TEXT OF THE INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS DELIVERED BY PROFESSOR PATRICK GUIRY, Director of the Centre for Synthesis & Chemical Biology, University College Dublin on 16 June 2010, on the occasion of the conferring of the Degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa on TADHG BEGLEY
A Sheansailéir, a mhuintir na hOllscoile agus a dhuine uaisle,
It is a great pleasure to welcome Tadhg Begley back to Ireland and to honour him today with a Doctorate in Science from the National University of Ireland. He is currently the Derek Barton Professor of Chemistry at Texas A&M University and he is one of the most respected and best known of the Irish ‘science’ diaspora.
Tadhg’s early promise as a scientist was recognised in 1973 when he won the Irish Young Scientist competition and what a career he has had since then. He was an outstanding undergraduate student at University College Cork, graduating in 1977, and then chose to move to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) for his graduate studies. He earned his Ph.D. there with Professor Peter Dervan in 1982 and came back to Europe for postdoctoral research with Wolfgang Oppolzer in Geneva. He moved across the Atlantic for a further and important postdoctoral stay in the group of Chris Walsh at MIT, prior to his appointment to the staff at Cornell University in 1986.
Before his move to the decidedly warmer climate of College Station in Texas last year, Tadhg built his reputation as a top chemist specialising in the field of chemical biology and natural products synthesis at Cornell. Not only is he renowned for his research in chemical biology, but he is one of the scientists who has helped to develop it, teach it and indeed define it and I quote “Chemical Biology can be viewed as subsuming important aspects of the traditional disciplines of bioorganic chemistry, bioinorganic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, biophysical chemistry and biochemistry, with a special emphasis on the rigorous application of the principles, tools and language of chemistry to important topics in biology”.
Professor Begley’s own research focuses on applying such rigour to elucidating the mechanistic enzymology of complex transformations, particularly those found on the biosynthetic pathways of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD – every biologist know this acronym !), menaquinone, molybdopterin, thiamine (Vit B1) and pyridoxal phosphate (Vit B6). This research employs a combination of molecular biology, protein biochemistry, organic synthesis and structural studies and it provides an excellent training for students interested in understanding the organic chemistry of life and in pursuing careers in biotechnology, drug design or academia.
He is one of the leading scientists in the $100 million Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Building-one of the largest single construction projects in the history of Texas A&M University opened last September- and Tadhg was chosen to lead the Chemical Biology discipline as part of an interdisciplinary effort to search for solutions to complex biological systems.
Tadhg’s research had led to 127 peer-reviewed publications, all in high quality journals and he is one of the most cited authors working in his field. This output is complemented by insightful research reviews, opinions and his role as both book author and editor. In 2005 he co-authored with John McMurry the textbook “The Organic Chemistry of Biological Pathways”, now the recognised textbook for late stage undergraduates (our own final year UCD students) and graduate students worldwide. In addition, he is the editor of the four-volume Wiley Encyclopedia of Chemical Biology (widely referred to as the Bible of Chemical Biology) and a volume of Comprehensive Natural Products Chemistry on vitamins and cofactors. Unsurprisingly, he is regularly invited to speak at international conferences worldwide, including UCD in 2004 and 2005.
As many of you here will remember, funding for science in Ireland was scarce in the late 80s and early 90s so it was important to be able to look towards successful Irish scientists abroad as evidence for not only what could be done here, but what we could aspire to. Tadhg, as the leading Irish chemist of his generation, was one such person and it was therefore he was one of the people to whom we turned to when setting up the Centre for Synthesis and Chemical Biology (CSCB) in 2001. His help was at many levels, from advice on undergraduate / graduate curricula, to its research programmes, identification of potential academic staff and reviewing its development in 2007 for Atlantic Philanthropies, one of the CSCB’s main funders.
Tadhg’s standing in the research community is evidenced by his role as a member of the editorial boards for a series of leading research journals, such as:
- Molecular Biosystems
- Vitamins and Hormones
- Biorganic Chemistry
- Chemical Biology and Drug Design
- Biochimica et Biophysica Acta and
- Comprehensive Natural Products Chemistry.
He has been the recipient of numerous awards and honours as recognition for his outstanding work and contributions to his research field. As examples, in 2008 he received a prestigious MERIT (Method to Expand Research in Time) Award from the National Institutes of Health in support of his research and has earned the Merck Faculty Development Award and the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award.
It is a happy occasion today for University College Dublin to recognise the important contributions of Tadhg Begley by conferring upon him the Degree of Doctor of Science.
Praehonorabilis Praeses, totaque Universitas,
Praesento vobis hunc meum filium, quem scio tam
moribus quam doctrina habilem et idoneum esse qui admittatur, honoris causa, ad gradum Doctoratus in Scientiae; idque tibi fide mea testor ac spondeo, totique Academiae.