Professors Jennifer McElwain and Jonathan Coleman elected Fellows of the Royal Society

Posted on: 20 May 2025

Professors Jennifer McElwain and Jonathan Coleman have today been elected Fellows of the Royal Society.

Prof. McElwain is Chair of Botany (1711) in Trinity College Dublin’s School of Natural Sciences and Director of Trinity Botanic Garden, and Prof. Coleman is Erasmus Smith Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy in Trinity’s School of Physics and PI in the AMBER Research Ireland Centre for Advanced Materials and BioEngineering Research.

Professor Jennifer McElwain

Prof. McElwain’s research on fossil plants has shaped our understanding of how the composition of the atmosphere, particularly the concentration of greenhouse gases, have changed over millions of years. Her work on atmospheric change associated with biotic extinction events in Earth’s deep past, particularly the Triassic-Jurassic mass extinction (~200 million years ago), reframed our understanding of the contribution of climate change to plant extinction and biodiversity loss.

Her research integrates experimental palaeobotany, palaeoecology, isotope geochemistry, evolutionary biology and plant physiology. She has developed novel methods of using fossil plants as both sensors of their paleo-environment and as vehicles with which to understand how extinct species functioned in and influenced ancient ecosystems.

Prof. McElwain, who becomes the first botanist in Ireland to receive this recognition since Henry Horatio Dixon in 1930, said: “I’m deeply honoured to have been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. My professional life has been devoted to using plants – both fossil and living – as ‘sensors’ or ‘proxies’ of past atmospheric gas content to study the evolution of atmospheric composition, particularly focusing on carbon dioxide (CO₂), oxygen and sulphur dioxide.”

“This work, which has taken me to some extraordinary and wonderful places around the globe, feels more important than ever, with global climate change impacting the world more and more. My students, post-doctoral fellows and I have discovered that one of the common denominators of past extinction events is that Earth’s biota was subjected to substantial and rapid global warming caused by the release of huge volumes of the greenhouse gas, CO₂ and/or methane. We are of course accelerating in such a state right now and need to redouble our efforts to stop greenhouse gas emissions and invest in green technology.”

The first Botanist in Trinity to be awarded fellowship to the Royal Society was William Stephens, Chair of Botany, in 1718. Stephens published a catalogue of 500 plant species, which were grown in the College Physic Garden. At the time this was an important publication noting the medicinal uses of a vast number of different plant species from both Ireland and abroad. The physic garden at the time was on the main campus of Trinity.

William Henry Harvey was also awarded an FRS in 1858. He was an expert in marine algae and Chair of Botany from 1811 to 1866. He communicated regularly with Charles Darwin and published specimens collected by Darwin from the Beagle expedition. In Harvey's career he added at least 100,000 algal and plant specimens to the Herbarium collections and published extensively. Many of the letters between Darwin and Harvey are in that collection in Trinity today.

Among Prof. McElwain’s many other honours are the Royal Irish Academy Gold Medal in Environmental Sciences and Geoscience (2022) and the President’s Medal of the Palaeontological Association (2017), while she was elected to Fellow of the US Paleontological Society in 2021. She is also an elected fellow of Trinity College Dublin (2019) and an elected member of the Royal Irish Academy (since 2017).

Professor Ian Donohue, Head of Trinity’s School of Natural Sciences, said: “Jennifer is an inspirational colleague whose research helps shine a light on the increasingly alarming dangers of accelerating climate change for all life on Earth. It is an honour to be able to congratulate her on this fantastic achievement.”

Professor Jonathan Coleman

Professor Coleman was appointed in 2022 as Trinity College Dublin’s 22nd Erasmus Smith’s Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy. Founded in 1724, it is one of the oldest chairs of physics in Ireland and Britain. 

The foundation of Prof. Coleman’s work was the development of Liquid Phase Exfoliation, a transformative technique for producing 2D nanomaterials like graphene from layered solids such as graphite. He has published > 400 papers in international journals including Nature and Science and has been cited approximately 120,000 times. Within AMBER, Professor Coleman has responsibility for leading the 2D materials pillar programme and co-leading the Engineered Functional Materials theme.

Speaking following his election Professor Coleman said: “I am deeply honoured to be elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society. This recognition is a testament to the hard work of many PhD students and research fellows who have worked in my group in Trinity College Dublin over the years. I am incredibly grateful to my colleagues in the School of Physics and the CRANN and AMBER research centres who have supported me throughout this journey.”

The School of Physics at Trinity College Dublin has a proud tradition of its professors being elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society. Of the 21 Erasmus Smith's Professors of Natural and Experimental Philosophy preceding Professor Coleman, seven have been honoured with this prestigious fellowship. 

Among them were distinguished figures such as Humphrey Lloyd, who experimentally confirmed the wave nature of light, and George Francis Fitzgerald, who first proposed the Fitzgerald-Lorentz contraction, a concept that anticipated Einstein’s theory of special relativity. More recently, the two preceding Erasmus Smith Professors, Denis Weaire and Michael Coey, were both elected as Fellows of the Royal Society, further exemplifying the School's legacy of pioneering scientific achievement.

Dr Linda Doyle, Provost & President at Trinity College Dublin, said: “It comes as no surprise to hear that Jennifer and Jonathan have been elected to the prestigious Fellowship of the Royal Society.

“Both are stellar researchers and deeply committed to their fields of scholarship. Their generosity in sharing their expertise through teaching and engagement is well known in Trinity and beyond.

“As well as honouring their individual achievements, this news also highlights the talent of Trinity’s research community and affirms our standing as a leading research-intensive university. It is a hallmark of a Trinity education that our students benefit directly from learning in an environment shaped by research leaders like Jonathan and Jennifer.”

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