Dublin officially became the Europe’s City of Science this evening after President Michael D Higgins opened the Euroscience Open Forum 2012 (Esof).
The President said Irish people were proud of their reputation for “creativity, for originality and for our unique and imaginative view of the world”.
He said much of this stemmed from the country’s literary heritage and most would not mention prominent Irish intellectual achievement such as “Bell’s Theorem, or the development of fibre optics in communication, or the splitting of the atom, or the Beaufort Scale, or the effectiveness of the mariner’s compass or the many other inventive and forward thinking achievements which owe their success to the innovation, creativity and original thinking of talented Irish scientists”.
He said aside from Nobel laureate in Physics, Ernst Walton, there were “scores of other scientists who have laid the groundwork for the efforts we are celebrating today”.
The President said the challenge was to turn the best ideas into living realities. “Poets and scientists are both respondents to wonder and while both work their disciplines both also may be the beneficiaries of serendipity.”
The five-day science meeting provides Ireland with an unparalleled opportunity to showcase the best of Irish scientific research.
The forum is the largest scientific meeting of its kind across Europe. The biennial gathering has attracted more than 4,000 delegates and will hear hundreds of presentations, including talks by five Nobel Prize winners.
Highlights from today
President Michael D Higgins officially opens forum at Convention Centre at 5pm.
Nobel laureate Jules Hoffman delivers opening talk of Esof 2012.
UCD hosts Imagine Science Film Festival
Play called Sylvia’s Quest is running at Wonderland Theatre in Temple Bar
Royal Irish Academy, Dawson Street, hosts Hamilton Master Class with Nobel Laureate Peter Doherty at 11am