The Proth-Gallot Group, St. Patrick's College, Drumcondra

My thanks to Paul Murphy (Audio-Visual Dept) for designing our group's logo (which incorporates a plough - representing Proth, who was a 'self-taught farmer' (see Hugh C. Williams' monumental Édouard Lucas and Primality Testing, Canadian Mathematical Society Mathematics Monographs), and whose theorem of December 1878, published in the prestigious Comptes Rendus, the month before his death, is at the heart of Yves Gallot's program - and a wave form to represent the Fast Fourier Transform (for the renowned Yves Gallot, a master of the technical power of the FFT, and much else besides)).

In July 1999 I was the fortunate discoverer - using Yves Gallot's remarkable Proth.exe program - of the then largest known composite Fermat number (for details go to the Fermat Record Number section of my site. Update March 2003). My slight improvement (March 1999) to Proth's original (December 1878) primality test, and more besides, may be accessed in the Fermat 6 section. I teach Proth's primality test to my 3^rd year students, and some technical notes about it (requiring Word, with Equation Editor, plus a fairly advanced knowledge of Number Theory!) may be accessed in the 3rd year courses section.

On 12^th October 2000 I circulated an email to All Users at my college asking for help: idle time use of office computers. My aim was an attempt at surpassing the July 1999 record. We broke the record twice in 2003. Now my aim is to find a prime - having more than a million digits - of a Fermat number; no such prime has yet been found...

I felt that if as many as ten responded positively then I would be doing extremely well, but I was overwhelmed by offers of help. I couldn't use all the offered machines (for various reasons), and below I list the active members, and their departments, together with others who offered help, or who were active members at one time, but are no longer:  

Office of Registrar.  Olivia Bree (Assistant Registrar, formerly member of Mathematics department)

Computer Support (Administration). Ian McCandless, Ken Power

Education. Michael O'Leary, Ciaran Sugrue, Carmel Dinan, Sean Close, Catherine Maunsell, Dolores Corcoran, Janet Varley

Special Education. Anne McGough, Ann-Marie Farrell, Frances Halligan, Celine O'Connell

Centre for Early Childhood Development and Education. Heino Schonfeld (Director), Thomas Walsh, Maresa Duignan, Jacqueline Fallon, Sharon O'Brien, Claire Brennan

Secondment to Education Dept. Máire Ní Bhaoil

Gaeilge (Irish). Conchur Ó Giollagain

Geography. Ruth McManus, Susan Hegarty

History. Matthew Stout

Mathematics. myself (Head of Department), Sinéad Breen

Others. Eileen McDevitt (deputy Bursar), Alan Titley (Ceann Roinne/Head of Department), Peadar Éanna Mac Cába, Ciarán Ó Coigligh, Ciarán Mac Murchaidh, Eamonn Cowan, CM, Paid McGee (Head of Special Education Department), Therese Dooley, Patricia Flynn, John Buckley (composer), Frances Murphy, Therese Day, Anita Prunty, Hugh Gash, Fionnuala Waldron, Philomena Donnelly, Pat Kelly, Joe Dunne, Sean Carey, Susan Connolly, Anne Louise Gilligan, Jones Irwin, Helen McNally, Carla King, Paul Rownan, Cora Creegan, Elaine McCormack, Maureen Kelly, Maura Sharkey, Elizabeth Dunphy, �ait Ní Laoire, Nóirín Ní Nuadháin, Sean Ó Cathalláin, Maura Coulter, Bernie Collins, Tom McCloughlin, Colm Hefferon, Marie Flynn, Fachtna McCarthy, Maura Sheehan, Maeve Fitzpatrick, Suzanne Stone, Maria Thornbury, Paul Murphy, Bríd Laffan, Andrew O'Shea, Rosemary Warren, Gemma Kiernan, Paul Downes, Miriam Naughton, John Hammond, Mick Shannon, Yvonne Marshall, Annette Jordan, Noemi Richini, Mairéad Trears, Sheila Walshe, Anita Hogan (Students Union), Gareth Burns (Students Union), Peadar Cassidy, Gerry O'Reilly, Ríóna Ní Fhrighil 

Contact details. jbcosgrave at gmail.com