The O’Raifeartaigh Lecture is held annually in honour of Lochlainn O’Raifeartaigh (1933 – 2000).
This year’s O’Raifeartaigh Lecture will be given by Prof. Nima Arkani-Hamed of the Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton.
Throughout his career O’Raifeartaigh made seminal contributions to fundamental physics, which continue to influence the landscape of theoretical physics today. Following a DIAS research fellowship to work with the great Irish relativist J. L. Synge, O’Raifeartaigh obtained his PhD from the University of Zurich. After rejoining DIAS as an assistant professor, O’Raifeartaigh spent time at the Mathematical Science Institute in Madras, the University of Syracuse and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. In 1968 O’Raifeartaigh returned to DIAS on a permanent basis as a Senior Professor and went on to build an internationally renowned group in theoretical high energy physics.
O’Raifeartaigh’s contributions to physics standout for both their depth and breadth. For instance, his 1965 “No Go Theorem”, prohibiting the non-trivial unification of spacetime and internal symmetries, was a profound insight that presaged an entire era of high energy theoretical physics. Similarly, his work on spontaneous supersymmetry breaking has been hugely influential over the course of the last 40 years. His highly original and deep contributions span an impressive array of topics in fundamental physics, always at the cutting edge of the time, from magnetic monopoles to Seiberg-Witten theory. O’Raifeartaigh received a von Humboldt Research Award in 1998 and the prestigious Wigner Medal in 2000 for his pioneering contributions to particle physics. He was elected a Member of the Royal Irish Academy at the age of 29, and was also a member of Academia Europea. O’Raifeartaigh was interested in the social implications of science and, in particular, was a co-founder of the Irish Pugwash movement.
The O’Raifeartaigh Lecture is held as a part of the annual Irish Quantum Foundations meeting. IQF 2019 will be hosted by the Hamilton Mathematics Institute at Trinity College Dublin.
Previous O’Raifeartaigh Speakers include:
Duncan Haldane (2016 Nobel Laureate, Princeton University)
Fabian Essler (University of Oxford)
Michael Duff (Imperial College London)
Viatcheslav Mukhanov (Arnold Sommerfeld Center Munich)
Erik Verlinde (University of Amsterdam)
Nathan Seiberg (IAS Princeton)
Andreas Wipf (University of Jena)
Fedor Smirnov (Pierre and Marie Curie University Paris)
Nathan Berkovits (IFT Sao Paulo)
Valery Rubakov (INR Moscow)
Hubert Saleur (IPhT Saclay)
Juan Maldacena (IAS Princeton)
Leave a Comment
Last Updated: 2nd May 2020 by Leron Borsten
The O’Raifeartaigh Lecture
The O’Raifeartaigh Lecture is held annually in honour of Lochlainn O’Raifeartaigh (1933 – 2000).
This year’s O’Raifeartaigh Lecture will be given by Prof. Nima Arkani-Hamed of the Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton.
Throughout his career O’Raifeartaigh made seminal contributions to fundamental physics, which continue to influence the landscape of theoretical physics today. Following a DIAS research fellowship to work with the great Irish relativist J. L. Synge, O’Raifeartaigh obtained his PhD from the University of Zurich. After rejoining DIAS as an assistant professor, O’Raifeartaigh spent time at the Mathematical Science Institute in Madras, the University of Syracuse and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. In 1968 O’Raifeartaigh returned to DIAS on a permanent basis as a Senior Professor and went on to build an internationally renowned group in theoretical high energy physics.
O’Raifeartaigh’s contributions to physics standout for both their depth and breadth. For instance, his 1965 “No Go Theorem”, prohibiting the non-trivial unification of spacetime and internal symmetries, was a profound insight that presaged an entire era of high energy theoretical physics. Similarly, his work on spontaneous supersymmetry breaking has been hugely influential over the course of the last 40 years. His highly original and deep contributions span an impressive array of topics in fundamental physics, always at the cutting edge of the time, from magnetic monopoles to Seiberg-Witten theory. O’Raifeartaigh received a von Humboldt Research Award in 1998 and the prestigious Wigner Medal in 2000 for his pioneering contributions to particle physics. He was elected a Member of the Royal Irish Academy at the age of 29, and was also a member of Academia Europea. O’Raifeartaigh was interested in the social implications of science and, in particular, was a co-founder of the Irish Pugwash movement.
