Robert O. Ritchie was educated at Cambridge University in England where he received a B.A. degree in physics and metallurgy in 1969, M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Materials Science in 1973, and the Doctor of Science (Sc.D.) degree in 1990. Following periods as the Goldsmith's Research Fellow in Materials Science at Churchill College, Cambridge (1972-1974) and as a Miller Research Fellow for Basic Research in Science at Berkeley (1974-1976), he joined the faculty in Mechanical Engineering at M.I.T. where he became the Class of 1922 Associate Professor in 1979. In 1981, he returned to Berkeley where he has been Professor of Materials Science since 1982; he was also Deputy Director of the Materials Sciences Division at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory from 1990 to 1994, and Director of the Center for Advanced Materials there from 1987 to 1995.

Prof. Ritchie is known for his research in the fields of fracture mechanics and fatigue-crack propagation, having published some 500 papers and edited 17 books in the technical literature. He is a Member of the National Academy of Engineering in the U.S. and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in the UK, and has been the recipient of several other awards, including the Mathewson Gold Medal from TMS-AIME in 1985, the George R. Irwin Medal from ASTM in 1985, the Rosenhain Medal from the Institute of Materials (London) in 1992, and the Nadai Medal from ASME in 2004. He was co-chairman of the Gordon Conference on Physical Metallurgy in 1992, President and Honorary Fellow of the International Congress on Fracture (1997-2001), and is a Fellow of TMS, the Institute of Materials (UK), the Institute of Physics and the American Society for Materials.

Dr Michael Mortell took his doctorate at California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and his work as an Applied Mathematician in the area of non-linear acoustics is important and significant.  His research activities continued during his time as Registrar and subsequently as President of University College, Cork giving striking evidence of his remarkable organisational ability.  With co-workers he identified in 1973 a functional equation later called The Standard Mapping which is of fundamental importance in understanding mathematical CHAOS.  Indeed the gain to University College, Cork of an outstanding Registrar and President was a loss to science of an exceptional Applied Mathematician.

Dr Mortell has been awarded an Honorary doctorate by the University of Dublin and by the Queen’s University of Belfast.  He is a member of the Royal Irish Academy and a Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the National University of Ireland.

This year, 1995 is the 150th anniversary of the establishment of the Queen’s Colleges.  In honouring Dr Mortell today, the University of Limerick wishes to celebrate that anniversary and to mark its appreciation of the distinguished work performed by Dr Mortell in his role as President of University College, Cork.