‘Apples and Atoms’ Walton sculpture

A sculpture celebrating the life and work of Ernest Walton, Ireland’s only Nobel laureate for science and a former Trinity College Dublin graduate and professor, has been officially unveiled at the college outside the Physics Department.

Born in Dungarvan, Co Waterford in 1903, Walton was a pioneering nuclear physicist, who together with John Cockcroft, designed and built the first successful particle accelerator, which enabled them to split the atom in the early 1930s.Walton was professor of physics at Trinity College from 1947 to 1974. He and Cockcroft were awarded the 1951 Nobel Prize for Physics.

Today’s unveiling was performed by Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairí Quinn at a special ceremony at Trinity College.

The ‘Apples and Atoms’ sculpture was designed by artist, Eilís O’Connell RHA.

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Prof Brian Cathcart, Kingston University, London, author of ‘The Fly in the Cathedral’– how a small group of Cambridge scientists won the race to split the atom’ will reflect on how the news spread from the Cambridge laboratories at the time.
Prof Philip Walton, professor emeritus of physics, NUI Galway, will also speak about his father’s winning the Nobel Prize for Physics (1951), while Prof Dermot Diamond, DCU, will guide us through Flann O’Brien’s satirical treatments of the physics of his time.
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Event: How they ‘split the atom’ and brought the news to the world
Location: The Gallery, The Helix, Dublin City University,
Time: Friday 13th April 2012, 4pm

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