The O’Raifeartaigh Lecture is held as a part of the annual Irish Quantum Foundations meeting. IQF 2019 will be hosted by the Hamilton Mathematics Institute at Trinity College Dublin.
Previous O’Raifeartaigh Speakers include:
Duncan Haldane (2016 Nobel Laureate, Princeton University)
Fabian Essler (University of Oxford)
Michael Duff (Imperial College London)
Viatcheslav Mukhanov (Arnold Sommerfeld Center Munich)
Erik Verlinde (University of Amsterdam)
Nathan Seiberg (IAS Princeton)
Andreas Wipf (University of Jena)
Fedor Smirnov (Pierre and Marie Curie University Paris)
Nathan Berkovits (IFT Sao Paulo)
Valery Rubakov (INR Moscow)
Hubert Saleur (IPhT Saclay)
Juan Maldacena (IAS Princeton)
Category: The O'Raifeartaigh Lecture
This work was to help towards the preservation of the Irish Language, to maintain it's continuity with the past, and was to become a resource for teachers to check pronunciation #DIASdiscovers #Irish #Irishlanguage #CelticStudies #Gaelic
The researchers used the International Phonetic Alphabet, slightly modified to represent vowels and consonants of living speech. At that time there were concerns over the deterioration of the Irish language due to the "overpowering influence of English"
Date: 02 June 1943 Paper: The Irish Press Synopsis: In 1943, a phonetic investigation led by Brian Ó Cuív, Risteárd B. Breathnach and Tomás de Bhaldraithe of DIAS would begin the first systematic scientific recording of the varied sounds of modern Gaelic speech.
Happy Birthday! twitter.com/thecelticist/s…
The papers were 1) Affine Field Theory: conservation identitites and relation to Weyl and Eddington 2)The Union of the three fundamental fields (Gravitation, Menson, Electromagnetism) Which went on to secure worldwide acclaim. #DIASdiscovers
Date: 01 December 1943 Paper: The Irish Press Headline: Two Papers by Dr. Schroedinger Synopsis: 1943 was a busy year for Schroedinger. Not only did he deliver the "What is Life?" Lectures in @tcddublin in February in November he delivered two papers in the @RIAdawson (1/2)
Available to buy on the DIAS bookshop: books.dias.ie/index.php?main… (5/5) #DIASdiscovers #celtic #studies #twopatricks
He spoke on "Palladius and Patrick". Palladius was the first bishop of the Christians of Ireland. (2/5)
He was known by his first name Patricius, which in later times would lead to confusion as he was succeeded by another apostle of the same name (Saint Patrick or Patricius in Latin). (3/5)
"In the lives of St. Patrick, the two saints are invariably fused into one", said Prof. O'Rahilly in his lecture. The lecture was a condensation from O’Rahilly’s book “The two Patricks: a lecture on the history of Christianity in fifth-century Ireland”. (4/5)
Date: 21st March 1942 Paper: The Irish Press Headline: Palladius and Patrick | School Of Celtic Studies Lecture Synopsis: The first public lecture under the auspices of the School of Celtic Studies was delivered in Trinity College by Professor T. F. O'Rahilly in 1942. (1/5)
As part of our ongoing participation in the @HistFest we decided to take a look into the Irish Newspaper Archives and see where DIAS made it into print over the last 80 years. There were so many articles, the hardest part was selecting what we would post. We hope you enjoy!
@AReillyFailte @CultureNight @VisitDublin Thanks Antoinette! Glad you enjoyed 😊
Big thank you to @MartinaPQuinn of @helloalicepr for moderating the discussion, and of course to our panel @NeasaMcG @CormacORafferty and @laoneill111
@CormacORafferty "to cut yourself off from fundamental research means you could miss out on some of the biggest ideas"
@laoneill "it's our job as researchers to keep reminding governments how important basic research is" "For Dev basic research being carried out in Ireland was a badge of pride"
@NeasaMcG Schrödinger's work in causality was not well received by the religious authorities at the time At the same time DIAS did have Catholic priests working on research projects in the early days, so there was not the conflict you might think between science and religion