60 TRINITY TODAY 2018 HONORARY DEGREES Honorary Degrees Between winter 2017 and summer 2018, Trinity awarded 10 honorary degrees to outstanding individuals. Among them were former U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, a pioneering neuroscientist and Ireland’s most capped rugby player. George Kildare Miley (Sc.D.) George Miley is Emeritus Professor of Astronomy at Leiden University. His research area is distant radio galaxies. His distinctions include the Shell Oeuvre Prize, a professorship of the Netherlands Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences, an honorary fellowship of the UK Royal Astronomical Society and an asteroid named after him. In 2012 he received a Dutch knighthood for his services to astronomy and society. In 1997 he initiated the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR), a revolutionary radio telescope, with stations spread over Europe, supporting the development of an all-Ireland facility (i-LOFAR) at Birr Castle. Olivia O’Leary (LL.D.) For more than four decades, Olivia O’Leary has been recognised as one of Ireland’s foremost journalists and broadcasters. Moving from RTÉ to BBC’s Newsnight was a key moment in her career and she became that programme’s first senior female presenter in 1985. She returned to RTÉ to host flagship programmes Today Tonight, Prime Time and Question and Answers, winning awards for these and BBC Radio 4’s Between Ourselves. Also writing for The Irish Times, Olivia O’Leary became established as one of the most formidable reporters in political journalism when the domain was almost exclusively male. Catriona Crowe (Litt.D.) Catriona Crowe was Senior Archivist of the National Archives of Ireland until her retirement in 2016 and has made outstanding contributions to learning, most recently through her initiation and management of the 1911 online census project. Historians of 20th-century Ireland, both in Ireland and abroad, recognise her as the pre-eminent authority on the state’s modern records. Catriona has also been heavily involved in community development activities in the north inner city. She has been a research associate of the Trinity Research Centre for Contemporary Irish History since 2004 and has also provided invaluable advice on the acquisition and care of very important collections of papers donated to College since 2001. Gero Miesenböck (Sc.D.) Gero Miesenböck is Waynflete Professor of Physiology and Director of the Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour at the University of Oxford. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Member of the Austrian and German Academies of Science. Gero pioneered the field of research called optogenetics, which allows the function of specific neurons in the intact brain to be remote-controlled with light. He has used optogenetics to investigate mechanisms of sleep, learning and memory, and action choice. These profound contributions to neuroscience have been recognised by numerous awards including the Massry Prize, the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award, the Heinrich Wieland Prize, and The Brain Prize. Brian O’Driscoll (LL.D.) Brian O’Driscoll is the most capped Irish rugby player and the second most capped in rugby union history. Having played 141 test matches, he has scored 46 tries for Ireland, making him the highest try scorer of all time in Irish rugby. He is the eighth-highest try scorer in international rugby union history, and the highest scoring centre of all time. He has been a patron of many charities and in particular has been an ambassador and fundraiser for Temple Street Children’s Hospital. Provost, Dr Patrick Prendergast, George Kildare Miley, Olivia O’Leary, University Chancellor, Dr Mary Robinson, Brian O’Driscoll, Catriona Crowe and Gero Miesenböck Brian O’Driscoll