Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies

Leading research institute for studies in the sciences and humanities in Dublin, Ireland. It was conceived in the late 1930s by Taoiseach (prime minister) Éamon de Valera, and established as a statutory corporation by an act of the Dáil (parliament) in June 1940. It carries out fundamental research, trains advanced students, and publishes books and research findings.

The DIAS has three constituent schools: the school of Celtic studies, the school of Theoretical physics, and the school of cosmic physics. Cosmic physics in turn has three sections: astronomy, astrophysics, and geophysics. All three carry out extensive research in their respective fields. Celtic studies publishes extensively on Irish or Gaelic, other Celtic languages, and Hiberno-Latin. Theoretical physics was headed 1939–56 by the Austrian physicist and Nobel prizewinner Erwin Schrödinger, who characterized fundamental aspects of quantum mechanics, and who delivered his celebrated lecture ‘What Is Life?’ during his time in Dublin.