UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN
HONORARY CONFERRING
Monday, 3 September 2018 at 11.30 am
TEXT OF THE INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS DELIVERED BY PROFESSOR DAVID FITZPATRICK, Principal, College of Engineering and Architecture on 3 September 2018, on the occasion of the conferring of the Degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa on JOHN O’CONNOR.
President, colleagues, invited guests, graduates, it is with great pleasure that I have the opportunity to deliver the citation for Professor John O’Connor. It is also with some trepidation, as Prof O’Connor was my DPhil supervisor and I still have flashbacks to red-pen corrections of my work - so I hope that I don’t make any mistakes today!
A graduate from UCD Engineering with a BE in Mechanical & Electrical Engineering, John O’Connor graduated in 1956 with 1st Class Honours. Having worked for a period of time in industry, Prof O’Connor returned to academia to undertake a PhD at the University of Cambridge, where K.L. Johnson was his supervisor. He was awarded his PhD by the University of Cambridge in 1961 for his work in contact mechanics and joined the University of Oxford, Department of Engineering Science, in 1964. From 1965 to 2001 he was Fellow and Tutor in Engineering Science at St. Peter’s College Oxford and has also undertaken roles in the US and Nigeria, where he was head of the department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Nigeria!
He has 13 patent applications, over 120 journal papers, books and book chapters and a number of International awards, including the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland’s Haughton Silver medal – awarded to Irish Engineers, Scientists or Clinicians who have made a significant contribution to the field.
Apart from his academic reputation and contribution to the field of biomechanics, and orthopaedic mechanics in particular, Professor O’Connor is most significantly known for his collaboration with orthopaedic surgeon, John Goodfellow and the development of a particular concept for the design of knee replacement technology, the “mobile bearing knee”.
As is frequently the case, at least anecdotally, this collaboration between engineer and clinician came about by accident! In 1966, Professor O'Connor, as a relatively new lecturer in the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford, was seeking funding for structural joint research. But misinterpretation of his interests led to a chance encounter with Mr John Goodfellow, an orthopaedic surgeon at Oxford’s Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre who clearly was thinking of anatomy rather than aircraft!
Since first being implanted in a patient in 1976, and used as a partial knee replacement from 1982, over 650,000 Oxford Knees have now been implanted in patients all over the globe, including here in Ireland. The “mobile bearing” knee concept has since formed the basis for other designs but none have performed as successfully in their use in partial knee replacement.
In 2014, the Oxford Knee was included in the “Great Medical Discoveries: 800 years of Oxford innovation” exhibition at the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Library. The exhibition was curated to mark the 800th anniversary of Roger Bacon’s birth, who led the way towards the emergence of medical science as an inductive study of nature, based on and tested by experiment.
Alongside 12 other key contributions from Oxford based academics, clinicians and researchers, including the development of Penicillin into a therapeutic drug, and the design of the Glucose Sensor, the work of Professor O’Connor and John Goodfellow in developing the Oxford Knee was celebrated, noting that “they designed the first knee replacement which incorporated analogues of the natural menisci: partially mobile semi-lunar cartilages interposed between the surfaces of the bones to bring their dissimilar shapes into conformity and thereby spread the loads over larger areas of contact, greatly lowering the stresses in the bones.” Medical Device design inspired by nature and drawing on John’s original interests in contact mechanics!
In addition to his commitment and contribution to leading research across the fields of contact mechanics, biomechanics, orthopaedics and, in particular, the provision of a medical device that has changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, Prof O’Connor has also contributed to the development of Irish Engineering education, serving as NUI appointed external examiner in Mechanical Engineering for UCD, NUI Galway and UCC from 1998-2000, as External Examiner for Mechanical Engineering here in UCD from 2000 to 2003 and for the University of Limerick from 2002 to 2004 – in all roles advising and guiding the development of programmes and directly engaging in the quality assurance of the degree programmes and their assessment. As a renowned Irish engineer and authority in the field of biomechanics, he has also been a generous supporter and mentor to emerging Irish bioengineering research and the development of the field, both academically and commercially.
In this 2018/19 academic year, which is the centenary year of the UCD BE degree award, it is more than fitting that the achievements and contribution of one of our most successful and impactful graduates is recognised through the award of the DSc honoris causa.
I now have immense personal pleasure to call on Professor O’Connor and the Registrar (Note: The UCD President was unable to attend due to illness) to formally confer the degree.
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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 Scientiae; idque tibi fide mea testor ac spondeo, totique Academiae.