Michael Smurfit visits TCD to address researchers in an institute named after him, writes Dick Ahlstrom.
If you had a spare million or two would you buy a bigger car or help to change Ireland's future? Most of us would probably go for the car, but thankfully there are a few benefactors who are helping to build our knowledge economy.
One such is Dr Michael Smurfit who last week paid his first visit to a building that carries his name, the Smurfit Institute of Genetics at Trinity College Dublin.
It was an opportunity for the College to thank Dr Smurfit and let him know what his various financial donations have done for Irish science, says Trinity professor of genetics, Dr David McConnell.
Trinity now ranks as one of the world's leading research centres for genetics and molecular biology, says McConnell. Michael Smurfit played a major role in the growth of genetics at Trinity first by endowing the Smurfit chair in medical genetics in 1989 and then through his financial support in 1997-98 for the Institute named in his honour.
"Without his generosity in 1989 and later in 1997-98 we simply couldn't be where we are today," declares McConnell.
Smurfit is one of a number of Irish benefactors who make startlingly generous contributions to our universities in support of education and research. They endow research chairs, help finance buildings and laboratories and enable our graduates and post graduates to conduct research using world class facilities.
Philanthropists important to Trinity have included Smurfit and others such as Irish American Chuck Feeney, Martin Naughton, Loretta and Lou Glucksman, Sir Anthony O'Reilly and William Vincent. Samuel Beckett can be numbered amongst these given he donated a year's royalties from one of his plays to help build the Berkeley Library at Trinity.
Contributions made by these and other benefactors have helped to build up all of our third-level institutions. The outcomes of this generosity are too seldom highlighted and so Trinity was happy to ask Smurfit to address the students and faculty in genetics last Wednesday, and also to see what had been achieved with his support.
The results of this are clearly seen in the international rankings achieved by various departments in College, says McConnell. These are based on studies by Thomson ISI which measures the impact of research papers published in peer reviewed journals.
Molecular biology and genetics at TCD ranks 40th in the world according to the ISI rankings. Stanford is 39th, Harvard is 42nd, Caltech is 46th and University of California San Diego is 53rd, McConnell points out.
These rankings include all publishing scientists with most of the top positions held by large companies. Looking at universities alone, genetics at Trinity is ranked 6th in the world, one behind Stanford and one ahead of Harvard, says McConnell.
Prof Seamus Martin currently holds the Smurfit Chair in Medical Genetics and ISI has ranked him as high as fourth in the world in his specialist research area, apoptosis the natural process of cell death, adds McConnell.
These achievements have been helped along by the largess of benefactors such as Smurfit. "What he did helped us to get close to the top despite the fact we are relatively small," McConnell states.
The department now has about 12 research groups involving the work of about 100 postdoctoral researchers.
Those who make such exceptional contributions to the cultural activity that is scientific research may end up with their names chiselled into the side of buildings, but the educational legacy they empower is the real result of their generosity.