ADAPT Academic Collaborator and Trinity College Dublin academic Professor Jane Ohlmeyer along with fellow Trinity Professor Jonathan N. Coleman were presented with the Royal Irish Academy Gold Medals by Senator Malcolm Byrne at a ceremony in the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin this week(Tue, March 7th).
Jane Ohlmeyer, Professor of Modern History, was presented with the 2023 Royal Irish Academy Gold Medal in the Humanities and Jonathan N. Coleman, Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy, was presented with the 2023 Royal Irish Academy Gold Medal in the Physical and Mathematical Sciences.
Royal Irish Academy Gold Medals recognise and celebrate researchers in Ireland making an international impact and shaping their field. The medals aim to identify and recognise inspirational figures in order to celebrate the achievements of higher education in Ireland and to inspire future generations.
Since 2005, a total of 32 Gold Medals have been awarded; notable recipients have included Immunologist, Professor Luke O’Neill, European Central Bank Chief Economist, Professor Philip Lane and Cognitive Scientist, Professor Ruth Byrne. The 2023 Royal Irish Academy Gold Medals are sponsored by AIB.
Hosted by the President of the Royal Irish Academy, Dr Mary Canning, the ceremony took place before an invited audience of members of the Irish higher education system, funding agencies, colleagues, friends and family members of the medallists.
Senator Malcolm Byrne said: ‘In a rapidly changing world, it is vital that universities and higher education institutions promote academic excellence but they also have a responsibility to ensure the value of evidence based debate is recognised in the development of public policy.’
President of the Royal Irish Academy, Dr Mary Canning said: “The Royal Irish Academy Gold Medals recognise world leaders in their research fields in Higher Education Institutes on this island. We need trailblazers in research to explore, to challenge and to explain – these gold medal winners are proven experts in achieving these aims.”
Professor Jane Ohlmeyer said: “It is a great honour to receive this medal from the Academy, awarded by my fellow scholars, in recognition of a career devoted to developing new frontiers of scholarship and presenting fresh ways of understanding Ireland, our history and culture, and our relationship with the rest of the world. This award also recognises the vital importance of basic frontier research and the critical role that the humanities play in the world today.”
Professor Ohlmeyer is the Humanities lead on HUMAN+, an international and interdisciplinary fellowship programme led by the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute and ADAPT. Human+ is supported by the prestigious European Commission (EC) Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie COFUND Action.
Professor Jane Ohlmeyer, 2023 Royal Irish Academy Gold Medallist in the Humanities
Jane Ohlmeyer is Erasmus Smith’s Professor of Modern History (1762) at Trinity College Dublin. She was the founding Head of the School of Histories and Humanities and Trinity’s first Vice-President for Global Relations (2011-14). She was a driving force behind the 1641 Depositions Project and the development of the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute which she directed (2015-20). She chaired the Irish Research Council (2015-21). She was the Principal Investigator for ‘Shape-ID,’ ‘Shaping Interdisciplinary Practices in Europe’ and a MSCA Co-fund called ‘Human+’, both funded by European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme. She is the author or editor of numerous articles and 11 books. Her next book on ‘Ireland, Empire and the Early Modern World’, which she gave as the 2021 Ford Lectures in Oxford, will appear in 2023. She is currently working on a 4-part documentary called ‘From that Small Island: the story of the Irish’ which will be broadcast in March 2024.
