In undertaking its work in 1970, the Planning Board sought to identify the talents and expertise most likely to stimulate economic development, job and wealth creation. The Shannon Free Zone was undertaking pioneering work and starting to attract a wide range of international manufacturing industry to Ireland. Major operations such as De Beers in industrial diamonds, SPS in precision fasteners and EI in fire security devices all called for expertise in advanced manufacturing and materials. However, management was unable to recruit graduates with appropriate expertise from the Irish universities and had to search abroad. Establishing new degree programmes in advanced materials and manufacturing was identified as a priority for NIHE Limerick.
The search began abroad for a person who would give leadership in these areas. While many well-qualified academics were identified, it was a challenge to find a person who also had relevant industrial experience. The search ended immediately once Dr Evan R. Petty was identified. Evan was born in Maesteg, a coalmining town in the South Wales valleys. On leaving Grammar School, he worked in the large Port Talbot steel works for two years while studying part-time to obtain a national scholarship to the University of Wales. After his primary degree, he undertook research in metallurgy, for which he was awarded his doctorate. During this period, he also gained experience with the Anglo-American Corporation in South Africa and subsequently spent three years at the Alcan Aluminium Laboratories. While there, he lectured in Oxford and then joined what is now Sheffield Hallam University, where he lectured in materials science and metallurgy. During his 10 years in Sheffield, he was deeply involved in materials research and published three books.
With a distinguished research and academic record combined with much industrial experience, Evan Petty was well prepared for the challenge in Limerick of designing the first-degree programmes in engineering and applied science. In the few months prior to the opening of NIHE, he, together with the small academic and technical team, had the onerous task of establishing and equipping a variety of temporary laboratories in the old stables buildings while chairing the admissions committee, which selected the first 113 students from over 1,000 applicants.
The World Bank recognised the potential of the fledgling institute and appointed Professor Richard Teare, of the prestigious engineering school at Carnegie-Mellon University, to assess plans Evan and his team had drawn up for some 50 laboratories in the first phase of the proposed 8,000-student campus. After gruelling week-long negotiations, the World Bank team agreed with Evan and his colleagues on a £2.7 million equipment list. At a time when the established universities were starved of funds and the total annual capital expenditure for the Irish university sector was only £2.2 million, the scale of the proposed investment was seen as extraordinary. Word spread of plans for the largest educational investment in the history of the State and, in particular, that Evan had managed to convince the World Bank team that two electron microscopes were essential. None of the Irish universities had two . . . and some had none. Key players in the established universities mounted a fruitless campaign to derail the plans. However, the World Bank held firm and indicated that unless the equipment list was purchased as specified, they would not fund the Limerick project. It was, and they did.
The excellent work of Evan Petty and his small team ensured that Limerick laboratory facilities were comparable to those in the world’s leading high-tech universities. This, in turn, combined with the talent in advanced materials and manufacturing that Evan succeeded in recruiting, resulted in a most unexpected decision: Analog Devices of Boston decided to select Limerick as the venue for the construction of Ireland’s first silicon-chip facility. Many of Limerick’s first graduates were recruited by Analog Devices. Word of their excellent performance, comparable to the best in the US, spread between the boardrooms of the multinationals. This, in turn, triggered a wave of high-tech inward investment to Ireland by such companies as Wang, Westinghouse, Varian, Digital and, subsequently, many others, including Intel.
Unlike many academics who are committed to research, Evan Petty was also noted for the quality of his teaching and served as the first Director, Quality of Teaching and Learning. He was an active member of the European Society for Education and Training of Engineers and was elected as its President in 1991.
Evan Petty was appointed as NIHE’s first Dean of the College of Engineering and Science. While the focus at the outset was necessarily on the establishment of undergraduate programmes, Evan took the lead in commencing programmes of postgraduate research. Resuming the activities in the advanced materials area for which he was noted at Sheffield, he published widely and presented the results of his work at conferences worldwide.
This activity and that of his colleagues helped build an international reputation in advanced materials that ultimately resulted in the establishment of UL’s premier research centre: the Bernal Institute. At Bernal today, multidisciplinary teams of world-leading materials scientists and engineers focus research on the synthesis, characterisation and design of nano, meso and macro structural materials in the €100m+ facilities and develop disruptive technologies related to health, energy and the environment.
In deciding to honour founding Professor Evan R. Petty, University of Limerick pays tribute not only to his leadership of the College of Engineering and Science but also to the members of the founding academic, technical and administrative teams with whom he worked.
To our great regret, Evan died in 2017 without receiving the appropriate formal recognition he so richly deserved from the university to which he contributed so much as a founding member.
We are pleased indeed that Pauline, Evan’s widow, and Laura, his daughter, are both with us today. Pauline, who has much enriched her adopted community since coming to Ireland over 50 years ago, will accept the award.
Chancellor, I request you to confer upon Evan R. Petty, posthumously, the honorary degree of Doctor of Science.