France where her collaborators were Professor Sir Derek Barton (Nobel Laureate in Chemistry in 1969) and Professor Judith Polonsky.
Her interest and leadership in collaboration led her to develop and manage one of the first academic research networks in Europe in the late 1970s and she went on to develop collaborations worldwide including with scientists in the USA, South Africa and South America. She was elected the Chairperson of the European Science Research Council in 1985 in recognition of her skills and commitment to science and collaboration in Europe and she served as a member and subsequently as Vice-President of the Executive Council of the European Science Foundation from 1990 to 1997.
In 1968 she was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy and she served on many Academy Committees contributing extensively to the work by serving on the Council for over 20 years, Senior Vice-President for 3 years and Vice-President for 11 years. Dervilla had a long association with the RDS where she sat on the committee, was an Honorary member of the Council and Chairperson of the RDS-Irish Times Boyle Medal National Committee, a medal she helped to revive after a lapse in awarding. She was the first woman President of the RDS from 1989-1992.
In 1991 the then Taoiseach appointed her as Chairperson of the Custom House Docks Development Authority and she served in this role until 1997. She was appointed by the Minister for Education to chair the National Education Convention in 1994, and the Forum on Early Childhood Education in 1998. In 1995, the President of Ireland, on the nomination of the Taoiseach, appointed her as Chair of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies and she played a key role in revitalising and regenerating this important body over a five-year period. She was a Member of the Science and Technology Innovation Council (2001) and Vice-Chair of the Board of Governors and Guardians of the National Gallery of Ireland (2001-2002). She was the Chairperson and Director of the Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction between 2000-2005 at the request of the Minister for Health.
Dervilla received numerous awards and honours in recognition of her outstanding work and contributions. These include the Boyle-Higgins Medal of the Institute of Chemistry of Ireland in 1999, the UCD Charter Day Medal in 2000, for her many contributions to the country and to UCD. She was also honoured by a Fellowship of the Hibernian Academy in 1994. In 2010, she was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, First Class for ‘superior creative and commendable services in the areas of the sciences or the arts’. In 2011 she was the recipient of the Inaugural Life Achievement Award of Women in Technology and Science. In 2017, Professor Dervilla Donnelly was the first woman to receive the Royal Irish Academy’s highest honour, The Cunningham Medal. The award recognises “outstanding contributions to scholarship and the objectives of the Academy” and it is the Academy’s premier award dating back to 1796.
A former President of the Institute of Chemistry of Ireland, she was made an Honorary Fellow in 2021. She was also awarded honorary doctorates from the University of Nottingham, The Queen’s University Belfast, Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin and the National University of Ireland. In 2023, a portrait of Professor Donnelly was commissioned by UCD and it hangs proudly in the School of Chemistry at the Ground Floor Entrance to Science South.
Those who knew Dervilla will remember her as a remarkable scientist, researcher and person who instilled an extremely high standard of scientific rigour and integrity in all those she encountered over the course of her career. She had a great sense of humour and an innate ability to connect to students across many generations.
Prof. Donnelly will be deeply missed by her fellow scientists, colleagues and friends at UCD School of Chemistry and the wider community of UCD.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam dilís.