TCD Mathematics Student Wins Hamilton Prize 2010

Posted on: 23 November 2010

Trinity College Mathematics student, Ruadhai Deavan, was one of nine students of Mathematics in Ireland to be presented with a Hamilton Prize at a recent celebration to mark Hamilton Day held in the Royal Irish Academy (RIA).  The award, which was established to mark the best undergraduate students in the country and encourage scholarship at undergraduate level, celebrates the life and  contribution to mathematics of Trinity graduate William Rowan Hamilton (1805-1865), renowned as Ireland’s greatest mathematician.  The recipients of the Hamilton Award in Mathematics each received a scroll and €1000 cheque.

Nicholas Canny, President of the Royal Irish Academy, Jenny Young, Director of Invest Northern Ireland, TCD winner Ruadhai Dervan and guest speaker Robert Merton.

The prize giving formed part of the Hamilton Day activities which take place annually around the anniversary of the day Hamilton scratched his fundamental formula for quaternion multiplication on Broome Bridge in Dublin.    The Hamilton lecture 2010 was delivered by Professor Robert Merton of MIT Sloan School of Management who delivered a public lecture in Trinity College entitled ‘Observations on Mathematical Finance in the Practice of Finance’. 

The Hamilton Awards were presented to the students by President of the RIA, Prof Nicholas Canny.  Hamilton Day 2010 was sponsored by Invest Northern Ireland.