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Celebrating the 75th anniversary of Schrödinger’s ‘What is Life?’ lectures

This year marks the 75th Anniversary of Professor Erwin Schrödinger’s ‘What is Life?’ Lecture Series.  Prof. Erwin Schrödinger, Nobel Prize-winner, was the Director of the School of Theoretical Physics at the DIAS from 1940-1956.

DIAS have launched a programme of events to mark the 75th anniversary of the ‘What is Life’ lectures. View the programme here.

These events will include a Statutory Public Lecture on the 13th June in the Royal Irish Academy with Professor Terence Rudolph, grandson of Professor Erwin Schrödinger.

To commemorate this anniversary, DIAS are holding a free public lecture delivered by eminent scientist Professor Schrödinger’s grandson Professor Terence Rudolph (Imperial College London). The title of the lecture will be ‘Free choice and quantum mechanics’. This DIAS event which is being held at the Royal Irish Academy has now reached capacity.  A recording of the lecture is available here.

2018 marks the 75th anniversary of a lecture in Dublin regarded as one of the most important scientific lectures of all time.

On 5th February 1943, Nobel Prize-winning physicist, Professor Erwin Schrödinger, then Director of Theoretical Physics at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS), delivered the first of his renowned ‘What is Life?’ lectures.  He delivered further lectures in his ‘What is Life?’ series over the following month.

Collectively, the lectures which were hosted by Trinity College Dublin, are credited with transforming our understanding of genetics and inspiring the discovery of DNA.

Schrödinger in Ireland

Professor Schrödinger had been brought to Ireland by Éamon de Valera on the eve of World War II.  As an outspoken and high-profile critic of the Nazi regime, he had been forced to flee his native Austria.

De Valera, who was Taoiseach at the time, was determined to establish a high-level research institute in Ireland – the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies – and approached Schrödinger to be the first Director of its School of Theoretical Physics.  Schrödinger remained in that post until his retirement in 1955, when he returned to Austria.

Further information about DIAS and Erwin Schrödinger is available here :  https://www.dias.ie/category/stp/stp-history/#Statutory_Public_Lectures