Note this was originally posted 3/17/2011. Here is the original link: Great Irish Physicists and Scientists
In honor of St. Patrick's Day (my favorite holiday), I thought I would compile a list of great Irish physicists and scientists. I will focus on physicists but will include a few other scientists for good measure. Greatness and therefore inclusion in this list will be measured by me simply by my opinion. How's is that for scientific!
In honor of St. Patrick's Day (my favorite holiday), I thought I would compile a list of great Irish physicists and scientists. I will focus on physicists but will include a few other scientists for good measure. Greatness and therefore inclusion in this list will be measured by me simply by my opinion. How's is that for scientific!
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| George FitzGerald |
His
claim to fame is the FitzGerald-Lorentz length contraction - the
decrease of the length of an objection (along the direction of motion)
with non-zero velocity relative to an observer. This is an important
result of Einstein's special theory of relativity. Born in Dublin, he
was a professor at Trinity College.
Stoney,
from County Offaly, is the man who introduced both the concept and the
word "electron" for the fundamental unit of electricity. Also a
professor at Trinity College.
 |
| Ernest Walton |
Walton is credited to be the first person to (artificially) split an atom and
therefore ushered in the nuclear age. He was a student of Rutherford
at the Cavendish lab at Cambridge. Went on to a professorship also at
Trinity college. He won the 1951 Nobel Prize in Physics, along with Sir
John Douglas Cockcroft "for their pioneer work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles." Currently the only Irishman to have won a Nobel Prize in science.
Frederick Trouton
Trouton
is most famous for Trouton's rule, which states that for various
liquids, the entropy of vaporization is same: approximately 88 J/(K
mol). Trouton's rule is typically used to estimate the entropy of
vaporization for liquids due to its simple form. Trouton, born in
Dublin, studied physics at Trinity College, where he also received his
first academic appointment upon graduation. He went on to a
professorship at Imperial College London.
 |
| Sir George Stokes |
Hamilton,
born in Sligo, was an early contributor to S-matrix theory. He went on
to make significant contribution to the understanding of the strong
nuclear force, specifically in the area of meson-nucleon and meson-meson
interactions. Hamilton held appointments at Cambridge, University
College London and the Neils Bohr Institute.
Sir George Stokes
Yes,
he is that Stokes - from Navier-Stokes equations (fluid dynamics) and
Stokes' Theorem (differential geometry). Born in Sligo, Stokes was a
professor of mathematics at Cambridge. A contemporary of Lord Kelvin
and James Maxwell, Stokes made significant contributions to a variety of
fields, including mathematics, fluid dynamics, optics, spectroscopy and
chemistry.
Thomson,
born in Belfast, was knighted by Queen Victoria was later elevated to
Baron Kelvin of Lorgs and is best known as Lord Kelvin. He made major
contributions to astrophysics, fluid dynamics, naval engineering, but he
is most known for his contributions to thermodynamics, specifically
that there is a lower bound to temperature. The kelvin scale of
temperature is named after Thomson.
Aha!
And you thought he was Austrian. Well he was, but he was also a
naturalized citizen of Ireland. Schrödinger, famous for his
contributions to quantum mechanics (hence the Schrödinger equation) and
is in fact considered one of the "fathers" of quantum mechanics.
Schrödinger became a naturalized citizen of Ireland during his 17 years
in Dublin, during which he helped to establish the Institute for
Advanced Studies and was the Director of the School of Theoretical
Physics.
Yes,
the father of modern chemistry was indeed Irish. Boyle was born in
Waterford County. He is most famous for Boyle's Law, which says that
for a closed system at constant temperature, the pressure is inversely
proportional to the volume. This is something that every high school
kid taking chemistry is well aware of.
I am sure there are plenty of others. Sorry to anyone I have missed!
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