The Royal Irish Academy Gold Medal for Science has been awarded to one of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies professors of theoretical physics, Professor Werner Nahm.
Pictured above l-r : Minister for Education and Skills Jan O’Sullivan TD, Prof. Werner Nahm, RIA President Prof. Mary Daly. (Photo: Royal Irish Academy)
DIAS is delighted that one of our distinguished academics has been honoured with this prestigious medal, confirming our position as Ireland’s premier research institute for theoretical physics.
The
RIA Gold Medals are awarded to two outstanding academics each year and are recognised as a truly national expression of celebration for scholarly achievement. They were awarded by Minister Jan O’Sullivan at a special ceremony in the RIA, Dublin on Tuesday January 27th. The medals are sponsored by The Higher Education Authority, and the Gold Medal for the Humanities was awarded to Desmond Clarke, Professor (emeritus) of Philosophy at University College Cork.
Professor Nahm is a world leader in quantum field and in string theory. He has been awarded several international prizes, as well as the ultimate accolade for a mathematician: equations have been named after him – the Nahm Equations. In 2013 he was awarded the Max Planck Medal for Theoretical Physics, the highest award from the German Physical Society, awarded for “those contributions that build on the work of Max Planck”. Past recipients of the medal include Einstein, Heisenberg, Schrödinger, Fermi and Dirac.
Prof Nahm has also contributed to feasibility studies for exploiting renewable energy sources, and among his many gifts is his fluency in languages including mandarin Chinese. Originally from Germany, Prof Nahm worked at CERN for several years, and as a professor at the University of California, Davis, and at Bonn University, before joining DIAS in 2002.
About Professor Werner Nahm:
Professor Nahm is a Senior Professor and Director of the School of Theoretical Physics at DIAS. He is a member of the Royal Society since 2011 and in 2012 he was awarded the Gothenburg Lise Meitner prize. This nomination referred to Professor Nahm’s important pioneering work on supersymmetry and on magnetic monopoles.
Professor Nahm received the Max Planck Medal for his fundamental work on quantum field theory. In particular, he was able to clarify several basic mathematical aspects that later became important for the development of string theory.
Nahm frequently exploits his vast knowledge and understanding to achieve progress in a wide range of subjects, including ancient Mayan history and writing. In 2013, he published a study that appears to have solved a 100-year-old problem, namely calculating the dates for the great Mesopotamian rulers in the 2nd millenium BC. This interdisciplinary work combines the study of Venus observations, tree- ring data and the dates for historical solar eclipses, with that of cuneiform documents, in particular concerning the sequence of Assyrian year eponyms.
Leave a Comment
Last Updated: 23rd May 2018 by mary
27th January 2015 – DIAS physicist honoured with RIA Gold Medal
Pictured above l-r : Minister for Education and Skills Jan O’Sullivan TD, Prof. Werner Nahm, RIA President Prof. Mary Daly. (Photo: Royal Irish Academy)
DIAS is delighted that one of our distinguished academics has been honoured with this prestigious medal, confirming our position as Ireland’s premier research institute for theoretical physics.
Category: News
Meet the Judges of our "Reach for the Stars" Astrophotography competition! @petertgallagher is Head of @DIASAstronomy & has spent the past two decades studying the Sun its impacts on the Earth. To learn more and submit an entry see dias.ie/reachforthesta… #DIASdiscovers
She has over 15 years’ experience working in PR and communications and has wide-ranging experience of providing strategic communications support to organisations. Learn more about the competition and submit an entry 👉dias.ie/reachforthesta… #DIASdiscovers #astrophotography
Meet the Judges of our "Reach for the Stars" Astrophotography competition! @MartinaPQuinn is the Founder & Managing Director of @helloalicepr.
Want to learn more about what's happening on Mars? Check out our public lecture from November delivered Dr John Clinton and titled MarsQuakes! (5/5) youtu.be/_Lp0oLJ8Ahs
And then this Thursday @NASAMars Perseverance rover reaches Mars, which will try to land in a near equatorial crater called Jezero. Here you can see a possible route around the crater. (4/5)
Last Wednesday, the day the UAE revealed their first image of Mars, China's National Space Administration's Tianwen-1 arrived at Mars. This carries a rover which will be despatched to the surface in the coming months. (3/5) bbc.com/news/science-e…
First up is the @uaespaceagency's Hope mission entered orbit this day last week. It is the first inter-planetary mission by the UAE, and will stay in a wide orbit for one Martian year or two earth years to study climate and weather. (2/5)
It's a busy month over at our planetary neighbour Mars. Three missions headed there have or will enter orbit this month. Why so many at one time? They were timed to launch when the distance between the Earth and Mars was relatively short. (1/5)
#WomeninResearch
Looking for some #MondayMotivation? We are delighted to share this short video by @CClearych who is the O'Donovan Scholar at the School of Celtic Studies. Here she describes the amazing inputs of Eleanor Knott MRIA. youtu.be/Zfvw0KZbFTk @SCSLibrary @RIAdawson
Another addition to this DIAS managed online resource twitter.com/DIAS_ISOS/stat…