Prof Eugene Kennedy has been appointed Chairman of the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland (RPII), Minister for the Environment Dick Roche said today.
Prof Kennedy is well-known internationally for his research in atomic and plasma physics.
He has been an invited researcher at the National Institute for Standards and Technology (USA), the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) (Hamburg), the Laboratoire pour l'utilisation du rayonnement électromagnétique, (LURE) (Paris) and the Advanced Light Source (University of California at Berkeley).
Established by Government in 1992, the RPII is the national organisation with regulatory, monitoring and advisory responsibilities in matters pertaining to ionising radiation and the public health.
Mr Roche thanked outgoing chairman Dr Frank Mulligan, for his service over six years.
Prof Kennedy, a native of Boyle, Co Roscommon, has been Professor of Physics at Dublin City University (DCU) for the last 20 years and is currently Vice-President for Research.
He served as Head of the School of Physical Sciences from 1984 through the nineties and as Dean of the Faculty of Science from 1987 to 1994. From 1999 to 2003, he was the Director of the National Centre for Plasma Science and Technology (NCPST) at DCU.
He was elected Fellow of the Institute of Physics in 1987 and member of the Royal irish Academy in 2004.