Matthew O'Brien (1814–1855) was an Irish
mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...
.
Life and work
O'Brien was born at
Ennis (
county Clare
County Clare () is a Counties of Ireland, county in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster in the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern part of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Clare County Council ...
) son of a medical doctor. In 1830 he was admitted in the
Trinity College, Dublin, and in 1834 in the
Caius College (
university of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
) where he graduated in 1838 as third ''wrangler'', as pupil of
William Hopkins. During a brief period (1840–1841) he was fellow of Caius College.
From 1844 to 1854 he was lecturer on Natural Philosophy and Mathematics at
King's College London
King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...
, he simultaneously held the post of lecturer on Astronomy in the
Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.
O'Brien was the author of twenty mathematical papers and some elementary textbooks. His most notable contribution was in theory and application of the vector method, in a set of papers published between 1846 and 1852. However, he did not finish fully developing the method because some of his theories were unsatisfactory, and because he failed to include a treatment of associativity. His work was very innovative, but his ideas were almost completely ignored by his contemporaries.
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References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:OBrien, Matthew
1814 births
1855 deaths
19th-century Irish mathematicians
Academics of King's College London
Alumni of Trinity College Dublin
People from Ennis
Scientists from County Clare
Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge