President: Professor Iognβid ╙ Muircheartaigh
Appointed: August 1st, 2000, then aged 57. Appointment subject to a certain amount of controversy as the college's governing authority rejected the recommendation of the assessment board to appoint another candidate. Eight-year term of office.
Education: Colβiste Mhuire, Dublin. BA and MA in mathematical science from UCD; PhD in statistics, the University of Glasgow. Was associate professor of statistics in NUI Galway. Registrar and deputy president of NUI Galway since 1999. Native Irish speaker.
Academic record: international research reputation with more than 70 research publications. He has held visiting appointments at Stanford, Connecticut, Glasgow and the Naval Postgraduate School at Monterey, California.
Still teaches: first-year statistics to medical students.
Family: married to Rosaleen, a mathematician
Children: R≤is∅n and Jenny, both doctors, and Judith, studying third arts in NUI Galway.
What's special about NUI Galway? "It's very much a student-centred, student-friendly university. Even with 12,000 students it has managed to maintain a sense of intimacy."
Regrets: not qualifying for the 1968 Olympics in the 400 metre event (lost out by 0.4 of a second).
And, if you need to find the president, who is more comfortable being addressed as Iggy, at lunch time, you can almost always be sure of locating him in the college gym.
