UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN
HONORARY CONFERRING
Friday, 6 September 2013 at 11.30 a.m.
TEXT OF THE INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS DELIVERED BY Dr Hugh Brady, President, University College Dublin on 6 September 2013, on the occasion of the conferring of the Degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa on John Hegarty
Honoured guests, Ladies and gentlemen,
Today, UCD honours Professor John Hegarty for his remarkable contribution to Irish higher education as a distinguished laser physicist of international repute, as the 43rd Provost of Trinity College Dublin and as a major catalyst for inter-institutional collaboration within the Irish higher education sector.
John was born in Claremorris, County Mayo in 1948 and was educated locally at St. Colman’s College. He was awarded a BSc in physics, chemistry, mathematics and philosophy from St Patrick’s College Maynooth, a HDipEd also from Maynooth and a PhD from University College Galway (now National University of Ireland, Galway).
I should also mention that John met his wife Neasa Ni Chinneide at UCG when they were both graduate students – he in physics and she in historical geography.
Following a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Madison – Wisconsin, John was appointed Research Scientist in fibre optic communications at Bell Labs, New Jersey where he performed a landmark demonstration of DWDM speed transmission, recognised by Time Magazine as a key milestone in the development of communications technology.
Not surprisingly, John was sought out to fill the post of Professor of Laser Physics at Trinity College and returned to Ireland in 1986. The focus of John’s research was the study of light: how it interacts with matter, how it can be used to unveil the secrets of nature, and how it can be harnessed for applications.
In addition, to his Professorship at Trinity, he was Visiting Professor at the University of Tokyo and the Sony Corporation in Japan. In recognition of the quality and impact of his research, which resulted in over 140 publications and multiple patents, he was elected as a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and Member of the Royal Irish Academy, the American Physical Society, the Optical Society of America, and the Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers.
Not content to just pursue an academic career, John always sought to translate his research findings into practical applications. Relatively soon after returning to Trinity, he co-founded the company Optronics Ireland with Liam Kelly and Alan Dixon. Later, he co-founded Eblana Photonics with his colleague James O’Gorman. Eblana is a great example of innovation and entrepreneurship and is now a worldwide supplier of laser diodes to the fibre communications and industrial sensing markets.
It was not long before John displayed an interest in and flair for institutional leadership. He served as Head of the Physics Department at Trinity and then a very influential term as Dean of Research. It was during the latter period that I first met John. The remarkable Irish American Chuck Feeney had persuaded the Irish Government to partner with his Foundation, The Atlantic Philanthropies, to create the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (the so-called PRTLI) to boost Ireland’s research infrastructure and capacity. When Professor Dermot Kelleher and I, in our roles then as Professors of Medicine at TCD and UCD, respectively proposed that we pool our efforts in the area of molecular medicine research and training, John gave the project his unequivocal support. The resultant Dublin Molecular Medicine Centre kick-started more than a decade of unprecedented collaboration between Ireland’s two leading universities that simply would not have happened without John’s vision. I will return to the topic of inter-institutional collaboration later.
John was elected the 43rd Provost of Trinity College in 2001 – a role that he performed with great distinction. During his term as Provost, John undertook an ambitious reform programme that included academic re-structuring, curriculum reform, major investment in research and an ambitious capital programme. Notable achievements included raising funding to establish Crann (the Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices), the construction of the Biomedical Sciences Institute, Naughton Institute, Science Gallery, Long Room Hub and the Lir Academy of Dramatic Art – to name but a few.
The results were striking – some well-publicised while others perhaps less well-appreciated but no less important. Under John’s leadership Trinity climbed dramatically up the world rankings entering the world top 100 and top 50 in the Times Higher Ranking. But perhaps as important, and I suspect an achievement that John is equally proud of, initiatives such as the Long Room Hub, the Lir Academy and the Science Gallery brought Trinity much closer to its local community and the wider public than perhaps ever before in its long history.
I would, however, like to focus the final part of this citation on John’s role as an advocate for inter-institutional collaboration as a means of enhancing the quality and impact of the student experience, research output and innovation capacity of the Irish higher education sector. Indeed, it is perhaps appropriate to reflect on John’s achievement at this particular time in the evolution of Ireland’s higher education sector when terms such as reconfiguration of the higher education landscape, system consolidation, and merger seem to dominate the national dialogue. A quick scan of such experiments across the globe shows us that most mergers and consolidations driven by central government fail and often quite spectacularly. On the other hand, the gains for individual institutions and national systems can be quite stunning when there is a confluence of visionary institutional leadership, committed and enthusiastic staff, and a supportive funding and policy environment created by Government.
