William Rowan Hamilton

Sir William Rowan Hamilton FRAS
Born	4 August 1805 Dublin, Ireland
Died	2 September 1865(1865-09-02) (aged 60) Dublin, Ireland
Alma mater	Trinity College Dublin
Known for	Coining the term scalar Coining the term tensor Formulating Hamilton's principle Introducing Hamiltonian mechanics Introducing quaternions Inventing the hodograph Inventing icosian calculus Inventing the icosian game
Spouse	Helen Marie Bayly ​ (m. 1833)​
Children	3, including William
Awards	Cunningham Medal (1834, 1848) Knight Bachelor (1835) Royal Medal (1835)
Scientific career
Fields	Mathematics physics astronomy
Institutions	Trinity College Dublin Dunsink Observatory
Academic advisors	John Brinkley
3rd Andrews Professor of Astronomy
In office 1827–1865
Preceded by	John Brinkley
Succeeded by	Franz Brünnow

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

Hamilton was the third director of Dunsink Observatory 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 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 Hamiltonian function are now central both to electromagnetism and quantum mechanics.