Honorary Degrees 2022-2023

On Friday 16 June 2023 honorary degrees of the University of Dublin were conferred on Ugur Sahin, Beate Schuler, Joan Steitz and Özlem Türeci at a Commencements Ceremony in the Public Theatre.

Ugur Sahin (Sc.D.)

Ugur Sahin is a trained physician and a professor of Translational Oncology and Immunology at the University of Mainz, as well as a Helmholtz Professor focused on mRNA immunotherapy. Working with Prof. Özlem Türeci, M.D. since the late 1990s, Sahin has accomplished a series of fundamental advances in the field of mRNA vaccines. Their work, including the creation of the first approved mRNA drug, has had a transformative impact on medicine. Sahin and Türeci substantially improved mRNA translation, addressing the long-standing challenge of low mRNA stability and potency. They discovered and leveraged specific uptake mechanisms of mRNA by immune cells to boost vaccine effectiveness, leading to the first human trials of nanoparticulate mRNA vaccines and the development of highly potent vaccines for human use. Their pioneering work on neoantigen mRNA vaccines laid the foundation for individualized cancer vaccines, enabling potential therapies tailored to each patient's distinct cancer mutation profile. Sahin is co-founder of Ganymed Pharmaceuticals, founded in 2001 and later acquired by Astellas Pharma, which successfully developed the antibody zolbetuximab for cancer therapy; and BioNTech, founded in 2008. Under Sahin's leadership as CEO, BioNTech has achieved remarkable successes, most notably with the development of BNT162b2 (the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine), the first ever approved mRNA product. This vaccine has been distributed worldwide and has been instrumental in combating the COVID-19 pandemic. Sahin has mentored more than 50 Ph.D. students during his career and remains committed to training the next generation of scientists. He has also contributed to more than 950 international patents and has received numerous prestigious awards for his work.

Beate Schuler (Sc.D.)

Beate Schuler is a philanthropist and valued advisor who has made great contributions to Trinity and Ireland. While born and educated in Germany, Dr Schuler spent her summer holidays in Rathdrum in County Wicklow. After qualifying as a doctor, she moved to Ireland and founded a successful pharmaceutical company in Arklow with her father. Establishing close links with Trinity, Dr Schuler became one of its most generous and thoughtful benefactors. She supports the Trinity Summer School for Chemistry for students from disadvantaged schools, which has a progression rate to Trinity programmes of nearly 40%, and funds the Schuler-Ussher Lectureship in Translational Chemistry. During Covid-19, Dr Schuler established the PhD-Hardship Fund and in 2021 founded the Schuler Democracy Forum in the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute. Other gifts include “The Double Helix” sculpture by Brian King and a major donation to E3 (Engineering, Environment and Emerging Technologies). Dr Schuler takes a personal interest in all of the projects she supports. Her philanthropy is international in scope, with initiatives in Germany, Portugal and New Zealand as well as Ireland, and focuses particularly on education. She works tirelessly to promote links between Trinity and German schools and universities. Dr Schuler is a founding member of the Provost’s Campaign Cabinet, Provost’s Council and campaign advisor.

Joan Steitz (Sc.D.)

Joan Steitz is the Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University Medical School, a leading scientist in her field and an educator of the highest calibre. She has mentored hundreds of scientists, including many Irish students over the decades. Her breakthrough research in RNA biology has illuminated how cells decode the information in genes to direct their activity, including the intricate changes that occur as the immune system and brain develop. She also showed how a number of cancer-causing viruses can manipulate host cells, releasing the brake on growth-promoting genes. Steitz has received many awards and honours including election to the National Academy of Sciences in 1983; the National Medal of Science in 1986; and the American Society for Cell Biology’s highest honour, the E.B. Wilson Medal, in 2005. In 2018 she was the recipient of the Lasker-Koshland special achievement award in Medical Science.

Özlem Türeci (Sc.D.)

