Nicolae Culianu

Nicolae Culianu (28 August 1832 – 28 November 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. Initially a high school teacher, he later joined the astronomy and geodesy faculty of the University of Iași, 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.

He helped found the Iași astronomical observatory for the use of students and teachers, and published textbooks on mathematics and geodesy.

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). His great-grandson was Ioan Petru Culianu.