Hear, hear! DCU is re-naming its buildings after influential women

DCU is taking a major leap and is going to re-name half of its buildings after inspirational women.

The news was revealed today at Inspirefest by the research director of DCU, Dr Christine Loscher.

“The computing building will now be named after Kathleen McNulty… there will be a photo and a description of what she’s done,” Christine explained.

Kathleen McNulty was one of the original programmers of the first general-purpose electronic digital computer. Born in the Creeslough area of Donegal, she earned a degree in mathematics in 1942, and subsequently went on to work with the US Army. Thankfully today you can use calculators to help you out!

Another women in which a building will be named after is Kathleen Lonsdale from Kildare. Ms Lonsdale made important investigations into natural and synthetic diamonds and the mechanism of diamond synthesis. In 1966, a rare hexagonal diamond was named ‘lonsdaleitein’ in her honour.

Dr Loscher said that these kinds of changes are extremely important in today’s society, as we all need to realise how amazing these women were with their achievements.

“A student needs to come into a university and see the recognition for women who do brilliant things and see that it’s possible [to achieve the same].”