A mathematician from Trinity College, Dublin, who helped chart the characteristics of newly discovered forms of sub-atomic matter has been awarded the 1997 Irish Research Scientists' Association Gold Medal. It was presented to Dr James Sexton of TCD school of mathematics by the Minister of State for Science and Technology, Mr Michael Smith. Speaking at the G. Johnstone Stoney Summer School, where the presentation was made, the IRSA's executive secretary, Dr John Donovan, said: "Scientific researchers receive little or no recognition for their creative work. This is our way of saying that about 1,000 of Ireland's top researchers recognise Dr Sexton's work as outstanding among his peers."
Dr Sexton's research focussed on particles called gluons in the nucleus of the atom, which combine to form various states called "glueballs". He was closely involved with researchers at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Centre in New York in building a high-performance computer called GF11, which, at the time it was built, was the fastest in the world. It took over a year of continuous running to calculate the relative masses of eight glueball states and a further two years to find the mass of the lightest glueball and the rate at which it decays into more stable forms. The research will have many applications, particularly in electronics design and computer models.
