Trinity professor, Louis Cullen, has been honoured by the Royal Irish Academy (RIA) for his contribution to the field of humanities by being presented with a gold medal award. Cullen is professor emeritus of History in College. He previously worked as a diplomat before joining the department of history in 1963 as a lecturer. In 1972 he was appointed Professor of Modern Irish History and made a Senior Fellow.
His research interests include modern Irish social and economic history, pre-modern Japanese history and Franco-Irish history. One of his books “An Economic and Social History of Ireland since 1660” is widely used as a textbook for students of Irish history. He has received many awards from institutions in Ireland, the UK, France and Japan. He is also considered an international authority on the Tokugawa period in Japan from 1600-1800.
Fergus Shanahan, chair of the Department of Medicine in University College Cork (UCC), was also honoured at the event. Shanahan was named researcher of the year by the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) in 2013 and is also the director of the Alimentary Pharmabotic Centre (APC) Microbiome Institute in UCC.
Shanahan, who has worked in universities in Ireland, Canada and the US, has produced over 500 publications and has helped put Ireland at the forefront of the study of inflammatory bowel disease as well as microbiome science. His research has attracted significant foreign direct investment into Ireland and has led to several important discoveries.
The awards were presented in a ceremony at the RIA by President of the Academy Mary E. Daly.
