See Ernest Walton's Nobel medal first hand!

Just got word of this really interesting looking exhibition in Trinity's Long Room featuring Ernest Walton's Nobel medal. Here's an edited version of the press release...

TCD Exhibition Celebrates Nobel Laureate Dr Ernest Walton

Dublin,  Wednesday,  November 3^rd, 2010 –  Physicist and  Nobel  Laureate  Ernest Walton is remembered in an exhibition which opens this week in the Long Room in Trinity College Dublin  where his Nobel citation and  medal along with personal and academic papers donated to Trinity will be on display for the first time.

Ernest Walton (1903-1995) was born in Dungarvan in County Waterford and was educated at the Methodist College in Belfast and entered Trinity College Dublin in 1922. He became a Scholar in 1923 and graduated in mathematics and physics in 1926. After a year’s postgraduate work in TCD, Walton went to study in the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge under the Nobel prize-winner Lord Ernest Rutherford. Working with John Cockcroft, he successfully split the nucleus of an atom in April 1932. They were subsequently jointly awarded the Nobel prize in 1951 for “their pioneering work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles”. 

Provost Dr John Hegarty said that Trinity was deeply proud of its unique and lifelong association with one of Ireland’s greatest scientists.

‘The next two years mark significant anniversaries in relation to Ernest Walton and Science. 2011 will be the 60th anniversary of the award of the Nobel Prize to Ernest Walton and John Cockroft; 2012 will be the 80th anniversary of the seminal experiment by Cockroft and Walton in Cambridge which earned them the Nobel Prize. In 2012 Dublin will have the honour of being the European City of Science, an honour that Ernest as a champion of science education would be justly proud. The coincidence of all of these dates makes it very timely to begin a series of events to commemorate Ernest Walton, the scientist, the academic, and the proud Irishman.”

The exhibition will run from November to February 18th, 2011 in the Long Room, the Old Library, Trinity College.