Colm Mulcahy (born September 1958) is an Irish mathematician, academic, columnist, book author, public outreach speaker, and amateur magician. He is Professor Emeritus at Spelman College, where he was on the faculty from 1988 to 2020. In addition to algebra, number theory, and geometry, his interests include mathemagical card magic and the culture of mathematics–particularly the contributions of Irish mathematicians and also the works of iconic mathematics writer

Martin Gardner Martin Gardner (October 21, 1914May 22, 2010) was an American popular mathematics and popular science writer with interests also encompassing scientific skepticism, micromagic, philosophy, religion, and literatureespecially the writings of Lew ...

. He has blogged for the

Mathematical Association of America The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure a ...

The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...

, and (aperiodically) for The Aperiodical; his puzzles have been featured in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''.
Celebrations of Mind Honor Math’s Best Friend, Martin Gardner
' by Colm Mulcahy, Scientific American, 29 October 2013 Mulcahy serves on the Advisory Council of the

Museum of Mathematics The National Museum of Mathematics or MoMath is a museum dedicated to mathematics in Manhattan, New York City. It opened on December 15, 2012. It is located at 11 East 26th Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues, across from Madison Square P ...

in New York City. As of January 2021, he is Chair of Gathering 4 Gardner, Inc. He is the creator and curator of the Annals of Irish Mathematics and Mathematicians.Annals of Irish Mathematics & Mathematicians: Origin
/ref>

Education and career

Mulcahy got his BSc and MSc in mathematical science at

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 collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland ...

in 1978 and 1979, and a PhD from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

in 1985 where his advisor was

Alex F. T. W. Rosenberg Alex F. T. W. Rosenberg (1926–2007) was a German-American mathematician who served as the editor of the '' Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society'' from 1960 to 1965, and of the '' American Mathematical Monthly'' from 1974 to 1976.. ...

. From 1988 to 2020, he taught mathematics at

Spelman College Spelman College is a private, historically black, women's liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia. It is part of the Atlanta University Center academic consortium in Atlanta. Founded in 1881 as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, Spelman re ...

, in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, Georgia, and is now Professor Emeritus. He served as chair of the department there from 2003 to 2006 and recently created the Archive of Spelman Mathematicians.Spelman College
January 2016 In 1997 he received the MAA's Allendoerfer Award for excellence in expository writing for a paper on the basics of wavelet image compression.Carl B. Allendoerfer award: ''Plotting and Scheming with Wavelets'' by Colm Mulcahy
/ref> In 2014 he was one of the organizers of Mathematics Awareness Month.Mathematics Awareness Month 2014: Mathematics, Magic, and Mystery
Committee Members An article he co-authored, on the centennial of Martin Gardner, was featured in the book, ''The Best Writing on Mathematics 2015''. Mulcahy has an Erdös number is 2 as a result of a collaboration with Neil Calkin.

Card magic

Mulcahy is recognised as an authority on the mathematical principles and effects underlying cards tricks. From 2004 to 2014 he authored ''Card Colm'', a column about mathematics and magic–especially card magic–for the

. Much of this work is collected in his book ''Mathematical Card Magic: Fifty-Two New Effects'' He has appeared in Brady Haran's

Numberphile ''Numberphile'' is an educational YouTube channel featuring videos that explore topics from a variety of fields of mathematics. In the early days of the channel, each video focused on a specific number, but the channel has since expanded its s ...

web series.

Legacy of Martin Gardner

Mulcahy was a friend of longtime Scientific American columnist

during the last decade of Gardner's life. Mulcahy is a mainstay of Gathering for Gardner (Vice-President 2016-2020, Chair 2021-present), an organisation formed to honour the wide-ranging contributions made by the celebrated mathematician, skeptic, magician, philosopher, and writer. Usually shortened to G4G, it first met in 1993 and since 1996 meets every two years. In 2013 he created the official Martin Gardner site, and in 2013–2014 he chaired the Martin Gardner Centennial Committee.official Martin Gardner site
/ref> Mulcahy has been particularly active in promoting an associated series of meetings known as Celebration of Mind, also inspired by the works of Gardner.Celebration of Mind with Colm Mulcahy
/ref> These days there are over 100 of these latter events every year, all around the world.

' by Colm Mulcahy, ''HuffPost'', 10 December 2012

Irish mathematicians and mathematics

Mulcahy frequently writes about the culture and history of mathematics in Ireland. He is active in both

Maths Week Ireland Maths Week Ireland (MWI) is an all-island (Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland) mathematics outreach initiative founded in 2006 by Eoin Gill and Sheila Donegan, based on an idea by Eoin Gill. It is a project of the Centre for the Advancement o ...

, the world's largest mathematics outreach program, and the

Irish Mathematical Society The Irish Mathematical Society ( ga, Cumann Matamaitice na hÉireann) or IMS is the main professional organisation for mathematicians in Ireland. The society aims to further mathematics and mathematical research in Ireland. Its membership is in ...

. He is the creator and curator of the Annals of Irish Mathematics and Mathematicians, which chronicles four centuries of mathematical activity in Ireland, and has hosted monthly blogs since September 2016. This is now sponsored by Maths Week Ireland, which has produced annual Irish Mathematics Calendars since 2016.

Personal

Mulcahy is married to

Vicki Powers Victoria Ann Powers is an American mathematician specializing in algebraic geometry and known for her work on positive polynomials and on the mathematics of electoral systems. She is a professor in the department of mathematics at Emory University. ...

, an algebraic geometer and election theorist. They had the same doctoral advisor at Cornell, Alex F. T. W. Rosenberg.Victoria Ann Powers
at the

Mathematics Genealogy Project The Mathematics Genealogy Project (MGP) is a web-based database for the academic genealogy of mathematicians.. By 31 December 2021, it contained information on 274,575 mathematical scientists who contributed to research-level mathematics. For a ty ...

References

External links

*
official web page

bi-monthly List of ''Card Colm'' columns written for the Mathematical Association of America
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mulcahy, Colm Spelman College faculty Cornell University alumni Alumni of University College Dublin Irish mathematicians Mathematics writers Mathematics popularizers Mathematics educators Recreational mathematicians Historians of mathematics 20th-century Irish mathematicians 21st-century Irish mathematicians Irish magicians 1958 births Living people