175 Years of Engineering at Trinity

To mark 175 years of engineering in Trinity College Dublin, a number of events have been planned to take place on Tuesday 15th November 2016.

16.45 Plaque unveiling to commemorate Humphrey Lloyd

A plaque is to be unveiled at the entrance to the Lloyd Institute to commemorate Humphrey Lloyd, who was born in Dublin in 1800 and graduated B.A. in 1819. He was elected a junior fellow in 1824 and succeeded his father Bartholomew in the Chair of Natural and Experimental Philosophy. In 1832 he confirmed experimentally Rowan Hamilton’s theory of conical refraction, and thus the wave theory of light. However, his main interest was in geomagnetism. He was appointed provost in 1867 in succession to his father, a post he held until his death in 1881.

Humphrey Lloyd was primarily responsible for the setting up of the School of Engineering. Lectures in engineering began on the 16th November 1841. At one o'clock on the previous day Humphrey Lloyd delivered a praelection (discourse) to mark the formal opening of the School. In this he justified the teaching of engineering in the university and ended by extolling the profession and recommending its study to the assembled students.

17.30 The Macneill Lecture

The Macneill Lecture, in the Macneill Lecture Theatre, named for Sir John Benjamin Macneill, an eminent civil engineer and railway consultant, and the first holder of the Chair of the Practice of Engineering (1842 - 1852), will be delivered by Sir Thomas John Parker, GBE Kt., FREng, a distinguished engineer and businessman and currently Chairman of Anglo American.

The Macneill Lecture will be given by Sir John Parker who was chief executive of Harland and Wolff for ten years from 1983 and in 1991 was knighted for services to defence and shipbuilding. He was President of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects from 1996 to 1999. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and a recent past President. He was Chancellor of the University of Southampton from 2006 to 2011 and is a Visiting Fellow of the University of Oxford. In 2012, he was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE Kt.), for services to industry and to the voluntary sector.

19.00 Reception and Anniversary Gala Dinner

The day will end with a Reception and Anniversary Gala Dinner in the Trinity Dining Hall. Tickets are 75€ per person. Dress code is Lounge Suit.