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Three academics from Queen's have been admitted as Members of the Royal Irish Academy (RIA). Election to the RIA is the highest academic honour in Ireland. 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. Professor Nicholas Canny, President of the Royal Irish Academy, said "'It is a testament to Ireland's formidable position in the academic world that the Royal Irish Academy is today able to honour such a variety of exceptional scholars in the Sciences and Humanities. Ireland can be proud of these brilliant women and men who are universally recognised as leaders in the world of learning."
The three new Queen's Members are: Professor David Hayton, Dr Stephen Royle, and Professor Robert Elwood.
Professor David Hayton has been Head of the School of History and Anthropology since 2005. He has carried out editorial functions for a number of historical and other bodies, in particular Irish Historical Studies, of which he was joint editor, 1997-2007. He is an expert in late 17th to mid 18th century Irish politics, an area which he has made peculiarly his own and in which his expertise is universally acknowledged and widely drawn upon.
Dr Stephen Royle is a reader in geography and director of the Centre of Canadian Studies. He is best know within Ireland for his work on urban historical geography, including his leading contribution to the two Belfast chapters in the Royal Irish Academy's Irish Historic Towns Atlas. Beyond Ireland, but inspired by it, he has played an innovative role in the rapidly expanding, multidisciplinary field of island studies.
Robert Elwood is Professor of Animal Behaviour in the School of Biological Science. His principal interests include information gathering and decision-making in various invertebrates and monkeys, reproductive tactics, life history tactics and mate guarding and aggression in spiders, hermit crabs and amphipods. Recent work includes high profile issues in conservation biology and animal welfare, including research into whether crustaceans, such as lobsters, are capable of feeling pain. He has also been President of the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour (a major international academic association) and received the ASAB medal for contributions to Animal Behaviour in 2007.
The criterion for election to membership is a significant contribution to scholarly or scientific research as shown in the candidate's published academic work. Membership of the Academy, which is by peer nomination and election, is limited to those scientists and scholars normally resident in Ireland.
Among the membership of the Academy are many of Ireland's leading scholars, the best known of whom include: Professor Peter Gregson, President and Vice-Chancellor of Queen's; Professor Elizabeth Meehan, School of Law, Queen's; Professor Kenneth Taylor, School of Theoretical Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics; and Professor Ian Montgomery, Head of School of Biological Sciences at Queen's.
The Academy has also more than 50 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. |
