Father James Cullen,
S.J. (19 April 1867 – 7 December 1933) was an Irish mathematician.
He was born at 89 West Street,
Drogheda
Drogheda ( , ; , meaning "bridge at the ford") is an industrial and port town in County Louth on the east coast of Ireland, north of Dublin. It is located on the Dublin–Belfast corridor on the east coast of Ireland, mostly in County Louth ...
, County Louth, to Michael Cullen, a baker, and Catherine McDonough. Initially, he was educated privately, then by the Christian Brothers. He studied pure and applied mathematics at
Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Univ ...
, then at Mungret College, Limerick, before deciding to become a
Jesuit
The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
. He studied in England in Mansera House, and St. Mary's, and was ordained as a priest on 31 July 1901.
In 1905, he taught mathematics at Mount St. Mary's College in
Derbyshire
Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...
and published his finding of what is now known as
Cullen number
In mathematics, a Cullen number is a member of the integer sequence C_n = n \cdot 2^n + 1 (where n is a natural number). Cullen numbers were first studied by James Cullen in 1905. The numbers are special cases of Proth numbers.
Properties
In ...
s in
number theory
Number theory is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers and arithmetic functions. Number theorists study prime numbers as well as the properties of mathematical objects constructed from integers (for example ...
.
He ended up looking after accounts for the English province of the Jesuits, while contributing to mathematics journals.
Fr. J. Cullen SJ - Obituary
The Tablet, 16 December 1933.
See also
*Cullen number
In mathematics, a Cullen number is a member of the integer sequence C_n = n \cdot 2^n + 1 (where n is a natural number). Cullen numbers were first studied by James Cullen in 1905. The numbers are special cases of Proth numbers.
Properties
In ...
*List of Jesuit scientists
This is a list of Catholic clergy throughout history who have made contributions to science. These churchmen-scientists include Nicolaus Copernicus, Gregor Mendel, Georges Lemaître, Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon, Pierre Gassendi, Roger Joseph B ...
*List of Roman Catholic scientist-clerics
A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
References
*Keller, Wilfrid (1995). New Cullen primes. ''Math. Comp.'' 64, 1733–1741.
External links
Fermat Search
1867 births
1933 deaths
20th-century Irish Jesuits
20th-century Irish mathematicians
Number theorists
Alumni of Trinity College Dublin
People from Drogheda
Jesuit scientists
Christian clergy from County Louth
Scientists from County Louth
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