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Most qualified/educated lecturer?

  • 26-01-2008 12:56am
    #1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 27,857 ✭✭✭✭


    Hey folks,

    Just wondering who's the smartest/nerdiest we've got in UCD :) Declan Downey I believe is qualified in law as well as history... not sure of the particulars though.

    Joe Kiniry (Comp Sci) has quite a bit of knowledge floating about... According to his CV he has 2 'B.S.'s, which I guess are BScs...
    So he's got 2 BSc's (maths, and computer science) from Florida State, 2 Masters (computer science) from Uni Massachusetts and California IT, as well as a PhD from California IT.

    eep! :eek:

    So come on, help me find the most educated... You've gotta beat 5 degrees.


«1

Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,158 ✭✭✭Stepherunie


    I think Prof Patrick Brennan is pretty amazing.

    He only has the one PHD but man, the guy is a research genius - I've heard of so many people who've had him as supervisors or even with other supervisors to whom he's handed them papers when they started and they've no idea why the hell he's told them to read them.

    A year or two later when they're finishing up the papers he's given them are the exact ones they need to have a complete paper.

    He basically knows you're entire thesis in his head before you even know what you're doing.

    Not to mention he's an amazing teacher to learn from.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 418 ✭✭stereoroid


    Ah, but don't make the mistake of talking about academic qualifications as if that's all that matters. When it comes to technical subjects such as Engineering, real-world experience is just as important as letters behind your name. You can't become a Chartered Engineer on academic qualifications alone, and I wouldn't trust career advice from a Professor who's been in academia his/her whole life. :rolleyes:


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 675 ✭✭✭ant043


    Have to agree with stepherunie. Patrick Brennan is the the best !


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 27,857 ✭✭✭✭Dave!


    stereoroid wrote: »
    Ah, but don't make the mistake of talking about academic qualifications as if that's all that matters. When it comes to technical subjects such as Engineering, real-world experience is just as important as letters behind your name. You can't become a Chartered Engineer on academic qualifications alone, and I wouldn't trust career advice from a Professor who's been in academia his/her whole life. :rolleyes:
    True enough, and I gotta big up Joe Kiniry on this as well! :D

    Founder or co-founder of 5 companies since 1996
    Consultant and/or board member of several other firms (there's 6 listed)

    And there's a bunch of other sh*t too........

    I don't have Patrick Brennan for anything... sounds good though !


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 176 ✭✭dhaddock


    not a lecturer but... hugh brady anyone? according to his wiki:

    Dr Hugh R. Brady MB BCh MD FRCPI PhD is President and Chief Officer of University College Dublin.

    thats alota letters after his name!!


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 102 ✭✭newbusiness


    DaveMcG wrote: »
    Joe Kiniry (Comp Sci) has quite a bit of knowledge floating about... According to his CV he has 2 'B.S.'s, which I guess are BScs...
    So he's got 2 BSc's (maths, and computer science) from Florida State, 2 Masters (computer science) from Uni Massachusetts and California IT, as well as a PhD from California IT.

    eep! :eek:

    That man's a freak, in the best possible fashion!

    Great lecturer, really easy going but encourages you to work hard by explaining material well and making it sound easy.

    One to one I always got a sense that he disliked me. He got on really well with nearly everyone else tho!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 852 ✭✭✭m1ke


    The qualifications don't really matter in a university- it's the quality and impact of the research that sets the various lecturers apart. For instance, Declan Downey hasn't written a single authored book or journal article in over ten years (according to the school website). Whereas Prof. Patrick Brennan has authored 50 articles since 1999, which is very impressive to say the least!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,119 ✭✭✭Donald-Duck


    Joe seems like a great lecturer, even though I've only had him for 3 lectures. But he is absolutely crazy.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,536 ✭✭✭Brimmy


    dhaddock wrote: »
    not a lecturer but... hugh brady anyone? according to his wiki:

    Dr Hugh R. Brady MB BCh MD FRCPI PhD is President and Chief Officer of University College Dublin.

    thats alota letters after his name!!

