{{short description|American mathematician}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2025}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Curtis Cooper | birth_date = | birth_place = | death_date = | death_place = | fields = Mathematics, Computer Science | workplaces = Central Missouri | alma_mater = Iowa State | doctoral_advisor = Robert Joe Lambert | doctoral_students = | known_for = | awards = }} '''Curtis Niles Cooper''' is an American mathematician who was a professor at the University of Central Missouri, in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science.
== GIMPS == Using software from the GIMPS project, Cooper and Steven Boone found the 43rd known Mersenne prime on their 700 PC cluster on December 15, 2005. The prime, 2<sup>30,402,457</sup> − 1, is 9,152,052 digits long and is the ninth Mersenne prime for GIMPS.<ref>{{citation |url=http://www.mersenne.org/primes/30402457.htm |work=Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search |title=Project Discovers New Largest Known Prime Number, 2<sup>30,402,457</sup>-1 |accessdate=2006-11-26 }}.</ref>
Cooper and Boone became the first GIMPS contributors to find two primes when they also found the 44th known Mersenne prime, 2<sup>32,582,657</sup> − 1 (or M<sub>32,582,657</sub>), which has 9,808,358 digits. This prime was discovered on September 4, 2006, using a PC cluster of over 850 machines. This is the tenth Mersenne prime for GIMPS.<ref>{{citation |url=http://www.mersenne.org/primes/32582657.htm |work=Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search |title=Project Discovers Largest Known Prime Number, 2<sup>32,582,657</sup>-1 |accessdate=2006-11-26 }}.</ref>
On January 25, 2013, Cooper found his third Mersenne prime of 2<sup>57,885,161</sup> − 1.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mersenne.org/various/57885161.htm|title=GIMPS Project Discovers Largest Known Prime Number, 2<sup>57,885,161</sup>-1|publisher=Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search|accessdate=2013-02-05}}</ref>
On September 17, 2015, Cooper's computer reported yet another Mersenne prime, 2<sup>74,207,281</sup> − 1, which was the largest known prime number at 22,338,618 decimal digits. The report was, however, unnoticed until January 7, 2016.<ref name="m49">{{cite web|url=http://www.mersenne.org/primes/?press=M74207281|title=Largest Known Prime, 49th Known Mersenne Prime Found!!|publisher=Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search|accessdate=2016-01-19}}</ref>
== Areas of research == Cooper's own work has mainly been in elementary number theory, especially work related to digital representations of numbers. He collaborated extensively with Robert E. Kennedy. They have worked with Niven numbers, among other results, showing that no 21 consecutive integers can all be Niven numbers,<ref>{{Citation |journal=Fibonacci Quarterly |volume=31|year=1993|issue=2|pages=146–151 |title=On Consecutive Niven Numbers |last=Cooper |first=Curtis |last2=Kennedy |first2=Robert E. |url=http://www.fq.math.ca/Scanned/31-2/cooper.pdf}}</ref> and introduced the notion of tau numbers, numbers whose total number of divisors are itself a divisor of the number.<ref>{{citation |last=Cooper |first=Curtis |author-mask=3 |last2=Kennedy |first2=Robert E. |title=Tau numbers, natural density, and Hardy and Wright's theorem 437 |journal=International Journal of Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences |volume=13 |year=1990 |issue=2 |pages=383–386 |doi=10.1155/S0161171290000576 |doi-access=free }}.</ref> Independent of Kennedy, Cooper has also done work about generalizations of geometric series, and their application to probability.<ref>{{citation |last=Cooper |first=Curtis |author-mask=3 |title=Geometric Series and a Probability Problem |journal=American Mathematical Monthly |volume=93 |issue=2 |pages=126–127 |year=1986 |doi=10.2307/2322711 |publisher=Mathematical Association of America |jstor=2322711 }}.</ref>
Cooper is also the editor of the publication ''Fibonacci Quarterly''.
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Wikinews|Record size 17.4 million-digit prime found}} * {{MathGenealogy |id=154 |name=Curtis Cooper}} * [http://cs.ucmo.edu/~cnc8851/index.html Curtis Cooper's homepage]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Curtis}} Category:Living people Category:Iowa State University alumni Category:University of Central Missouri faculty Category:21st-century American mathematicians Category:American number theorists Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Place of birth missing (living people) Category:Mathematicians from Missouri
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