Professor Dervilla Donnelly RIP (remembered by Eileen Fitzpatrick)

Professor Dervilla Donnelly who died in November 2024 was an internationally renowned Chemist and much respected and longstanding member of the IWF in Ireland.

Born Dervilla Maura Xavier in 1930, her particular area of expertise was Natural Product Chemistry.  Serving most of her career in University College Dublin, she was not only academically gifted, but very farsighted in her approach to education and in particular in encouraging women in Science at a time when it wasn’t on the social agenda.  Known as DMX to her students, I was lucky enough to be part of a big mixed gender research group she ran in UCD in the 80s when many groups were almost entirely male.  While never actually articulating it, she somehow managed to impart the idea to the women in her group that they could achieve anything.  At a time when Ireland could be very insular, Dervilla understood very early on in her career the value of global academic collaboration making sure that her students were exposed to the leading international scientific minds and techniques of that time. As an educator she instilled in us a great sense of scientific rigour and integrity.  In testimony to her commitment to science education she produced some 85 Ph.D. graduates during the course of her career.  We students were in awe of her and had an alert system organised to let us know when DMX had left her office and was on her way down to the laboratory.  She could be great fun especially if you got her talking about her favourite sport, horse racing.  She was a force of nature and her energy and appetite for life were for me her outstanding characteristics.

She was the recipient of many prestigious academic awards during her lifetime both here and abroad.  In 2017 she was the first female recipient of the Cunningham Medal, the highest honour of the Royal Irish Academy, in a lovely ceremony at which Catherine Godson, one of our members was proud to read the citation.  In 1989 she became the first ever female President of the Royal Dublin Society.  In her later career, Dervilla did many roles for the State, applying her expertise and fine mind to broader issues in public life, making a real contribution especially in the area of science policy.

She will be remembered by all who knew her and particularly her wide circle of friends in the IWF as an eminent Scientist, a good friend and a fantastic role model.

Rest in peace, Dervilla.