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James Robert C. McConnell (born Dublin 1915; died 1999) was educated at O’Connell Schools, Dublin, and University College Dublin (UCD). He entered UCD in 1932 and graduated in 1936 with a first-class honours degree in mathematics. After leaving UCD McConnell, studied for the priesthood, entering Clonliffe College after a year moving to Rome, earning a BD, BCL(Cannon Law) and STL degrees and was ordained in 1939, as made a Doctor of Mathematical Sciences by the Royal University of Rome (La Sapienza) in 1941.
Rev. McConnell was appointed a scholar in the newly founded Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies in 1942. Dr. McConnell was appointed Professor of Mathematical Physics in St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, getting awarded a DSc from the National University of Ireland from his research there in 1949. He is best known for research on Rotational Brownian motion, the electric and magnetic properties of matter and the theory of the negative proton (or anti-proton).
Dr. McConnell served as Dean of the Faculty of Science, of Maynooth, from 1957 to 1968, and registrar of the College from 1966 to 1968.
McConnell was the 1986 recipient of the RDS Irish Times Boyle Medal for Scientific Excellence. Dr. McConnell was appointed to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in 1990, and honoured with the title of Monsignor by Pope John Paul II in 1991.