Eugenius Nulty (1790 – July 3, 1871) was an Irish born American mathematician of the 19th century. He served on the faculty of

Dickinson College , mottoeng = Freedom is made safe through character and learning , established = , type = Private liberal arts college , endowment = $645.5 million (2022) , president = J ...

from 1814 to 1816, and later taught and tutored prominent Philadelphians, including the brothers

Mathew Carey Lea Mathew Carey Lea (August 18, 1823 – March 15, 1897) was an American chemist known for his research on the chemical and physical properties of silver halide salts and their usage in photography. He pioneered early work in mechanochemistry and ...

and Henry Charles Lea.

Career

After arriving in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

from his native

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, Nulty quickly became ensconced as a member of the new nation’s small intelligentsia. Contemporaries described him as “brilliant”. In 1814, Nulty became a professor of mathematics at

Dickinson College , mottoeng = Freedom is made safe through character and learning , established = , type = Private liberal arts college , endowment = $645.5 million (2022) , president = J ...

, where he remained for two years. In 1816 he moved to

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

at the invitation of The Philadelphia Life Insurance Company and the Pennsylvania Company, who each recruited Nulty as one of the first U.S. actuarial scientists. His new countrymen also called Nulty to assist with mathematics for the Survey of the Coast (which became the United States Coast Survey in 1836 and the

United States Coast and Geodetic Survey The United States Coast and Geodetic Survey (abbreviated USC&GS), known from 1807 to 1836 as the Survey of the Coast and from 1836 until 1878 as the United States Coast Survey, was the first scientific agency of the United States Government. It ...

in 1878). In 1817, Nulty was elected a member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

. In 1823, the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

awarded Nulty an honorary A.M. He was elected an Associate Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

1832. Nulty was also a correspondent of mathematician, chemist and natural philosopher Robert M. Patterson. Nulty contributed to the defunct ''Mathematical Diary'', one of the 3 earliest learned mathematical journals published in the U.S. His ''Elements of Geometry, theoretical and practical'' Philadelphia: J. Wetham (1836) was one of the first two or three original geometries published in the United States and is still over 150 years later available from multiple publishers in historical reprints. In 1840, P.J. Walker, director of the National Institute for the Promotion of Science, called Nulty "unsurpassed at home or abroad" in pure mathematics.''Proceedings, American Philosophical Society'', Commemorating Centennial Anniversary of First Occupation of Hall, Vol. 27, No. 131, Nov. 21, 1889, p 147

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nulty, Eugenius 1790 births 1871 deaths Irish emigrants to the United States (before 1923) Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Members of the American Philosophical Society Mathematical analysts Irish actuaries Geometers 19th-century American mathematicians Dickinson College American actuaries 19th-century Irish businesspeople