DCU honours Mary Mulvihill with posthumous Alumni Award

Special recognition for author and science writer on DCU’s 40th anniversary

 Dublin City University (DCU) has announced that Mary Mulvihill, the acclaimed author, broadcaster and science writer, is to be honoured with a posthumous DCU Alumni Award for Outstanding Achievement in the area of Societal Impact.

The announcement comes as this week marks the fifth anniversary of Mary’s death. The special award will be presented to her family at DCU’s annual Alumni Awards Ceremony, which will be held in the coming weeks and will be online this year due to the coronavirus.

The ceremony will also mark DCU’s 40th anniversary. Mary, a graduate of DCU’s School of Communications, was a well known advocate for increasing greater female participation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

In 1990, she was the founder and first chairperson of the advocacy group, Women in Technology and Science (WITS).

Through her journalism for RTÉ and The Irish Times and through her writing, Mary demonstrated her passion for communicating the importance of science. Her publications such as the popular science book Ingenious Ireland helped to build society’s understanding and appreciation of STEM-related matters. Mary’s family recently made the decision to donate her papers to DCU.

The papers are preserved by DCU Library as part of its Media History Collection, along with other significant figures in Irish journalism such as Mary Raftery and Douglas Gageby.

The collection focuses on Mary's painstaking research into the first edition of Ingenious Ireland, with comprehensive digitised and print background materials, and a collection of around 200 specialised books on science and natural history in Ireland.

Next week, DCU will announce its full list of the 2020 DCU Alumni Awards recipients.The University will present six Alumni Awards for Outstanding Achievement together with eleven recognition awards nominated from DCU’s five Faculties.

President of DCU, Prof Brian MacCraith said,

“Mary Mulvihill is a truly deserving recipient of this Outstanding Achievement award. DCU was always proud that Mary was one of our alumnae.

She was an exceptionally gifted writer, broadcaster and journalist who used her talents to communicate the importance of science to a wide audience in Ireland and further afield.

Her impact also continues to be felt in terms of her advocacy for greater female participation in STEM. We are delighted that her family have agreed to accept this award in her honour.”