Professor Bill Harris speaks at Autumn graduation 2007
Friday 16 November 2007

Professor Bill Harris

“Do not be passive observers or you will miss great fun and great opportunities” – Professor Bill Harris advises graduates at Autumn 2007 graduation ceremony

Speaking at DCU’s graduation ceremonies on Tuesday 6 November, Professor Bill Harris congratulated students on their accomplishments so far, but said that their journey in life was just starting.

Using his own life as an example, he suggested that students ask themselves one questions: “What is to become of this world and what is my lifelong role in it going to be?”. He went on to add that with any luck and with a great deal of gumption, they would spend the rest of their life answering it.

He told students that, having graduated from college 35 years ago, he was unsure of how to spend his life.

“I imagined that many things were possible (and they were), but you can be sure that, as a new graduate, I had no idea that I would, at some point in my career, return to the home of my grandparents – Ireland – and work to help build its R&D competitiveness in the 21st century. Becoming the founding Director General of Science Foundation Ireland was truly stimulating. Giving something back to Ireland was important to me, and the opportunity it gave me – to become fully connected to Irish culture – means a great deal to me. I was born and raised in the United States, but today, I hold both Irish passport and US passports. I am one of the 45 million people in the USA and 70 million in the world with Irish roots. My Irish roots are deep and that is something I value.

I not only didn’t anticipate all the changes that I would go through over the years. I also didn’t anticipate how much the world would change, and how fundamentally, drastically, and overwhelmingly the advances in technology would change the way we all work and live. Now, fast forward 30 years to about a year ago, when my niece asked me how much time I spent on the internet when I was in high school. She could not imagine that the answer would be none. And she could not comprehend a world without it!

What will you be saying in 30 years?

I contend that science, engineering and mathematics will be, if they are not already, the great enabling and empowering degrees of the 21st Century. It is a sound educational foundation – especially if balanced with knowledge in business, law, government, economics, public policy and other disciplines – that can be leveraged for great value to society, and to individuals. We – and by we, I mean all of us in this big, integrated, flat world – have serious problems, and we need serious, well-educated people to solve them. This means that science, engineering and mathematics training is critical in today’s world – but it also means that scientists, engineers and mathematicians need to be well versed in much more than technical matters. We have an endless supply of serious issues to deal with – energy, food, water, the environment, health, communications, bio-terrorism, climate change and more. They are all issues that require immediate attention, and they will all be better solved if grounded in basic principles of math and science rather than emotion.

Universities in the 21st can become truly great institutions and can convey a competitive advantage to the state or nation by building significant financial endowments to enable the university to compete at the market level for talent. I encourage you to begin a conversation in this graduating class, and I urge you to make a commitment to help DCU build an endowment that can be invested in key people and facilities in future years to make this an even greater and more competitive institution. I suggest the initial endowment target should be 250 M Euros over the next ten years. And each graduate can help make it happen by engaging now in stewardship of DCU. This endowment concept could be truly revolutionary and it can and should be your idea.