    What modules does he even teach now? I don't think he's doing anything for second year history is he?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 874 ✭✭✭Ernie Ball


    dhaddock wrote: »
    not a lecturer but... hugh brady anyone? according to his wiki:

    Dr Hugh R. Brady MB BCh MD FRCPI PhD is President and Chief Officer of University College Dublin.

    thats alota letters after his name!!

    Sorry, but a lot of letters don't mean he isn't an ignoramus.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,536 ✭✭✭Brimmy


    Ernie Ball wrote: »
    Sorry, but a lot of letters don't mean he isn't an ignoramus.

    Yeah but he is still a great lecturer.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,158 ✭✭✭Stepherunie


    How would we know?

    He hasn't taught in UCD since 2004.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,450 ✭✭✭AngelofFire


    Many Lecturers have qualifications up their teeth, but that doesnt mean that they are good at teaching, i can think of a well known Lecturer in the politics department with vast knowledge but poor teaching skills.

    From my time i can say that the best lecturers are Steve Loyal and Kieran Allen of the Sociology Department, and Richard Sinnot from the Department of Politics.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 551 ✭✭✭funktastic


    Being qualified in Law and History is quite common.

    Downey has published feck all compared to most people. Dermot Keogh in UCC has a ton of publications and previously worked as a journalist. I'd agree with the other poster about not being totally into lecturers who have not stepped outside academia. Too many ivory towers in UCD.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,536 ✭✭✭Brimmy


    How would we know?

    He hasn't taught in UCD since 2004.

    How the hell did I manage to confuse Brady for Gough? Serves me right for trying to multi-task in work..


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 625 ✭✭✭princess-sprkle


    Many Lecturers have qualifications up their teeth, but that doesnt mean that they are good at teaching, i can think of a well known Lecturer in the politics department with vast knowledge but poor teaching skills.

    From my time i can say that the best lecturers are Steve Loyal and Kieran Allen of the Sociology Department, and Richard Sinnot from the Department of Politics.

    all time favourite lecturer, the man is excellent.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,894 ✭✭✭Chinafoot


    Brimmy wrote: »
    How the hell did I manage to confuse Brady for Gough? Serves me right for trying to multi-task in work..

    Wonderful lecturer. His voice is just fantastic.

    The American guy we had in History for 3rd was brilliant too. Mitch Lerner was his name. Not sure how many qualifications he had but he was fantastic.

    Same for Elva Johnston and Howard Clarke.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 27,857 ✭✭✭✭Dave!


    I know qualifications don't a good lecturer make, but I'm just interested in finding out who's the most educated... out of interest.

    Hugh Gough is a fantastic lecturer though :) For one of our lectures about the French Revolution, he played Beethoven's 3rd Symphany in the background... was great! :D Very dramatic, lol


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,816 ✭✭✭Vorsprung


    dhaddock wrote: »
    not a lecturer but... hugh brady anyone? according to his wiki:

    Dr Hugh R. Brady MB BCh MD FRCPI PhD is President and Chief Officer of University College Dublin.

    thats alota letters after his name!!

    Ha! Not really...

    All med students get MB BCh BAO when they graduate. The MD is basically just a year or two of reseacrh when you reach registrar level and the FRCPI is an exam you have to do to become a consultant. All consultants would have that. PhD amongst all that isn't bad though!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 573 ✭✭✭rgt320q


    As far as non-medical science goes, who would ye put in the pole position?


