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Hamilton Prize and Lecture 2011
Hamilton Prize
On 17 October 2011, the Royal Irish Academy again presented awards to students of Mathematics in nine of the Higher Education Institutions in Ireland. Each mathematics department were invited to nominate its "best" student in the penultimate year of undergraduate mathematical studies. The recipients of the Hamilton Award in Mathematics received a scroll and gift. This event formed part of Hamilton Day activities at the RIA which celebrate Hamilton’s life and contribution to mathematics and usually take place on or around October 16th, the anniversary of the day Hamilton scratched his fundamental formula for quaternion multiplication on Broome Bridge in Dublin.
Hamilton Prize Winners 2011
Back row (l-r): Andrew McKee, QUB; Ben Quigley, DCU; Fionnuala Connolly, NUIG; Middle row (l-r): Elaine Berkery, UL; Liang Chen, UCC; Jane Breen, NUIM; Front row (l-r): Rachel Trimble, DIT; Professor Edward Witten; Professor Luke Drury; Stephanie Hyland, TCD; Doireann O’Kiely, UCD. To veiw more photos from this event please
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Hamilton Lecture
This years Hamilton Lecture was be given by Edward Witten , The Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, on Monday 17 October at 7.30 pm in the Burke Theatre, Trinity College Dublin.
Quantum Theory of Knots
Abstract:
Geometry in the three dimensions of physical space and the four dimensions of spacetime has many unique features - many of them linked to Hamilton's quaternions. One facet of this is the development in the last century of a rich mathematical theory of knots.
Knot theory is unusual in that some of the deepest modern insights in this subject can be explained in down-to-earth terms that everyone can understand. I will show this in the case of the Jones polynomial, a wonderful insight about knots that was discovered nearly thirty years ago.
As a physicist, what interests me most about knots is that in a sense they are quantum mechanical in nature - many of the deepest insights about knots are most naturally understood using physics-based ideas of quantum theory. I will explain a physicist's view of the Jones polynomial and its contemporary cousin, Khovanov homology.
Sponsor:
Edward Witten
Edward Witten works primarily on quantum fields and strings and relations to mathematics. His work exhibits a unique combination of mathematical power and physics insight, and his contributions have significantly enriched both fields. He has greatly contributed to the modern interest in superstrings as a candidate theory for the unification of all known physical interactions. Most recently, he has explored quantum duality symmetries of field theories and sting theories, opening significant new perspectives on particle physics, string theory, and topology.