James MacCullagh 1843-1848

James MacCullagh was born in 1809 in Landahussy townland, Co. Tyrone. His father, also James MacCullagh, was a farmer. He was educated at the parish school in Castledamph and in Strabane, Co. Tyrone. He enrolled in Trinity College in November 1824, aged 15, becoming a Scholar in 1827. He graduated BA in 1829, MA in 1836. After two failed attempts, he was elected a Fellow in 1832. In 1835 he was appointed the Erasmus Smith’s Professor of Mathematics. He earned LLB and LLD degrees in 1838. He was appointed Erasmus Smith’s Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy in 1843, serving until 1847. In 1841, along with Humphrey Lloyd and Thomas Luby, he recommended the establishment of a school of civil engineering in Trinity. His career was cut short by his tragic death, aged 38.

MacCullagh is mainly known for his work on optics, but also on geometry. His most important contribution to optics was, ‘An essay towards a dynamical theory of crystalline reflexion and refraction’ (1838) which provided a framework for accurately describing a broad range of physical optics. The paper begins by defining a new concept, what was later named the curl of a vector field, by James Clerk Maxwell. His most important contribution to geometry, ‘On surfaces of the second order’, was published in 1843.

Sources

1. Thomas Ulick Sadlier (1935), Alumni Dublinenses: a register of students, graduates, professors, and Provosts of Trinity College in the University of Dublin (1593-1860), Thom Co Ltd, page 530, https://digitalcollections.tcd.ie/concern/works/70795b624
2. Enda Leaney (2009), MacCullagh, James, Dictionary of Irish Biography, https://www.dib.ie/biography/maccullagh-james-a5635
3. J. Connor and E.F. Robertson, James MacCullagh, St Andrews, https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/MacCullagh/
4. Erich Finch (2016), Three Centuries of Physics in Trinity College Dublin, Living Edition
5. Image of James McCullagh, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1229172