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 17 Fluther


    No english students here??
    In my honest opinion Prof. Alan fletcher is the best lecturer i've encountered in UCD. He's the professor of Medieval English and is easily the most entertaining and engaging lecturer i have. Really stands out!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,225 ✭✭✭fillefatale


    Dr Philip Cottrell.. fantastic, really interesting and engaging. Brings the characters of Art History to life. Hope to have him again.
    He's not afraid to be crude in the name of art history :)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,417 ✭✭✭griffdaddy


    Brendan Purcell in philosophy is incredibly qualified, he's the priest you see on primetime and the news all the time. he must speak about 6 languages


  • Hosted Moderators Posts: 7,486 ✭✭✭Red Alert


    Paul Curran in the elec department is an absolute genius. Ditto for Annraoi de Paor who's retired a few years ago.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,124 ✭✭✭Jonny Arson


    dunno who's the most qualified lecturer i've had but since the thread is leaning towards best lecturers i'd say Joe Brady and Gerald Mills from the Geography department are in the outstanding category. both of their lecturing styles make complicated and difficult topics that more easier to understand yet making them interesting. you just know the difference between great lecturers and good lecturers

    of my limited exposure to other subjects i found Graeme Warren and Tadhg O'Keefe in Archaeology and Fintan Costello and Joe Carty from Comp Sci to be excellent lecturers aswell


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,134 ✭✭✭gubbie


    Red Alert wrote: »
    Paul Curran in the elec department is an absolute genius. Ditto for Annraoi de Paor who's retired a few years ago.

    "A genius is only born every second generation"

    His poor kids...

    Sometimes I think he is actually Euler and after discovering so many things he invented a way to keep himself alive so long and then changed his name. He's still not a professor.

    Feehly's the best lecturer though in the whole eng department


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,598 ✭✭✭ferdi


    All the qualifications and education in the world are meaningless qualities in a lecturer if they are a boring uninspiring bastard. Give me an entertaining person who can motivate and engage over someone with 5 degrees and 2 Phds anyday.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 25 Romantic S


    griffdaddy wrote: »
    Brendan Purcell in philosophy is incredibly qualified, he's the priest you see on primetime and the news all the time. he must speak about 6 languages
    I've heard people curse his name to hell. I had him for a course on evolution. People who took that course that it was one of the most eye-opening courses they ever took, to others, it was as decipherable as Urdu chick-lit.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 111 ✭✭ucd_guy


    If you're on about publications, the new Prof of Medicine in Vincents is ridiculously qualified...



    Check out his bit. As well as all the letters after his name, he's had 14 journal articles and 3 book chapters published in the last year. :eek: Most people'd be lucky to get all that on the CV over a career... He's got 81 published articles on PubMed....


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,427 ✭✭✭Dr Strange


    ucd_guy wrote: »
    If you're on about publications, the new Prof of Medicine in Vincents is ridiculously qualified...



    Check out his bit. As well as all the letters after his name, he's had 14 journal articles and 3 book chapters published in the last year. :eek: Most people'd be lucky to get all that on the CV over a career... He's got 81 published articles on PubMed....


    I heard he is very good as research supervisor.

    As for Patrick Brennan he has a great approach to publishing and getting his students to publish. He churns out lots of quality publications.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 157 ✭✭PennyLane


    DaveMcG wrote: »
    Joe Kiniry (Comp Sci) has quite a bit of knowledge floating about... According to his CV he has 2 'B.S.'s, which I guess are BScs...
    So he's got 2 BSc's (maths, and computer science) from Florida State, 2 Masters (computer science) from Uni Massachusetts and California IT, as well as a PhD from California IT.

    This has nothing to do with the topic, really, but I thought I'd mention that it's commonly called "Caltech", not "California IT". (Not trying to be a smartass, I've got a few friends there and it's weird to see it a different way...)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 27,857 ✭✭✭✭Dave!


    Hah yeh you're right. I was actually trying to think of that... couldn't think of what it was shortened to :(


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 308 ✭✭Assets Model


    all time favourite lecturer, the man is excellent.


    Me 3! I thought Richard Sinnott was definitely the best politics lecturer. I think Liam Delaney is the best economics lecturer now that Brendan Walsh has retired.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 428 ✭✭Joneser


    I have to nominate the mars bar king, Henry from the compsci building, im sure that anyone else who has had him as a lecturer would agree


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,469 ✭✭✭Pythia


    Me 3! I thought Richard Sinnott was definitely the best politics lecturer. I think Liam Delaney is the best economics lecturer now that Brendan Walsh has retired.