John Hegarty’s considerable achievements in the areas of education, research and innovation are a wonderful testament to the power of collaboration. And while, he has been a driver and facilitator of fruitful collaboration between TCD and many Irish and international universities during his time as Dean of Research and Provost of Trinity, I will focus on TCD-UCD collaboration to illustrate the point.
On the teaching front, two joint programmes were launched under John’s watch that deserve special mention:
- The TCD/UCD Masters in Development Practice (MDP) is funded by the MacArthur Foundation (U.S.A.) and is delivered jointly by TCD and UCD in collaboration with the National University of Rwanda, The Mary Robinson Climate Justice Foundation, and a wide number of national and international organisations. The graduating students receive the first joint degree from our two great institutions.
- The joint TCD/UCD structured PhD programme called Dublin Chemistry was initially funded through the PRTLI programme and gives PhD students from UCD and TCD access to modules, expertise and technologies in both institutions thereby greatly increasing critical mass and enhancing the quality of the PhD training experience.
These ground-breaking programmes have paved the way for an ever expanding portfolio of collaborative and joint programmes across the full range of disciplines from molecular medicine to economics and philosophy, and involving over a thousand students.
In the area of research, major research collaborations between UCD and TCD launched under John’s leadership include the following:
- The Dublin Molecular Medicine Centre which I mentioned earlier and which has now evolved to include all of Ireland’s medical schools in the form of Molecular Medicine Ireland;
- The Centre for Synthesis and Chemical Biology; and
- The National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training.
Here again the results are tangible. Between 2006 and 2010 alone, UCD and Trinity College had 657 collaborations on academic papers – making us the most closely linked of research institutions in Ireland – and indeed making each the most frequent collaborating institution for the other.
In the area of innovation, I had the pleasure of working with John on the TCD-UCD Innovation Alliance – an initiative that is having considerable impact within, across and outside of our individual institutions.
- Within our institutions, it has catalysed an on-going effort to increase the innovation and entrepreneurship content of our curricula at all levels.
- Across institutions, our PhD students have the possibility to come together to take an exciting range of courses in the new TCD-UCD Innovation Academy leading to a Joint Graduate Certificate in Innovation & Entrepreneurship. Importantly, this initiative has now been extended to include Queens University Belfast.
- Finally, the discussions between our two institutions on the wider national innovation ecosystem were the prompt for Government to establish the National Innovation Taskforce which resulted in a series of recommendations on such areas as education, university-industry collaboration, immigration policy, and venture capital funding that has already been implemented.
It is not surprising therefore, that one of the first things John did when he finished his term as Provost of Trinity was to set up Innovation Advisory Partners, an advisory firm for institutions, businesses and governments in the field of education, research, technology and innovation.
Throughout his stellar career, Neasa has always been a rock at his side and his sons – Ciaran and Cillian – have always played a most important part in his life. Together they made the Provost’s House, at One Grafton Street, a family home. As I know all too well myself, there’s nothing like boys playing football on the lawn or bouncing on a trampoline to transform a magnificent period residence into that family home.
Together, Neasa and John opened their home beyond the formal occasions and the hospitality around their 15 foot kitchen table was famous. I was told one story of a night after a performance by Shaun Davey, who had set 15 of Caoimhín Ó Cinnéide – (Neasa’s father’s) poems to music, when the concert adjourned to their kitchen and everyone there took their turn to perform a party piece – John, I suspect that a few former Provosts may have been turning in their graves on that particular night.
I know Neasa and John have so many happy memories of their time at Trinity and although they spend a great deal of time in Neasa’s native Dingle, John is far from retired.
John, you have left an indelible mark on Irish higher education. The entire higher education system and generations of students and researchers have benefited from your vision, excellence and energy, and it is indeed fitting that this University should honour you with a Doctorate of Science in recognition of your achievements.
EGO AUCTORITATE MIHI CONCESSA ADMITTO TE AD GRADUM DOCTORATUS
IN SCIENTIAE HONORIS CAUSA