Albert Joseph McConnell (19 November 1903 –19 November 1993) was an Irish mathematician and mathematical physicist who served as the 39th Provost of Trinity College Dublin from 1952 to 1974 and a member of the Council of State from January 1973 to June 1973. He spent his entire academic career at Trinity College Dublin.
He was born in Ballymena,County Antrim,in 1903. He studied Mathematics and Philosophy at Trinity College,Dublin,graduating with a B.A. in 1926. He carried out his postgraduate studies in the Sapienza University of Rome under the direction of Professor Tullio Levi-Civita and was awarded his doctorate there in 1928. That same year,he was the official Irish delegate to the International Congress of Mathematicians in Bologna, [1] where he gave an invited address on "The Torsion of Riemannian Space" [2]
Upon returning to Trinity College,he was appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy (Physics) and was elected Fellow in 1930. He specialized in tensor calculus and published the book Applications of the Absolute Differential Calculus in 1931. He later co-edited The Mathematical Papers of Sir William Rowan Hamilton:Volume 2,Dynamics (1940). [3]
He was appointed Provost of Trinity College in 1952 and served for 22 years until his retirement in 1974. As he was elected for life,his retirement was voluntary. During his tenure he reformed the structures of Trinity,allowing more junior academics to hold offices such as Bursar,Senior Lecturer,and Registrar. He also oversaw the reform allowing women to be elected as Fellows and Scholars of Trinity College and to be entitled to reside on campus. [4]
On his retirement he was appointed by President Éamon de Valera to the Council of State. [4]
Sir William Rowan Hamilton was an Irish mathematician,physicist and astronomer. He was Andrews Professor of Astronomy at Trinity College Dublin.
Mathematical physics refers to the development of mathematical methods for application to problems in physics. The Journal of Mathematical Physics defines the field as "the application of mathematics to problems in physics and the development of mathematical methods suitable for such applications and for the formulation of physical theories". An alternative definition would also include those mathematics that are inspired by physics,known as physical mathematics.
Tullio Levi-Civita,was an Italian mathematician,most famous for his work on absolute differential calculus and its applications to the theory of relativity,but who also made significant contributions in other areas. He was a pupil of Gregorio Ricci-Curbastro,the inventor of tensor calculus. His work included foundational papers in both pure and applied mathematics,celestial mechanics,analytic mechanics and hydrodynamics.
Gregorio Ricci-Curbastro was an Italian mathematician. He is most famous as the discoverer of tensor calculus.
Sir Joseph Larmor was an Irish physicist and mathematician who made breakthroughs in the understanding of electricity,dynamics,thermodynamics,and the electron theory of matter. His most influential work was Aether and Matter,a theoretical physics book published in 1900.
Sir Edmund Taylor Whittaker was a British mathematician,physicist,and historian of science. Whittaker was a leading mathematical scholar of the early 20th century who contributed widely to applied mathematics and was renowned for his research in mathematical physics and numerical analysis,including the theory of special functions,along with his contributions to astronomy,celestial mechanics,the history of physics,and digital signal processing.
John Lighton Synge was an Irish mathematician and physicist,whose seven-decade career included significant periods in Ireland,Canada,and the USA. He was a prolific author and influential mentor,and is credited with the introduction of a new geometrical approach to the theory of relativity.
James MacCullagh was an Irish mathematician.
Arthur William Conway PRIA was a distinguished Irish mathematician and mathematical physicist who wrote one of the first books on relativity and co-edited two volumes of William Rowan Hamilton's collected works. He also served as President of University College Dublin between 1940 and 1947.
Sir Andrew Searle Hart (1811–1890) was an Anglo-Irish mathematician and Vice-Provost of Trinity College Dublin (TCD).
John Hewitt Jellett was an Irish mathematician,priest,and academic who served as the 31st Provost of Trinity College Dublin from
John Thomas Graves was an Irish jurist and mathematician. He was a friend of William Rowan Hamilton,and is credited both with inspiring Hamilton to discover the quaternions in October 1843 and then discovering their generalization the octonions himself later that same year. He was the brother of both the mathematician and bishop Charles Graves and the writer and clergyman Robert Perceval Graves.
Humphrey LloydPRIA was an Irish physicist and academic who served as the 30th Provost of Trinity College Dublin from 1867 to 1881. He was Erasmus Smith's Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy at Trinity College Dublin from 1831 to 1843. Lloyd is known for experimentally verifying conical refraction,a theoretical prediction made by William Rowan Hamilton about the way light is bent when travelling through a biaxial crystal. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society,and President of both the British Association and the Royal Irish Academy.
Bartholomew Lloyd was an Irish mathematician and academic who served as the 27th Provost of Trinity College Dublin from 1731 to 1737. His entire career was spent at Trinity College Dublin. As Erasmus Smith's Professor of Mathematics there,he promoted significant curricular reforms,including the introduction of the teaching of calculus.
Evan Tom Davies was a Welsh mathematician. He studied applications of the Lie derivative as it relates to Riemannian geometry as well as absolute differential calculus,and published a large number of papers relating to the subjects.
Edward Hutchinson Synge was an Irish physicist who published a complete theoretical description of the near-field scanning optical microscope,an instrument used in nanotechnology,several decades before it was experimentally developed. He never completed university yet did significant original research in both microscopy and telescopy. He was the first to apply the principle of scanning in imaging,which later became important in a wide range of technologies including television,radar,and scanning electron microscopy. He was the older brother of distinguished mathematician and theoretical physicist John Lighton Synge.
Benjamin Williamson (1827–1916) was an Irish mathematician who was a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin (TCD) for over 60 years and was Professor of Natural Philosophy there from 1884 to 1890.
Francis Alexander Tarleton (1841–1920) was an Irish mathematician and author who was Professor of Natural Philosophy at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) from 1890 to 1902.
Robert Perceval Graves was an Irish biographer and clergyman,brother of both mathematician and bishop Charles Graves and jurist and mathematician John T. Graves. He was a brother-in-law of the German historian Leopold von Ranke who was married to his sister Helena Clarissa,and an uncle of the poet Alfred Perceval Graves. Graves is best known for his three-volume biography of W. R. Hamilton.