UCD appoints first feminine president in 169-year historical past — science weblog
UCD is Eire’s largest college with over 38,000 college students and is ranked inside the prime 1% of upper training establishments worldwide.
On February 21, Marie O’Connor, chair of the UCD governing authority, introduced the appointment of Orla Feely as president of UCD for a 10-year time period. Feely is at present serving because the vice-president for analysis, innovation, and influence at UCD.
“I think about myself very lucky to have been in a position to attend college”
In welcoming her to the function, O’Connor praised Feely’s management, educating, and analysis credentials.
“Professor Orla Feely is an distinctive one who has the drive and ambition to steer UCD as a public college that values its group, units requirements, and embraces wider participation in an effort to make an actual influence on society,” O’Connor stated.
Feely earned her bachelor’s diploma at UCD, and her grasp’s and doctoral levels in electrical engineering from the College of California, Berkeley. She has been a part of UCD’s administration crew since 2014 and, along with her steering, the college dramatically elevated its variety of analysis grants, exceeding €155 million in grant funding final 12 months alone.
“UCD has had a unprecedented affect on the event of contemporary Eire,”Feely advised The PIE Information.
“Our function in Eire continues to be crucial to us, however it’s now complemented by a really robust international presence. I wish to develop the numerous methods during which we make a transparent constructive distinction to the lives of our college students and to the broader world presently of huge disruptive change.”
Certainly, UCD is Eire’s most globally engaged college with 29% of its college students coming from over 150 international locations, which incorporates 5,000 college students learning at one of many college’s 5 international centres outdoors of Eire. A 3rd of school members are additionally worldwide.
A champion for the development of ladies, Feely has led the event of two gender equality motion plans for UCD.
She can also be a robust believer within the energy of college training and within the significance of vast entry to its transformative alternatives. A primary-generation pupil herself, Feely strives to extend entry for all learners.
“I think about myself very lucky to have been in a position to attend college, a privilege not accessible to my dad and mom or any earlier generations in my household, and to take action at a time when girls have been beginning to enter the engineering career in affordable numbers,” she advised The PIE.
Feely will assume the presidency this Might, changing Mark Rogers, who has served because the performing president for the previous 12 months