William Rowan Hamilton

Sir William Rowan Hamilton (3/4 August 1805 – 2 September 1865) was an Irish mathematician, astronomer, and physicist. 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 Hamilitonian function are now central both to electromagnetism and quantum mechanics. Provided by Wikipedia