Prof. Özlem Türeci, M.D., is a trained physician, academic researcher, and entrepreneur. As a Professor of Personalized Immunotherapy at the Helmholtz Institute for Translational Oncology (HI-TRON) and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Türeci's research focuses on leveraging patients’ immune system to fight cancer and prevent infectious diseases. Her early work made contributions to identifying human tumor antigens, developing monoclonal antibody therapies against novel targets, and creating clinical-stage personalized cancer immunotherapies based on non-synonymous mutations identified through next-generation sequencing. Türeci's contributions to the mRNA vaccine field include scientific groundwork, discoveries, technology development, translational and clinical research, as well as the development and regulatory approval of the first ever approved mRNA drug. She and her partner, Prof. Ugur Sahin, M.D., overcame the challenge of poor mRNA potency through independent optimizations of structural elements in the mRNA scaffold and pioneering nanoparticulate mRNA vaccines, improving their potency and enabling their successful use in humans. As a co-founder of multiple entrepreneurial ventures, including Ganymed Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Astellas Pharma) and BioNTech, she has translated science into medical applications. As Chief Medical Officer at BioNTech, Türeci leads the clinical development of various oncology approaches and oversees over 20 international clinical trials. Remaining deeply rooted in academia, she serves as a speaker, lecturer, and mentor. Türeci has received dozens of prestigious awards for her work and holds over 540 international patents.

On Thursday 6 April 2023 at 3pm honorary degrees of the University of Dublin were conferred on Martin Mansergh, Monica McWilliams, Jonathan Powell, and Nancy Soderberg at a Commencements Ceremony in the Public Theatre.

Martin Mansergh (LL.D.)

Martin Mansergh owes much to the work and influence of his father, historian Nicolas Mansergh from Tipperary, of Anglo-Irish and Commonwealth relations, and Honorary Fellow of this University. Martin was born and educated in England, but chose to live and work in Ireland where his family were once landowners. It is a career that has seen him serve as a Senator, a TD and a Minister of State. In 1994 he was co-winner of the Tipperary Peace Prize with Fr. Alec Reid and Rev. Roy Magee and in 2018 he was elected a Member of the Royal Irish Academy. He was appointed by President Mary McAleese as member of Council of State in 2004. In particular he was someone whose work behind the scenes in the lead up to the Good Friday/Belfast agreement was absolutely critical to the peace process and involved very significant personal risks. As political advisor on Northern Ireland to three Taoisigh - Charles Haughey, Albert Reynolds, and Bertie Ahern - Mansergh was a back-channel to the Republican Movement and contributed to the negotiation of the Downing Street Declaration and the Good Friday Agreement. The principle of not talking to terrorists was an established one in Irish political thinking, and thus Mansergh’s engagement with members of the Sinn Fein leadership was courageous and, had it been made public, would have ended his career. Mansergh was occasionally criticised in the national media for pursuing a ceasefire (and, for example, the construction and signing of the Downing Street Declaration in 1993) but without a ceasefire it is inconceivable that the Belfast agreement would have been concluded. Here, in other words, is one of those who made huge personal sacrifices in the name of peace in Northern Ireland and without whose work, the peace process could not have happened. Mansergh’s role in the drafting of the Belfast Agreement and in garnering support on all sides for what was contained therein was crucial. To Sinn Féin and the IRA he was known simply as ‘the man’ and it was he who was able to persuade them to take the path of peace. The British Prime Minister John Major praised his ‘profound historical knowledge’ as an ‘invaluable asset’ in the search for peace in Northern Ireland. Finally, as the Irish Times noted, just three days after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in April 1998, Mansergh was ‘now widely acknowledged as one of the most important contributors to the historic rapprochement between nationalism and unionism’. In 2011 he was invited by then Taoiseach Enda Kenny to be deputy chair of the expert Advisory Group on Centenary Commemorations which concludes its work in 2023.

Monica McWilliams (LL.D.)

Monica McWilliams’s contributions both to peace in Northern Ireland and to enhancing the role of women in multiple political contexts are quite simply unparalleled. She is Emeritus Professor in the Transitional Justice Institute at Ulster University and sits on the Independent Reporting Commission for the disbandment of paramilitary organisations in Northern Ireland. She was an MLA for Belfast South (1998-2003); Chair of the Implementation Committee on Human Rights (on behalf of the British and Irish Governments); Chief Commissioner of the NI Human Rights Commission (2005-2011) and Oversight Commissioner for Prison Reform in Northern Ireland (2011-2015). Indeed beyond the peace process in Northern Ireland, it is worth noting that, as a university lecturer, she did ground-breaking work on domestic violence and was asked to help deliver training to police officers and the Public Prosecution Service. Her book Stand up Speak Out: My Life working for women's rights, peace and equality in Northern Ireland and beyond was published in 2021 and was widely praised. Monica McWilliams is the recipient of numerous awards including the J. F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in 1998 for her role as a joint signatory to the Good Friday Agreement, the Frank Cousins Peace Award in 1999 and A Special Lifetime Achievement Award from Women in Business. She was elected as a delegate at the Multi-Party Peace Negotiations, which led to the Good Friday Peace Agreement in 1998 (and was one of only two female signatories of the agreement). She herself played a pivotal role in these peace talks. In the peace accord, she secured key outcomes such as restitution for victims, inclusion of reconciliation, integrated education, shared housing and a civic forum in addition to addressing other key issues for the peace agreement. During this time she herself experienced various forms of misogyny but she persevered and she became an inspiration to others. Monica McWilliams broke the mould in so many ways, as a woman, as an activist and as a politician. Bertie Ahern has called her ‘one of Ireland’s greatest women activists’ and said that she ‘undoubtedly played one of the most pivotal roles in the Northern Ireland peace process’. Hilary Clinton said that ‘Anyone interested in Ireland, ending conflicts, making lasting peace, defending human rights, women in politics, and feminism should read her work’.

