William Rowan Hamilton

Sir William Rowan Hamilton FRAS MRIA PRIA
Born	3 or 4 August 1805 Dublin, Ireland
Died	2 September 1865(1865-09-02) (aged 60) Dublin, Ireland
Alma mater	Trinity College Dublin
Known for	See list Hamilton's principle Hamiltonian mechanics Hamiltonians Hamilton–Jacobi equation Quaternions Biquaternions Hamiltonian path Icosian calculus Nabla symbol Versor Coining the word 'tensor' Coining the word 'scalar' cis notation Hamiltonian vector field Icosian game Universal algebra Hodograph Hamiltonian group Cayley–Hamilton theorem
Spouse	Helen Bayly ​ (m. 1833)​
Children	3, including William Edwin Hamilton
Awards	Royal Medal (1835) Cunningham Medal (1834 and 1848)
Scientific career
Fields	Mathematics, astronomy, physics
Institutions	Trinity College, Dublin
Academic advisors	John Brinkley

Sir William Rowan Hamilton FRAS MRIA PRIA (3/4 August 1805 – 2 September 1865)^[1][2] was an Irish mathematician, astronomer, and physicist. He was the Andrews Professor of Astronomy at Trinity College Dublin, and Royal Astronomer of Ireland, living at Dunsink Observatory.

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.^[3] 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.