Professor Thomas S. Wheeler
Professor Thomas Sherlock Wheeler (1899-1962) was born in Dublin. He was educated at the Royal College of Science and later acted as a demonstrator in chemistry at the Royal Technical College, Glasgow. His applied chemistry research on explosives resulted in him being awarded his PhD by the University of London in 1924. In 1931 he became the Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Royal Institute of Science, Bombay, India. He subsequently served for two years as the Dean of the Science Faculty and science advisor to the government of Bombay. He returned to Ireland in 1939 to serve as state chemist from 1939 to 1945. In 1945 Professor Wheeler became Head of the Department of Chemistry at UCD up to 1962. Professor Wheeler was also Dean of UCD Faculty of Science and member of UCD's Governing Authority where he was key to the design and plans for the transfer of the Science Faculty from Merrion Street to the purpose-built Science Buildings on the new Belfield Campus site. His untimely death in 1962 meant he never saw the completed buildings which he had been so dedicated and enthusiastic in planning. The Thomas S. Wheeler Lecture Series, established in 1964, remains to this day a central activity in the calendar of the School.