ICI Honorary Fellowship awarded to Professor Kevin B. Nolan (RCSI)
We are delighted to announce that Professor Kevin B. Nolan, RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, was presented with an Honorary Fellowship of the Institute of Chemistry of Ireland (ICI), the national body representing all Chemists in Ireland.
This is the highest honour the Institute can bestow on its members
and is in recognition of his enormous contribution to Chemistry that spans over 4 decades.
Professor Nolan completed his graduate and PhD studies in NUI Galway before moving to the UK where he took up lectureship positions at the University of Stirling, University College London and the University of Surrey. During this time, he also spent a year as Visiting Professor at the University of California San Diego.
Professor Nolan joined RCSI in 1987 as Head of the Department of Chemistry. His influence in this role was instant and transformational, retaining the Department’s reputation for excellence in teaching while building an international reputation in applied biomedical and pharmaceutical research.
From 1997-2002, he held the position of Vice-Dean of the RCSI Medical Faculty with responsibility for research. He played a key role in the establishment of the RCSI School of Pharmacy in 2002 and later in the establishment of the RCSI School of Postgraduate Studies in 2006. He was appointed Inaugural Head of this School in 2006; amongst his outstanding achievements was the launch of a structured PhD programme.
Internationally, Professor Nolan was also appointed as Vice-President of RCSI-UCD Penang Medical University, Malaysia from 2014-2017.
Nationally, he was Chairman of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Ireland Section, 2003-2006. In 2008, he co-founded the Irish Institute for Metal-Based Drugs and was centrally involved in the establishment of the UCD/RCSI/TCD Centre for Synthesis and Chemical Biology in 2001.
He is the author of more than 100 publications and, in 2004, he was awarded a DSc from the National University of Ireland for research in Bio-inorganic Chemistry.
Professor Nolan, throughout his distinguished career, has always been a fervent student advocate. He received numerous awards for excellence in teaching, as voted by students, including the NAIRTL National Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2012.
The Institute of Chemistry of Ireland was delighted to bestow this honour on Professor Nolan during the ICI Annual Award Ceremony, held in UCD on Thursday, 1st May, 2025, in recognition of his unwavering and exceptional commitment to excellence in teaching, research and service, and for his role in advancing the field of chemistry both nationally and internationally.