Visionary professor broke new ground

Although not by training a chemical engineer, Prof John O'Donnell, professor emeritus of chemical engineering at University College…

Although not by training a chemical engineer, Prof John O'Donnell, professor emeritus of chemical engineering at University College Dublin, who has died at the age of 83, came to be the father of that profession in this country.

John O'Donnell was lecturing on the staff of UCD's School of Engineering in 1956 when, fresh from a sabbatical at Cambridge University - and with an acknowledged expertise in the science and technology of heat transfer which is central to the operation of chemical industrial manufacturing plants - he was asked to supervise the first undergraduates ever to take the subject in their final examinations at UCD.

The experiment proved successful and the following year he was appointed to the first chair in chemical engineering at UCD, which was also the first such chair in any university in Ireland.

He held the position for a total of 31 years, during which he played a very important role in the development of Ireland's new chemical and pharmaceutical industries by turning out the graduates to work in them. In 1956 there were just nine; by 1988, over 30 per annum. In the intervening years Prof O'Donnell also supervised many PhD students although he never himself obtained a doctorate (not unusual at the time for academic engineers).

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Outside of the university, John O'Donnell became directly involved in the economy by accepting the chairmanship of Nitrigin Éireann Teo, the State-backed fertiliser manufacturer. In 1962, he was appointed to the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), with a specific brief to report on the training of scientists and technicians for Irish industry. A colleague, Dr John Kelly, said this week that he was a "pioneer" of links between industry and the universities.

In 1966, as president of the Cumann na nInnealtóirí, he called for the setting up of a National Science Council, separate from the Civil Service and reporting directly to the Taoiseach.

In his OECD role, and through his membership also of the board of the Institute for Industrial Research and Standards (IIRS) and the Scientific Advisory Body of the Department of Education, he was instrumental in the initiative taken by government in the late 1960s to set up the technical institutes which became the regional technical colleges, and served on the steering committee for that project.

He was also at this time the founding chairman of the Irish branch of the Institution of Chemical Engineers. Later, he was a member of the committee of the institution. Prof

O'Donnell's appointment in 1957, and subsequent career, thus mirrored the vitally important changes taking place at that time in government economic and trade policy.

Apart from his impact as a teacher and government advisor, John O'Donnell was also involved in both academic and professional politics. He and colleagues in both Cumann na nInnealtóirí and the Institution of Civil Engineers worked for unity in their profession, and this was finally achieved in 1970 with the setting up of the Institution of Engineers of Ireland.

Meanwhile, in UCD, he was identified with a younger group of academics in seeking change in an institution which could appear very conservative. This group was referred to in a 1988 UCD paper marking his retirement as the "young Turks", and included, according to Dr John Kelly, Garrett FitzGerald, Denis Donoghue and Desmond Williams.

In 1964, he won election to the governing body of UCD. In 1972, although winning much support among the academic staff when he challenged for the presidency of the college, he lost out to Prof Tom Murphy in the NUI Senate. He remained on the academic council, however, for a total of 31 years.

John Patrick O'Donnell was born in 1920 in Kilmallock, Co Limerick, one of three children of John and Kitty O'Donnell, newsagents and former emigrants to America, who had met on the ship bringing them home to Ireland. The young O'Donnell was educated at Bruree National School - de Valera's junior alma mater - then by the Christian Brothers in Limerick and then at UCD, in the latter two institutions by means of scholarships. He graduated first in his class, with a double first in engineering and science, in 1943.

After working for the Electricity Supply Board and the Irish Sugar Company, he did research on heat transfer and fuel cells, and took a master's degree in engineering in 1948. The following year he was appointed a lecturer in mechanical engineering at UCD.

In private life, Prof O'Donnell enjoyed classical music and was an active member of the Limerick Music Association, now the Music Lovers' Association. He and his wife, Veronica Geoghegan, an Abbey Theatre actress who was to distinguish herself as an artist, later developed a fascination for China. He was also interested in the Arab world and he and other UCD academics helped set up the faculty of engineering at Amman University in Jordan in the 1980s.

John O'Donnell, who died following a stroke, is survived by his wife, and four children, Anne, Sheila, Rory and Eoin.

John Patrick O'Donnell: born August 3rd, 1920; died February 15th, 2004