Nicolae Culianu

Nicolae Culianu (August 28, 1832 – November 28, 1915) was a Moldavian, later Romanian mathematician and astronomer.

A native of Iași, he enrolled in the University of Paris after graduating from Academia Mihăileană in 1855, and earned his undergraduate degree in mathematics in 1860. He remained there until 1863, performing research at the Paris Observatory.[1] Initially a high school teacher,[2] he later joined the astronomy and geodesy faculty of Iași University,[1][3] where he served as dean of the sciences faculty, and from 1880 to 1898 as rector.[3][4] He was a close associate of Titu Maiorescu, a member of the Junimea movement that the latter led, and involved in the educational reform movement it promoted. As such, he was among the founders of a private high school in Iași, to which he donated a group of buildings.[3] While active in Junimea, his renowned affability and venerable bearing earned him the nickname "Papa Culiano".[2] He was elected a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy in 1889.[5]

He helped found the Iași astronomical observatory for the use of students and teachers, and published textbooks on mathematics and geodesy.[3] He was among the founders Recreații Științifice, the country's first scientific periodical addressed to young people and to a generalist audience.[1][4] Briefly involved in politics, he was vice president of the Romanian Senate during the fourth conservative government of Lascăr Catargiu (1892–1896).[1][3]

Culianu's textbooks include an 1870 one on differential and integral calculus, the first published Romanian-language course on mathematical analysis; and ones on elementary algebra (1872), applied geometry (1874), plane and spherical trigonometry (1875), cosmography (1893), plane trigonometry (1894) and high-school cosmography (1895).[1] He was buried in Eternitatea cemetery.[6] His great-grandson was Ioan Petru Culianu.[3]

Notes
  1. (in Romanian) Ciprian Teodorescu, Academicieni ieșeni, p. 124, at the Gheorghe Asachi Iași County library site
  2. Ornea, p. 307
  3. (in Romanian) Tereza Culianu-Petrescu, "O biografie", Observator Cultural, nr. 87, October 2001
  4. Diaconu, pp. 129–30
  5. (in Romanian) Membrii Academiei Române din 1866 până în prezent at the Romanian Academy site
  6. (in Romanian) Temistocle Bîrsan, "Restaurarea mormântului lui C. Climescu, fost rector al Universității din Iași", in Recreații Matematice, nr.1/2011, pp. 3–4
gollark: It seems like they just completely disregarded the benefits of asynchronous communication, and decided that they had to make it as much like normal in-person school as possible, even despite the detriment to... actually teaching things.
gollark: I got an email from them (not even to me directly, forwarded from my parents) and:- the removed week of the summer term is being added to the end- they seem to expect to reopen in a month or so?- half the lessons will apparently now involve "human interaction", implying video calls or something, which will be *really annoying*, instead of having them just set work- they're running a timetable?!- I'm expected to be up by 08:45⸘
gollark: (that's not the annoying bit, I'm still typing)
gollark: So my school is being very annoying. There's been a somewhat longer easter holiday, but that ends soon and I'm going back to (remote) school.
gollark: Even with root, I've found it really irritatingly hard to do some things with my phone.

References

(in Romanian) Olga Diaconu, "Institutele Unite – veche școală particulară model", in Recreații Matematice, nr.2/2012, pp. 128–30

  • Zigu Ornea, T. Maiorescu și prima generație de maiorescieni: corespondență, Editura Minerva, 1978
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