the next few mersenne integers are 3 , 7 , 31 , 127 and 8191 . these numbers lasted a total of several weeks to verify , using different code and hardware . each number was independently reported by several members of gimps ' survey team , used 16 - part sets of different configurations . the two primes were reported by gimps on april 16 . before these two discoveries , the two previously only estimated prime numbers were discovered by ucmo professors curtis cooper and steven bennett in missouri , united americans , and their record lasted almost ten years . historically , prime numbers discovered by gimps are lower than the one previously revealed . the only other exception was why the 29th mersenne major was discovered after the 30th and 31st were uncovered . created by m . i . t . graduate jack woltman in 1996 , gimps has found 12 mersenne polynomials , or about 12 per year on average .
Steve Boone is a member of GIMPS.