Posted 21 May 2009
Royal Irish Academy honours UCD academics
In recognition of their academic excellence, Professor Anne Fuchs and Professor Stephen Mennell of University College Dublin have been elected members of the Royal Irish Academy (RIA). This is the highest academic honour available to scholars working in Ireland. Candidates for election must have made a significant contribution to scholarly or scientific research as shown in published academic work.
“The Academy's new members are amongst a small group of academics in Ireland that set the international hallmark of excellence in their fields of study,” said Professor Nicholas Canny, President of the Royal Irish Academy.
Left to right Prof Anne Fuchs, UCD; Prof Nicholas Canny, President of the Royal Irish Academy; and Professor Stephen Mennell, UCD
Anne Fuchs is Professor in Modern German Literature and Culture in the UCD School of Languages and Literatures, University College Dublin. Her research areas include German cultural memory, German-Jewish literature, German modernism and travel writing.
Stephen Mennell is Professor of Sociology in the UCD School of Sociology, University College Dublin, and was the founding director of what is now the UCD Geary Institute. His main research interest is comparative-historical sociology. His published books include All Manners of Food: Eating and Taste in England and France from the Middle Ages to the Present (1985), which was a pioneering study into the historical sociology of food and eating.
Lochlann Quinn, renowned businessman, UCD graduate, and member of the Board of the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business, was also admitted as a Member on 15 May 2009, alongside Dr Geraldine Kennedy, editor of The Irish Times and recipient of an honorary doctorate from University College Dublin in 2008.
Membership of the Academy, which is by peer nomination and election, is limited to those scientists and scholars normally resident in Ireland.
Royal Irish Academy
The Royal Irish Academy is an all-Ireland, independent, academic body that promotes study and excellence in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. It is the principal learned society in Ireland.
For 224 years membership of the Royal Irish Academy has been keenly competed for, as it is the highest academic honour in Ireland and a public recognition of academic achievement. There are now over 420 Members of the Academy, in disciplines from the sciences, humanities and social sciences.
The Academy also has more than 60 distinguished Honorary Members, who in the past have included J.W. Von Goethe, Maria Edgeworth, Albert Einstein and Max Born. Today, the Honorary Members include Nobel Laureates, Murray Gell-Mann, Steven Weinberg and Sir Andrew Huxley.
