Research head appointed president of Waterford IT

The head of an award- winning research centre at Waterford Institute of Technology has been chosen to lead the college through an expected period of turbulence.

Willie Donnelly was yesterday announced as the choice of WIT’s governing body for the position of president, succeeding Ruaidhri Neavyn who recently left on secondment to the Higher Education Authority.

The appointment also follows the departure late last year of WIT’s chairman, Donie Ormonde, who met after a series of meetings with the Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan, following WIT’s suspension of merger talks with Carlow IT.

WIT has expressed its opposition to the Government’s proposed merger with Carlow for the purposes of achieving university status.

Dr Donnelly is currently head of the Telecommunications Software & Systems Group which he founded in 1996 with Eamon deLeaster and which now involves 120 people working in research. He has been also vice-president of research and innovation at WIT since 2004 and during his time, the college has secured more than €400m in research funding.

Following his appointment, Dr Donnelly said WIT is “now entering an important phase in the evolution of the institute as an internationally-recognised leader in the translation of research into economic impact”.

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