Professor John A. McClelland, FRS
Professor John Alexander McClelland (1870-1920) was born near Coleraine, Co. Londonderry. Professor McClelland attended Queen’s College Galway, graduating with a BA in 1892 with first-class honours and gold medal in physics and an MA in 1893. In 1895 he won a research fellowship from the Royal University of Ireland and also an 1851 exhibition scholarship which he transferred to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1896 to pursue further research at the Cavendish laboratory. In 1900 he returned to Ireland as Professor of Physics at UCD, which was then based in what later became Newman House in St. Stephen’s Green. In 1908 he was appointed to the chair of experimental physics at UCD in the new National University of Ireland (NUI). Professor McClelland put a great deal of work into planning an up-to-date physics building in Earlsfort Terrace although only part of it was constructed due to financial constraints. Professor McClelland acted as a commissioner of national education (1909-1920), was a member of the NUI senate (1908-1920) and was a member of the governing body of UCD (1908-1920). Professor McClelland served as secretary (from 1906) and member of the council of science of the Royal Irish Academy (1907-1920) and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1909.
- (opens in a new window)Professor John A. McClelland, Dictionary of Irish Biography
- Nature (1920) 105, 238.