    I didn't think Liam Delaney was great, He was ok, but far too wrapped up in his own research.


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  • Hosted Moderators Posts: 7,486 ✭✭✭Red Alert


    Rod Gow is king in Maths - very clear and concise.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,350 ✭✭✭Het-Field


    Red Alert wrote: »
    Rod Gow is king in Maths - very clear and concise.

    Iv heard his daughter is a complete FOX !!

    Tom Garvin would be my favourite. However, I dont believe he is in UCD anymore


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,033 ✭✭✭Chakar


    Het-Field wrote: »
    Iv heard his daughter is a complete FOX !!

    Tom Garvin would be my favourite. However, I dont believe he is in UCD anymore

    Well he was on a sabbatical last year and is now back lecturing in UCD.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 950 ✭✭✭EamonnKeane


    Um, what about Jim Heckman, Nobel laureate (economics)? I think that rather trumps all those PhD's


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 66 ✭✭sir snackbox


    for english it has to be Ron Callan.... the chap is a hero!!!


    of Terry Dolan... he dont like ya bein late but man does he love his middle english!!!


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 825 ✭✭✭MatthewVII


    Patrick Wall in the Public Health department is pretty awesome. He did a vetinary degree and wanted to work in africa, but they told him that they needed doctors. So he went back and did a Medical Degree. What a guy.

    Then there's the conspicuous Prof Cusack. He's got a medicine degree, i'm pretty sure he has a law degree and a forensic science degree as well as being a District Coroner, Director of the Medical Bureau of Road Safety, Professor of Legal Medicine in UCD and god knows what else besides.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 744 ✭✭✭cold_filter


    Fintan Costello and Joe Carty from Comp Sci to be excellent lecturers aswell

    Joe has a waelth of knowledge despite only getting his PH'd 4 or 5 years ago. FI only had fintan for one module but found to him to be good, Alos i quite liked Franz Geiselbrechtinger (sP) though i found his material tough


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 801 ✭✭✭Vainglory


    Ah, Hugh Gough..

    When I was but a wee first year, he taught us the Terror course..
    Nearly every lecture ended with an ovation from the whole of Theatre L. He was that good.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 56 ✭✭JumpJump


    Timothy Mooney. Don't know how qualified he is though.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 418 ✭✭stereoroid


    One example I have this semester is Dr. Alun Carr in Metallurgy, who has a mix of academic and professional experience, and some good stories to tell about e.g. the effects of molten bubbling iron on foundry workers in Scunthorpe: :eek:


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,311 ✭✭✭IT Loser


    Professor Finbar McAuley......he has an Italian wife some 30 years his junior. Trump that you bastids!!!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 27,857 ✭✭✭✭Dave!


    </thread>


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,311 ✭✭✭IT Loser


    stereoroid wrote: »
    One example I have this semester is Dr. Alun Carr in Metallurgy, who has a mix of academic and professional experience, and some good stories to tell about e.g. the effects of molten bubbling iron on foundry workers in Scunthorpe: :eek:
    DaveMcG wrote: »
    </thread>


    ??:confused::confused:


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 27,857 ✭✭✭✭Dave!


    ...the thread is finished/can be closed now, because nobody will beat Finbar McAuley.............


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,311 ✭✭✭IT Loser


    DaveMcG wrote: »
    ...the thread is finished/can be closed now, because nobody will beat Finbar McAuley.............


    Ahhhhh....:D

    Also, Funbar likes to take on a student in an 800m race every year on Law Day.

    This guy is no ****ing joke.

    Drove a Merc too, last time I checked.

    We had him for Criminology, he was so ****ing bored by the class himself that he used to keep looking at his watch. One day, anticipating than an hour had passed, and being shocked to see that around 10 mins had elapsed, he took it off and put it to his ear and listened........

    He does this in front of a full class. Having showed up late.:mad:

    Guy was a legend. He used to describe the act of sex {during lectures on the law of rape} in flowing LATIN phraseology.

    Per Vaginum, Per Anum.....etc.

    :eek:


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