Denis Lawrence Weaire FRS (born 17 October 1942 in Dalhousie,

Simla Shimla (; ; also known as Simla, the official name until 1972) is the capital and the largest city of the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. In 1864, Shimla was declared as the summer capital of British India. After independence, th ...

, India) is an Irish

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

and an emeritus professor of

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

(TCD). Educated at the

Belfast Royal Academy The Belfast Royal Academy (commonly shortened to ) is the oldest school in the city of Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is a co-educational, non-denominational voluntary grammar school in north Belfast. The Academy is one of 8 schools in Northern ...

and

Clare College, Cambridge Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college was founded in 1326 as University Hall, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. It was refound ...

, he held positions at

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

, Harvard and

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

, ultimately holding professorships at

Heriot-Watt Heriot-Watt University ( gd, Oilthigh Heriot-Watt) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1821 as the School of Arts of Edinburgh, the world's first mechanics' institute, and subsequ ...

, and

University College Dublin University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 33,284 student ...

before becoming, in 1984,

Erasmus Smith's Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy Erasmus Smith's Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy at Trinity College Dublin is a chair in physics founded in 1724 and funded by the Erasmus Smith Trust, which was established by Erasmus Smith, a wealthy London merchant, who live ...

at TCD.Erasmus Smith's professors of Mathematics
Mathematics at TCD 1592–1992 Together with his graduate student Robert Phelan, Weaire came up with a counter-example to

Lord Kelvin William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, (26 June 182417 December 1907) was a British mathematician, mathematical physicist and engineer born in Belfast. Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow for 53 years, he did important ...

's conjecture on which

surface A surface, as the term is most generally used, is the outermost or uppermost layer of a physical object or space. It is the portion or region of the object that can first be perceived by an observer using the senses of sight and touch, and is ...

was the most economical way to divide space into cells of equal size with the least surface area. This counter-example is now referred to as the

Weaire–Phelan structure In geometry, the Weaire–Phelan structure is a three-dimensional structure representing an idealised foam of equal-sized bubbles, with two different shapes. In 1993, Denis Weaire and Robert Phelan found that this structure was a better solution ...

. This structure was an integral part of the design of the aquatic centre used in the 2008 Olympics in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

. In 1971, together with

Michael Thorpe Michael Thorpe (born March 12, 1944) is an English-American physicist and Foundation Professor of Physics at Arizona State University. He received his D. Phil from Oxford University in 1968 in condensed matter physics under supervision of Sir R ...

, he introduced the Weaire–Thorpe model for

electronic structure In quantum chemistry, electronic structure is the state of motion of electrons in an electrostatic field created by stationary nuclei. The term encompasses both the wave functions of the electrons and the energies associated with them. Electr ...

calculations. This has found application in the theory of amorphous insulators. Weaire is currently carrying out research in the field of

foam Foams are materials formed by trapping pockets of gas in a liquid or solid. A bath sponge and the head on a glass of beer are examples of foams. In most foams, the volume of gas is large, with thin films of liquid or solid separating the ...

physics. He has co-authored ''The Physics of Foams'', Oxford University Press (2000) with Stefan Hutzler, and '' The Pursuit of Perfect Packing'', IoP Press (2000) with Tomaso Aste. In this context he published several scientific articles on cylinder sphere packings. In 2005, he was awarded the premier award of the Royal Irish Academy, the Cunningham Medal. Previous winners include

William Rowan Hamilton Sir William Rowan Hamilton LL.D, DCL, MRIA, FRAS (3/4 August 1805 – 2 September 1865) was an Irish mathematician, astronomer, and physicist. He was the Andrews Professor of Astronomy at Trinity College Dublin, and Royal Astronomer of Irela ...

. In 2008, he won the

Fernand Holweck Medal and Prize The Fernand Holweck Medal and Prize is a major European prize for Physics awarded jointly every year by the British Institute of Physics (IOP) and the Société Française de Physique (SFP). It is one of the four Grand Prix of the SFP and one of ...

. Weaire has a strong interest in the history of science and is a board member of the History of Physics group of the

European Physical Society The European Physical Society (EPS) is a non-profit organisation whose purpose is to promote physics and physicists in Europe through methods such as physics outreach. Formally established in 1968, its membership includes the national physical so ...

. He has edited several collections of historical essays, including a 2012 book on Edward Hutchinson Synge with Petros Florides and John F. Donegan.

Relationship to Ira Einhorn

During the convicted murderer

Ira Einhorn Ira Samuel Einhorn (May 15, 1940 – April 3, 2020), known as "The Unicorn Killer", was an American convicted murderer and environmental activist. He was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend, Holly Maddux. On September 9, 1977, Maddux di ...

's time in Ireland, Weaire was his landlord.TIME Archive: The Ira Einhorn Case
20 July 2001. Retrieved 17 September 2016. When Weaire found out about the accusations of murder that Einhorn faced in the U.S., he reported him to the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

and evicted him. Weaire, and his relationship to Einhorn, was the subject of the 2004 TV show ''

Interpol Investigates ''Interpol Investigates'' is an American docudrama television series which aired on National Geographic Channel. The program follows Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO; french: link=no, Organisation internationale ...

'' (episode entitled ''Fatal Compulsion''). The part of 'Professor Dennis Weaire' was played by actor Robert Randolph Caton. He was previously depicted in the made-for-TV film '' The Hunt for the Unicorn Killer'', which featured

Naomi Watts Naomi Ellen Watts (born 28 September 1968) is a British actress. After her family moved to Australia, she made her film debut there in the drama '' For Love Alone'' (1986) and then appeared in three television series, '' Hey Dad..!'' (1990), '' ...

as Holly Maddux, Kevin Anderson as Einhorn, and Ian D. Clark as Weaire.

References

External links

Profile at Trinity College DublinFoams & Complex Systems Group
Trinity College

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weaire, Denis 1942 births Living people Academics of Trinity College Dublin Alumni of Clare College, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Society Harkness Fellows Harvard University faculty Irish physicists People educated at the Belfast Royal Academy University of California, Berkeley faculty University of Chicago faculty Yale University faculty Presidents of the European Physical Society