Jonathan Powell (LL.D.)

Jonathan Powell’s contribution to peacebuilding across the world is simply remarkable. He is, however, nominated for an honorary doctorate for his role in the Northern Irish peace process. From 1997-2007 he was the Downing Street Chief of Staff and was the chief British government negotiator on Northern Ireland during that time in office. For a decade he sat with unionist and republican leaders at the heart of the Northern Ireland peace process. As he later recounted, ‘It is always right to talk to your enemy, however badly they are behaving.’ Through his own personal contribution and through his own persona he built up the necessary trust to enable the peace process and the negotiations and was by common consent one of the key elements in the forging of a settlement in Northern Ireland. Tony Blair has acknowledged that ‘Even if they didn't trust me, they trusted him. Sometimes Adams and McGuinness would take things from him that they wouldn't take from me.’ His involvement in peace building in Northern Ireland includes the negotiation of the Good Friday/Belfast agreement but also extends to the attempts to build upon the agreement, achieve decommissioning, power-sharing and a new future in the period up to the St. Andrews Agreement (2006). Gerry Adams has written about how effective Powell was saying that ‘He was constantly engaged with the Irish problem. He was in and out of here secretly on numerous occasions. He was someone you could pick up the phone to and he was always available and there were times when I rang when I knew it wasn't opportune because I could hear children in the background or whatever, but he would always take the call.’ His was a truly exceptional contribution to the making of peace in Ireland. Finally, and since this time, he has continued to engage with global peace building and is the founder and CEO of Inter Mediate, a charity which works on armed conflicts around the world.

Nancy Soderberg (LL.D.)

Nancy Soderberg has been a major player in international relations for close to three decades, however, it is for her role in promoting and protecting the Northern Irish peace process that she is nominated for an Honorary Doctorate. Ms Soderberg was President Clinton’s Chief Advisor on Northern Ireland and, in this role, she played a crucial role in the development of the peace process in the 1990s. She worked to create the conditions for peace and then worked tirelessly on the ground – on both sides of the border – to create a lasting second ceasefire and the basis for an agreement. To quote Professor Paul Arthur, a member of the Hume Foundation Board: ‘Ambassador Soderberg is a remarkable diplomat who did an enormous amount to bring peace in Ireland’. As Deputy National Security Advisor to President Clinton, she was instrumental in guiding US policy which led to the 1994 ceasefire. In particular in January 1994, at a difficult stage in the peace process, and on Soderberg’s advice, President Bill Clinton issued a visa to allow Gerry Adams to enter the United States, a move which was heavily criticised at the time (even by many State Department officials) but which in time came to be seen a crucial moment in convincing the Republican movement that a peaceful course of action was the correct one. In particular Soderberg argued that without symbolic gestures of this time, it would be far more difficult for the IRA to call a ceasefire. Critically, however, Soderberg was always politically neutral stressing that her sole concern was with peace and economic rebuilding in Northern Ireland. As Professor Roy Foster wrote in the Financial Times (June 2002) this proved convincing and ‘Gerry Adams adopted the Soderberg Approach’. In this regard, moreover, she displayed an astonishing breadth and depth of insight in so far as Northern Ireland was concerned and in 1997 the Irish Times recognised that ‘Soderberg was the acknowledged expert in the field’. Today Soderberg is part of the Ad Hoc Committee to Protect the Good Friday Agreement, made up of more than 40 people who have spent decades working to support the peace deal. She continues to defend and protect the peace she helped to create.