PHYSICISTS from Ireland

Top 7

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Irish Physicists of all time. This list of famous Irish Physicists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. William Rowan Hamilton (1805 - 1865)

With an HPI of 68.83, William Rowan Hamilton is the most famous Irish Physicist.  His biography has been translated into 75 different languages on wikipedia.

Sir William Rowan Hamilton (4 August 1805 – 2 September 1865) was an Irish mathematician, physicist and astronomer. He was Andrews Professor of Astronomy at Trinity College Dublin. Hamilton was Dunsink's third director, having worked there from 1827 to 1865. His career included the study of geometrical optics, Fourier analysis, and quaternions, the last of which made him one of the founders of modern linear algebra. He has made major contributions in optics, classical mechanics, and abstract algebra. His work is fundamental to modern theoretical physics, particularly his reformulation of Newtonian mechanics. Hamiltonian mechanics including its Hamiltonian function are now central both to electromagnetism and quantum mechanics.

2. Ernest Walton (1903 - 1995)

With an HPI of 61.49, Ernest Walton is the 2nd most famous Irish Physicist.  His biography has been translated into 76 different languages.

Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton (6 October 1903 – 25 June 1995) was an Irish physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics who first split the atom. He is best known for his work with John Cockcroft to construct one of the earliest types of particle accelerator, the Cockcroft–Walton generator. In experiments performed at Cambridge University in the early 1930s using the generator, Walton and Cockcroft became the first team to use a particle beam to transform one element to another. According to their Nobel Prize citation: "Thus, for the first time, a nuclear transmutation was produced by means entirely under human control".

3. John Tyndall (1820 - 1893)

With an HPI of 60.35, John Tyndall is the 3rd most famous Irish Physicist.  Her biography has been translated into 43 different languages.

John Tyndall (; 2 August 1820 – 4 December 1893) was an Irish physicist and chemist. His scientific fame arose in the 1850s from his study of diamagnetism. Later he made discoveries in the realms of infrared radiation and the physical properties of air, proving the connection between atmospheric CO2 and what is now known as the greenhouse effect in 1859. Tyndall also published more than a dozen science books which brought state-of-the-art 19th century experimental physics to a wide audience. From 1853 to 1887 he was professor of physics at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in London. He was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society in 1868.

4. George Francis FitzGerald (1851 - 1901)

With an HPI of 57.78, George Francis FitzGerald is the 4th most famous Irish Physicist.  His biography has been translated into 40 different languages.

George Francis FitzGerald (3 August 1851 – 21 February 1901) was an Irish physicist known for length contraction, which became an integral part of Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity.

5. George Johnstone Stoney (1826 - 1911)

With an HPI of 56.38, George Johnstone Stoney is the 5th most famous Irish Physicist.  His biography has been translated into 31 different languages.

George Johnstone Stoney (15 February 1826 – 5 July 1911) was an Irish physicist known for introducing the term electron as the "fundamental unit quantity of electricity". He initially named it "electrolion" in 1881, and later named it “electron” in 1891. He published around 75 scientific papers during his lifetime.

6. John Sealy Townsend (1868 - 1957)

With an HPI of 51.39, John Sealy Townsend is the 6th most famous Irish Physicist.  His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Sir John Sealy Edward Townsend (; 7 June 1868 – 16 February 1957) was an Irish-British mathematical physicist who conducted various studies concerning the electrical conduction of gases (concerning the kinetics of electrons and ions) and directly measured the electrical charge. He was a Wykeham Professor of physics at Oxford University. The phenomenon of the electron avalanche was discovered by him, and is known as the Townsend discharge.

7. John Joly (1857 - 1933)

With an HPI of 45.67, John Joly is the 7th most famous Irish Physicist.  His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

John Joly (; 1 November 1857 – 8 December 1933) was an Irish geologist and physicist known for his development of radiotherapy in the treatment of cancer. He is also known for developing techniques to more accurately estimate the age of a geological period, based on radioactive elements present in minerals, the uranium–thorium dating.