Jim Dooge might be described as honori ficabi litudi nitatibus, even if no one is sure exactly what it means. From Love's Labour's Lost, , it is the longest word in Shakespeare's plays, and supporters of Francis Bacon as the real writer of Shakespeare's plays believe it to be an anagram of Hi ludi, F. Baconis nati, tuiti orbi: "These plays, born of F. Bacon are preserved for the world." The majority of those who know about these things, however, believe it to have something to do with being deserving of the highest honours. And thus, to a tee, it suits Prof Dooge.
James Clement Ignatius Dooge has been awarded the IMO Prize. The award is meteorology's highest honour, having been established by the World Meteorological Organisation in 1955 to commemorate the organisation that preceded WMO, the International Meteorological Organisation.
The inscription on the gold medal presented to the recipient reads: Pro singulari erga scientiam meteorologicam merito - "For being of singular benefit to the science of meteorology." And Jim Dooge fits that, too, exactly.
Many, of course, may know James Dooge merely as a politician, since he was a long-time member of Seanad Eireann, and for a short period in the 1980s a very successful foreign minister. But this was almost incidental. Prof Dooge in real life is a hydrologist, a specialist in what might be called "the science of water in its natural state" - where it comes from, where it goes, and how it gets there.
Jim Dooge's long and distinguished career in hydrology has spanned well over half a century, during which time he used professorships of civil engineering at both UCD and UCC as the launching pad for his activities. He has been president of both the International Council of Scientific Unions and of the International Association for Hydrological Sciences, and in 1983 he was awarded the International Prize in Hydrology. He holds honorary doctorates from at least three foreign universities.
But now the supreme accolade has come his way, and needless to say, he is the first Irishman to whom this honour has been given. He will be presented with his gold medal tonight in Dublin by Dr John Zillman, Director of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, who is president of the World Meteorological Organisation. The ceremony, and the succeeding celebratory dinner, will be attended by Prof Patrick Obasi, Secretary General of WMO, by many major foreign and local dignitaries, and by a few minor players from the wings of the stage of meteorology. I am delighted to have been named among these last, and look forward very much to sharing the pleasure of my honorifi cabili tudini tatibus friend.