Jan Mikołaj Smogulecki (1610–1656), of the Grzymała coat of arms, was a Polish nobleman, politician, missionary, scholar and Jesuit credited with introducing logarithms to China.
In the years 1626–29 he studied mathematics and astronomy at Freiburg, philosophy in Rome, and law at Padua (where he was also an official representative of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth).
[2] In 1634[3] or 1636[1] (sources vary) he joined the Jesuit Order, declared his intent to become a missionary in distant lands,[1] and began studies in theology at Kraków.
In 1645 he traveled from Portugal (where he declined an invitation to join the Portuguese royal court) to Java, India and China to be a missionary.
[3][4] He began his missionary activities in Nanking, but about 1647 a civil war forced him to move to Jianyang in the Chinese province of Fujian.