The quest for reliable, sustainable and affordable sources of renewable energy is an urgent challenge globally. This in turn requires improvement in the design, manufacture and use of advanced devices that can generate electric power by using solar cells to convert energy from the sun. This was the research area of the late Dr Augustine McEvoy, who died on January 20th, in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The first of four sons in the McEvoy family, Augustine (better known as Gus) was born on August 22nd, 1942, in Larne, Co Antrim, to James, a grocer’s assistant, and Margaret (née McNally), who taught piano. The reforms of the post-war era (notably the 1947 Education Act) offered Gus– and others of his generation unprecedented opportunities for educational advancement, and allowed them to overcome the arbitrary hurdles that obstructed entry to skilled or secure employment for so many from a similar background.
Such was the home ethos that any personal achievements came with the unwritten proviso that there should be payback in later life, when one’s talents were to be employed in the service of others, for the common good.
After completing his secondary education at St MacNissi’s College, Garron Tower, Gus proceeded to Queen’s University Belfast, and gained his honours degree in physics in 1963. He was subsequently awarded a Fulbright scholarship to undertake a masters in science at the Catholic University of Washington. Returning to Ireland, he obtained his PhD in 1972, before taking up appointments in Maynooth, the University of West Indies and University College Cork.
His year in Washington coincided with the race riots of 1968, which he witnessed at first hand as a Red Cross volunteer. This raw encounter with social injustice, and how the state responded to it, radicalised him. So too did the escalating troubles in Northern Ireland in the succeeding period, motivating him to engage as an advocate for systemic reform and for adherence to the norms and standards of international human rights law.
A distinguished international academic career in teaching and research followed, initially at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission in Ispra (Italy), and thence to Hamburg. He joined the staff of the Switzerland’s prestigious École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in 1985. Here he remained until retirement in 2007.
In addition to graduate supervision and teaching, Gus was the author (or co-author) of some 180 scientific publications, especially on photovoltaics and fuel cell technology. The Practical Handbook of Photovoltaics (2011), of which he was the editor-in-chief, is considered a benchmark publication for those involved in the design, manufacture and use of fuel cell devices internationally, and has been translated into Chinese. A sign of the esteem in which he was held is the decision by the publisher of this key text to name the forthcoming third edition of the book McEvoy's Handbook of Photovoltaics.
In retirement he remained busy with consultancy and conferences on alternative energy, ensuring that “real-world’ policymaking in the area was informed by strong research evidence. His expertise in the important policy area of alternative energy technology was sought by the Swiss federal government, the International Energy Agency and the European Science Foundation.
But achievements in the professional domain were considered by Gus as secondary to his overriding priority, the wellbeing, happiness and integrity of family. In latter years, the joy he derived from spending time with his three beloved grandchildren was evident to all. He was equally consistent in his adherence to an inclusive Christian faith, which for him added deeper meaning to his scientific investigations (and vice versa).
Gus is survived by his wife Colette, daughters Brenda, Caitriona and Fiona, and brothers Patrick and Peter. He was predeceased in 2010 by his brother Rev Prof James McEvoy.
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