Ibec has is once again a proud sponsor of Hamilton Day. Hamilton Day commemorates a ground-breaking discovery by one of Ireland’s most famous scientist.

On 16 October 1843, William Rowan Hamilton discovered quaternion algebra, while walking along the Royal Canal from Dunsink Observatory to the Royal Irish Academy (RIA). This was one of those very rare Eureka moments in the history of science. So excited was he by his discovery that he scratched his equation on the wall of Broome Bridge, Cabra.

To mark this important day, each year mathematics departments in Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, Dublin City University, University College Cork, NUI Galway, Maynooth University, University of Limerick, TU Dublin and Queen's University Belfast are invited to nominate their "best" student in their penultimate year of undergraduate mathematical studies for the Hamilton Prize.

The day includes an award ceremony to recognise the most gifted third level mathematics students in Ireland, a masterclass for early-career researchers and concludes with the Hamilton lecture which is given by an internationally renowned speaker.

Speaker / About Kip Thorne

Kip Thorne was born in 1940 in Logan, Utah, USA, and is currently the Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, Emeritus at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). From 1967 to 2009, he led a Caltech research group working in relativistic astrophysics and gravitational physics, with emphasis on relativistic stars, black holes, and especially gravitational waves. Fifty three students received their PhD’s under his mentorship, and he mentored roughly sixty postdoctoral students. He co-authored the textbooks Gravitation (1973, with Charles Misner and John Archibald Wheeler) and Modern Classical Physics (2017, with Roger Blandford), and was sole author of Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein’s Outrageous Legacy.

Kip cofounded (with Rainer Weiss and Ronald Drever) the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory) Project. LIGO - in the hands of a younger generation of physicists - made the breakthrough discovery of gravitational waves arriving at Earth from the distant universe on September 14, 2015. For his contributions to LIGO and to gravitational wave research, Kip shared the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics, and other major awards.

In 2009 Kip stepped down from his Caltech professorship to ramp up a new career at the interface between art and science. This new career has included, among other things, a recent book The Warped Side of our Universe, consisting of Kip’s poetry tightly integrated with paintings by Lia Halloran; also Christopher Nolan’s 2014 movie Interstellar (which sprang from a Treatment Kip co-authored, and for which he was Executive Producer and Science Advisor), and Kip’s book The Science of Interstellar.

Kip is currently working with colleagues on a detailed history of LIGO.

Who was Hamilton?

William Rowan Hamilton was born in 1805 in Dublin and is universally recognised as the greatest mathematician, and arguably the greatest scientist, that Ireland has produced to date.

Ireland’s scientific and mathematic tradition underpins our economy. Over the last 50 years, it has transformed to become dynamic, innovative, high-tech and has digital at its core. 

As this transformation continues at pace, so too will the need for people to have advanced digital and numerical literacy skills.

Ibec is delighted to partner with the Royal Irish Academy on Hamilton Day to promote the lasting legacy of an Irish man who made a seminal contribution to the world around us today.

Eureka moment at Broome Bridge

On 16 October 1843, William Hamilton and his wife Helen were walking along the banks of the Royal Canal from Dunsink Observatory to the Royal Irish Academy where he was President.

At Broome Bridge Hamilton had that very rare occurrence in science, a Eureka moment. He suddenly hit on the solution to a problem he had been working on for a long time and in his excitement, he took out his penknife and scratched his formula for Quaternion algebra onto the bridge: i² = j² = k² = ijk = −1

Quaternions can be found in simple everyday objects, from the rotation of your mobile phone’s screen to Quantum mechanics, computer gaming animation, CGI in movies and were instrumental in putting the first man on the moon.

Hamilton's legacy

Ireland’s scientific and mathematic tradition underpins our economy. Over the last 50 years, it has transformed to become dynamic, innovative, high-tech and has digital at its core.

As this transformation continues at pace, so too will the need for people to have advanced digital and numerical literacy skills. Ibec is committed to promoting STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) education to encourage people to consider STEM related careers but also because we recognise STEM’s key role in safeguarding Ireland’s economic future.