Archive for Dean’s Lecture

An Event at the Museum

Posted in Biographical, Maynooth with tags , , , , , on April 25, 2025 by telescoper

I forgot to mention in my post about Brian Schmidt’s lecture that the following day (on Tuesday 15th April) there was an event in the National Museum at Maynooth in which he met some of our graduate students and talked to them about their work.

I wasn’t able to attend owing to teaching commitments but I gather it was a very enjoyable occasion. There is a news item with some nice pictures here.

It’s worth mentioning that the National Museum – part of St Patrick’s Pontifical University which shares the Maynooth campus with Maynooth University – has a very interesting Science collection, including a large group of scientific instruments mostly associated with Nicholas Callan. The museum now has the largest collection of scientific instruments on public display in Ireland, most of which were manufactured in Ireland between 1880 and 1920. It also contains a collection of ecclesiastical artifacts from the past three centuries. It’s quite strange to see the juxtaposition of microscopes, electrical devices and surveying instruments with rosaries and religious vestments! You can find the opening hours of the museum here.

More importantly, outside the Museum, staff took the opportunity of his visit to teach Brian the rudiments of hurling, a sport which transcends both science and religion:

I’m told they didn’t put any windows out.

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That was the Dean’s Lecture that was..

Posted in Biographical, Maynooth, The Universe and Stuff with tags , , on April 15, 2025 by telescoper
Left to Right: John Regan, Neil Trappe, Brian Schmidt and myself

As it was foretold, last night we had a very special event in Maynooth in the form of a public lecture with the title The Universe from Beginning to End by Nobel Laureate Prof. Brian Schmidt. Brian actually arrived on Sunday and is still here today; he will be returning to Australia from Dublin this evening. It was really great of him to take the time to visit us here in Maynooth not just for the lecture but to chat informally with staff and students. He also did some interviews with the media, e.g. here and here.

The talk, which was for a lay audience, was extremely well attended. In fact we had to move it to a larger venue than we originally intended. I don’t know the official attendance figures but I would guess somewhere between 400 and 500 people came. The talk was excellent, and there were lots of very good questions from the audience afterwards which Brian dealt with very engagingly. The talk was recorded and if it becomes available publicly I will provide a link.

At the end I even found myself on the list to have dinner with Brian in a local restaurant. All in all, it was an excellent day.

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