Maths expert to deliver Dublin talk

Fields Medal recipient Timothy Gowers of Cambridge University to give The Irish Times/RIA Hamilton lecture, writes Dick Ahlstrom…

Fields Medal recipient Timothy Gowers of Cambridge University to give The Irish Times/RIA Hamilton lecture, writes Dick Ahlstrom

A winner of the highest honour for mathematics research comes to Dublin to deliver a free public talk next month at the annual Hamilton Lecture. Prof Timothy Gowers of Cambridge University will discuss the simple elegance of Pythagoras's Theorem during his presentation, which takes place at 7 p.m. in the Burke Theatre, Trinity College Dublin on October 15th.

Gowers was a 1998 recipient of a Fields Medal, the highest honour available for mathematics researchers.

Up to four Fields Medals are awarded once every four years by the International Mathematical Union. It decided to launch the award because the more familiar Nobel Awards surprisingly do not include a medal for mathematics, hence the Fields awards have been considered equivalent to the "Nobel Prize for mathematics".

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A condition of the Fields is that the medal may only be given to mathematicians younger than 40 years of age. The goal is to encourage and recognise young mathematical researchers who have made important contributions to the study of mathematics.

Gowers specialises in two highly complex mathematical areas, functional analysis and "combinatorics". The former is a branch of maths concerned with the study of spaces of functions. The latter studies finite collections of objects that satisfy specified criteria, and is in particular concerned with counting the objects in those collections.

His particular achievement has been to merge these two apparently unconnected areas. In practice this mathematics can be used to tackle problems that are relatively easy to formulate but extremely difficult to solve.

Gowers was born in Wiltshire in 1963 and his father is the noted composer Patrick Gowers. Prof Gowers is the Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge and a lecturer in the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics.

"In very general terms I suppose if you divide mathematics into that which uses 'elementary' methods and mathematics that uses a lot of sophisticated theory and well-established techniques, then I'm drawn towards the former rather than the latter," he says of his approach to maths.

"I can work at home and in my office, and those are the two places I work most. Just anywhere where I've got a pad of paper and a biro . . . But if you're sitting waiting in an airport lounge, which for many people would be a very boring experience, for a mathematician it isn't. Get out some paper and have a think about things."

The annual Hamilton Lecture is organised jointly by The Irish Times and the Royal Irish Academy, with the sponsorship of DEPFA Bank. It is held to honour Ireland's greatest mathematician, William Rowan Hamilton.

The title of Gowers's talk is "Reflections on Pythagoras's Theorem", and it takes place on Friday, October 15th at 7 p.m. in the Burke Theatre, Trinity College. Tickets for this free public lecture are available online at the Academy's web site, www.ria.ie. Those without Internet connections may phone to reserve a place at the lecture by dialling (01) 676-2570.

On Saturday October 16th, 2004, the staff and students of the Department of Mathematics at NUI Maynooth, and members of the public, will take to the banks of the Royal Canal to mark the day in 1843 that Dubliner William Rowan Hamilton, one of the world's most outstanding mathematicians, created "quaternions" in a flash of inspiration while walking along the banks of the Royal Canal in Dublin. Anyone interested in participating in the walk is welcome to come along.

Each year Hamilton's three-mile route along the canal is retraced. The walk begins at Dunsink Observatory and heads south to meet the Royal Canal before going east along the canal to end up at Broombridge train station in Cabra, where a plaque marks the area where Hamilton scratched his formulas on the bridge.

Quaternions are important in computer graphics, designing computer games and special effects in movies. Quaterions were used to create the famous character, Lara Croft, in the computer game Tomb Raider and also some of the special effects in the movie, The Matrix Reloaded.

• Contact Dr Fiacre Ó Cairbre in the Department of Mathematics at NUI Maynooth (tel: 01-7083763) for details of the event.