Physics school marks 50 years of research

FIVE decades of distinguished physics research are marked this evening as the School of Cosmic Physics celebrates the golden jubilee of its foundation in 1947.

The President, Mrs Robinson will introduce a calendar of events at Dublin Castle to highlight the jubilee, organised by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS), of which the school is a part.

This year, DIAS will open its Science Expo project, an interactive science centre focusing on astronomy and space science, at the Dunsink Observatory in north Dublin. "It will be attractive not just for visiting tourists but also as an outreach programme for our own schoolchildren, said DIAS registrar Cmdt John Duggan.

The school's geophysics section will organise, with other institutions, an international geology conference. The astrophysics section will hold a symposium to mark the end of the sixth millennium since the origins of the world, based on calculations proposed by the 16th century scholar and Archbishop of Armagh, James Ussher, three centuries ago.

DIAS was set up 57 years ago on the initiative of Eamon de Valera. The availability of the Dunsink Observatory encouraged Mr de Valera to consider the establishment of an institute similar to the Princeton Institute of Advanced Studies in the US.

Mr de Valera introduced the Institute Bill in 1939. It was passed in 1940 and the School of Cosmic Physics followed seven years later.