Leading mathematicians and physicists come to Trinity as conference honours Sir William Rowan Hamilton

Hamilton, a child prodigy, became Andrews Professor of Astronomy in Trinity College Dublin before he had even completed his undergraduate degree.

He is world-renowned for his work in dynamics, seeing structural similarities between the laws governing light waves and particle motion, thus conceptually unifying two apparently very different phenomena. This great insight – one of many – was an essential component of Schrödinger's formulation of quantum mechanics, the underlying description of fundamental physics.

Hamilton is also famous for predicting a new physical phenomenon – conical refraction – by pure thought alone. The prediction, experimentally confirmed by Hamilton's Trinity colleague Humphrey Lloyd, came nearly a decade before he stunned the world by inventing quaternions in 1843. This groundbreaking work opened the door to new non-commuting structures in mathematics, such as groups and rings, and would go on to have applications in space flight.

His research legacy is immense but what truly sets Hamilton’s impact apart is that he remains a towering figure in mathematics in 2025 – with related work utterly dependent on his own not only persisting but flourishing and taking new directions in today’s very different world.

Prof. Samson Shatashvili, University Chair of Natural Philosophy (1847) and Director of the Hamilton Mathematics Institute in Trinity College Dublin, said: “It is fitting that we are welcoming so many of the world’s leading minds in mathematics and physics to HMI this week as we celebrate William Rowan Hamilton and his extraordinary legacy.

“His research was groundbreaking at the time but what is truly astounding is how it is still at the centre of some of the most flourishing work of today. Having spent his entire life studying and working in Trinity we are justifiably proud of his achievements and of what he did to transform the study of mathematics here, in Ireland, and across the globe.

“This week’s conference, while celebrating his works and the 20th anniversary of the Hamilton Mathematics Institute at Trinity, also offers a unique chance to hear from some of the leading thinkers of today and to ponder what the future will hold for related disciplines.”

For more information on the conference, speaker line-up and public lecture on William Rowan Hamilton, which will be delivered by Prof. Nigel Hitchin from the University of Oxford, see the conference webpage.

Media Contact:

Thomas Deane | Media Relations | deaneth@tcd.ie | +353 1 896 4685