Tercentenary Commemoration Medal

The silvered brass medal depicts on the obverse three of our most celebrated Erasmus Smith’s Professors of Natural and Experimental Philosophy, one from each of the three centuries of Physics in Trinity College Dublin.

From left to right: Richard Helsham 1683 - 1738, George Francis FitzGerald 1851 - 1901 and Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton 1903 - 1995.

The Latin inscription, Fax Viva Scientiae, means A Living Beacon of Knowledge.

On the reverse side we have the tercentenary icon, a depiction of the front door of the School of Physics Fitzgerald building constructed in 1905. Many students started their journey in physics by walking through this door. The door is flanked by the Trinity coat of arms and a representation of the lithium atom with its three electrons. Walton collaborated with John Cockcroft to split the lithium atom paving the way to the atomic age. Walton won the Nobel prize in Physics in 1951.

The commemoration medal was designed by Christopher Smith.