October 2013 NUI Galway Undergraduate Receives Hamilton Award

NUI Galway undergraduate student, Saorla Molloy, was recently awarded the Hamilton Award in Mathematics by the Royal Irish Academy (RIA). Awards were presented to students of Mathematics in nine of the Higher Education Institutions in Ireland.

Saorla, from Taylors Hill, Galway City, is currently in the final year of her Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Mathematics. Saorla was judged to be the most outstanding student in all the mathematical degrees taught in NUI Galway.

Professor Michel Destrade, Head of Applied Mathematics at NUI Galway, said: “We are very proud of Saorla’s stellar achievements. She will have no problem finding a fully funded postgraduate position after her degree if she wishes to continue in that direction, and we hope that her example will inspire more female students to pursue mathematical and scientific studies.”

The recipients of the Hamilton Award in Mathematics receive a scroll and €250 cheque, generously sponsored by Arup Consulting Engineers. Its Director, Fergus Monaghan, speaking at the prize giving ceremony, said “Arup is delighted to support the RIA and the Hamilton lecture series. We recognise that graduates are key to our future, in particular in the fields of Science and Mathematics. Arup is happy to recognise and support this year’s award winners.”

This event formed part of Hamilton Day activities at the RIA which each year celebrate Hamilton’s life and contribution to mathematics. It took place on October 16th, the anniversary of the day in 1843 that William Rowan Hamilton scratched his fundamental formula for quaternion multiplication on Broome Bridge in Dublin. A replica of his inscription is on permanent display on the ground floor of Áras de Brún in NUI Galway. This year, Sir Roger Penrose from Oxford University delivered the Hamilton Lecture entitled Twistor Theory: A Developing Hamiltonian Legacy.

-Ends-