Cuthbert Edmund Cullis (15 April 1868 – 20 March 1954) was an English mathematician who worked as a professor of mathematics at the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a public collegiate state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered one of best state research university all over India every yea ...

and was influential in standardizing notation and conventions in the algebra of matrices and determinants. Cullis was the son of Frederick John, a dock surveyor in

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east o ...

and Louisa (née Corbett) Cullis. One of his two sisters, Winifred C. Cullis, became a physiologist. He was educated at King Edward High School, Birmingham after which he joined Caius College, Cambridge. After being seventh wrangler in 1891 he went to

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a po ...

, Germany and received a doctorate under Carl Johannes Thomae with a thesis titled ''Die Bewegung Durchlöcherter Körper in einer Inkompressiblen Flüssigkeit''. He became a lecturer at Hartley College and moved to the

in 1910 where he served as Hardinge Professor of Mathematics until his retirement in 1925. Cullis published extensively in the Bulletin of the Calcutta Mathematical Society and among his contribution was the work demonstrating that the Moebius ring was a section of the cubic surface defined by: y(x²+y²+z²-a²)-2z(x²+y²+ax)=0 His most important work was ''Matrices and Determinoids'' (1913-1925) to be published in three volumes although only two volumes and a part of the third volume were finally published. He defined

determinants In mathematics, the determinant is a scalar value that is a function of the entries of a square matrix. It characterizes some properties of the matrix and the linear map represented by the matrix. In particular, the determinant is nonzero if and ...

for rectangular matrices as well. It is better known as the Cullis-Radić determinant. Cullis died in Gloucester and bequeathed £1000 to Gonville & Caius college to support needy students.ACAD - A Cambridge Alumni Database

References

External links

* Matrices and determinoids (1913-18
Volume 1Volume 2
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cullis, Cuthbert Edmund 1868 births 1954 deaths Academic staff of the University of Calcutta Alumni of the University of Cambridge English mathematicians