Abstract
Copyright 2013 American Association for Aerosol Research
Dr. Thomas C. O’Connor (Tom) passed away peacefully after a short illness at University College Hospital Galway on 6 November 2012. A native of County Kildare, Tom attended University College Dublin (UCD) in Earlsfort Terrace and obtained an honors BSc in physics there in 1952. He also did MSc research work at UCD under Professor P. J. Nolan on the size and mobility of ions produced by bubbling. He then spent two years as a research assistant with Professor L. W. Pollak in the Meteorological and Geophysics Section of the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies, working mainly on the development of the Nolan-Pollak photoelectric nucleus counter.
In January 1956, Tom was appointed as an assistant lecturer in physics at University College Galway (UCG). He was the recipient of the first Ph.D. degree in physics at UCG in 1961. His thesis was entitled “The measurement of the size and concentration of condensation nuclei.” Tom was appointed as statutory lecturer in physics at UCG in 1962, and he played a major role in the growth and development of the department in the ensuing years. He retired in 1996.
In 1963, he was awarded a Cultural Exchange (Fulbright) scholarship to study for a year in the United States. The University at that time had not established a regular sabbatical leave scheme, so in order to obtain leave of absence from the Department of Physics, which was pressing for an increase in staff, it was agreed that Tom would resign from his lectureship position and take the chance of reapplying for appointment to it a year later—which he successfully did. During his time in the USA, he held a post-doctoral research post with Professor Leslie Silverman in the Department of Industrial Hygiene in the Harvard University School of Public Health in Boston, MA. There he met Parker Reist, later to become a professor of air and industrial engineering at the University of North Carolina and author of Aerosol Science and Technology, 1st ed. (Macmillan Inc., 1984). Continuing interactions between Tom and Parker Reist gave rise to Tom's involvement in air quality in the workplace, clean room technology, and aspects of occupational hygiene, which led to full-time postgraduate courses in occupational health and hygiene/ergonomics in UCG in 1992.
On moving to Galway, Tom obtained two nucleus counters from Professor Pollak and initiated a research program on the ionization equilibrium between aerosol particles and small ions in the atmosphere. He demonstrated great vision and foresight when, in the summer of 1957, he cycled around the coast of Connemara looking for a site for a research station that would receive air from the Atlantic Ocean that had not been contaminated by local sources of man-made pollution. What proved to be an excellent site was located at Mace Head, and his pioneering measurements of atmospheric aerosol particles established Mace Head as a baseline atmospheric research station. Tom leaves a tremendous legacy behind, both with regard to his pioneering aerosol work and to the leadership role he played in the development of the Mace Head facility, which over the years has served scientists involved in large-scale projects and prestigious long-term programs from over 100 universities and institutions in some 20 countries.
He also led a departmental group investigating another aspect of atmospheric physics, namely, renewable energy sources, research work that was stimulated in the 1970s due to the steep rise in the price of oil. As a member of the Environmental Energy Utilization Group within UCG, Tom collaborated with the New University of Ulster in Coleraine, the Irish Electricity Supply Board, and industrialists. This led, for example, to the development of a small wind turbine, harnessing the wind's kinetic energy, and a series of air-to-water heat pumps to extract thermal energy from the atmosphere for domestic space and water heating. He was also involved with the Solar Energy Society of Ireland (SESI) from its inception in the 1970s, and in collaboration with SESI, he organized annual national seminars on different aspects of renewable energy from 1976 to 1991. His efforts helped to establish UCG as an important center for renewable energy research in Ireland.
Tom served on international committees such as the International Committee on Nucleation and Atmospheric Aerosols, the EUREKA Project on the Transport and Chemical Transformation of Environmentally Relevant Trace Constituents in the Troposphere over Europe (EUROTRAC), and the European Association for the Science of Air Pollution (EURASAP) and on conference and national committees, and he served for many years on the Mace Head management committee.
Tom was coeditor of the proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Atmospheric Aerosols, Condensation, and Ice Nuclei held at University College Galway in 1977 and published by Galway University Press. Thirty years later, in 2007, Tom was also active in the organization of the 17th International Conference on Nucleation and Atmospheric Aerosols at UCG. He was one of two guest editors of the proceedings of the International Conference on Aerosols and Background Pollution (Atmos. Environ., 25A, 533–824, 1991) held in UCG in 1989.
He also had a very keen interest in the history of science and in particular the role of Irish scientists, and in Irish heritage. This interest has led him to initiate and maintain over the past years a series of lectures on aspects of Irish heritage. These lectures—and occasionally day-long seminars—were held at Lismullin Conference Centre, near Tara, County Meath. Tom himself chaired the most recent of these Heritage Series Lectures on the merchants and mariners of Meath in the 16th century, given by Dr. Fionnan Tuite. He was working up to the time of his death on a project entitled “The Physical Tourist in Dublin,” identifying the locations where earlier scientists mainly either worked or resided, as one takes a walking tour in central Dublin. He was a member of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society for over 40 years. He was also interested in old instrumentation, exemplified by his recent publication on model steam engines, which appeared in Archaeology Ireland. In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the opening of the then Queens College Galway (QCG) in 1849, he contributed an authoritative chapter on Natural Philosophy/Physics in QCB/UCG, over the period from 1849 to 1999.
Tom was a loyal and faithful member of several professional societies and associations, including the Institute of Physics and the Irish and UK meteorological societies. He was also sports minded and was a strong supporter of the Kildare Gaelic football team. He played tennis in earlier days and showed golfing skill at university outings and at Institute of Physics annual weekends.
Although formally retired for some 15 years, he never truly retired but came in almost daily to his office in the School of Physics, working on a diverse range of projects as well as attending seminars, symposia, and talks.
In the mid 1950s, Tom joined Opus Dei, the organization that is now a personal prelature of the Catholic Church. He helped with the establishment of its first center for students in Galway—Gort Ard University Residence—and was the Director there for a period, while still totally engaged with his teaching and research work.
Tom was both a scholar and a true gentleman, as well as a person of utmost integrity. He was extremely committed. He was very kind and considerate, and he never had an unkind word to say about anyone. Conflict was not part of his agenda. He was totally self-effacing. Since he was not a man to throw material away, reducing his vast collection of documents and notes accumulated over nearly 60 years proved a challenge for him right to the end.
He will be sadly missed by relatives, colleagues, and friends, not only here in Ireland but also internationally, as attested to by several warm international tributes received.