Francis Dominic Murnaghan (mathematician) facts for kids
Francis Dominic Murnaghan (born August 4, 1893 – died March 24, 1976) was a brilliant Irish mathematician. He was once the leader of the mathematics department at Johns Hopkins University in the United States. He is famous for his important work in a part of math called group theory. He also used math to understand how materials behave, which led to equations like the Murnaghan and Birch–Murnaghan equations of state.
Biography
Frank Murnaghan was born in Omagh, County Tyrone, Ireland. He was the seventh of nine children. His father, George Murnaghan, was a politician. He was a Nationalist Member of Parliament (MP) for the Mid Tyrone area. This meant he represented his community in the parliament.
Frank finished secondary school in 1910. He then went to University College Dublin. In 1913, he earned his first degree in Mathematical Sciences with top honors. After getting his master's degree in 1914, he won a special scholarship. This scholarship allowed him to study for his doctorate (PhD) at Johns Hopkins University in the USA. He earned his PhD in 1916, after only two years of study!
After getting his PhD, he taught at Rice University. Later, he returned to Johns Hopkins University. He became an associate professor there when he was only 25 years old. In 1928, he became a full professor. He was also made the head of the Department of Mathematics. He was only the fourth person to hold this important position.
He retired in 1949. After retiring, he worked at a technology institute in Brasil for a while. He returned to Baltimore in 1959. He kept working as a helper for the Marine Engineering Laboratory. His very last published work came out in 1972.
Murnaghan was a member of many important groups. These included the US National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Irish Academy. He wrote 15 books. Some were in English and some in Portuguese. He also wrote more than 90 scientific papers.
He was the father of Francis Dominic Murnaghan, Jr.. His son became a U.S. federal judge. He was also the uncle of Sheelagh Murnaghan, a lawyer and politician from Northern Ireland.
See also
- Acoustoelastic effect
- Kronecker coefficient
- Murnaghan–Nakayama rule
- Murnaghan–Tait equation of state
