William Rowan Hamilton

Sir William Rowan Hamilton FRAS PRIA
President of the Royal Irish Academy
In office 1837–1846
Preceded by	Bartholomew Lloyd
Succeeded by	Humphrey Lloyd
Andrews Professor of Astronomy Director of the Dunsink Observatory
In office 1827–1865
Preceded by	John Brinkley
Succeeded by	Franz Brünnow
Personal details
Born	3 or 4 August 1805 Dublin, Ireland
Died	2 September 1865(1865-09-02) (aged 60) Dublin, Ireland
Spouse	Helen Marie Bayly ​ (m. 1833)​
Children	3, including William Edwin Hamilton
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
Awards	Cunningham Medal (1834 and 1848) Royal Medal (1835) Knight Bachelor (1835)
Scientific career
Fields	Mathematics Astronomy Physics
Institutions	Trinity College Dublin Dunsink Observatory
Academic advisors	John Brinkley

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