Biography:Carlo Somigliana

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Short description: Italian mathematician and physicist
Carlo Somigliana
Carlo Somigliana.jpg
Born(1860-09-20)20 September 1860
Como, Italy
Died20 June 1955(1955-06-20) (aged 94)
Casanova Lanza, Italy
NationalityItalian
Alma materScuola Normale Superiore di Pisa
Known forSomigliana identity
Scientific career
FieldsMathematical physics
Theory of elasticity
Glaciology
Doctoral advisorEugenio Beltrami

Carlo Somigliana (20 September 1860 – 20 June 1955) was an Italian mathematician and a classical mathematical physicist, faithful member of the school of Enrico Betti and Eugenio Beltrami.[1][2] He made important contributions to linear elasticity: the Somigliana integral equation, analogous to Green's formula in potential theory, and the Somigliana dislocations are named after him. Other fields he contribute to include seismic wave propagation, gravimetry and glaciology.[3] One of his ancestors was Alessandro Volta:[4] precisely, the great Como physicist was an ancestor of Carlo's mother, Teresa Volta.[5]

Life and career

Carlo Somigliana began his university studies in Pavia, where he was a student of Eugenio Beltrami. Later he moved to Pisa and had Betti among his teachers: in Pisa he established a lifelong friendship with Vito Volterra, who was one of his classmates, lasted until the death of the latter. He graduated from Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa in 1881. In 1887 Somigliana began teaching as an assistant at the University of Pavia. In 1892, as the result of a competitive examination, he was appointed as University Professor of Mathematical Physics. Somigliana was called to Turin University in 1903, to hold the Chair of Mathematical Physics: He held the position until his retirement in 1935, and then he moved to Milan to live there. During the World War II, his Milan apartment was destroyed, and he moved to his family villa in Casanova Lanza: though he retired from all his teaching duties after 1935, he did scientific research until close to his death in 1955.

Honors

On the July 20, 1897, he was elected corresponding member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei: subsequently, on 17 September 1908, he was elected national member.[6] On January 18, 1939, he was elected member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

Selected publications

Historical, biographical and commemorative works

See also

Notes

  1. A. Signorini (1956). "Obituary of professor Carlo Somigliana". Rend. Lincei 21 (8): 343–351. 
  2. Obituary of Carlo Somigliana Edizione Nazionale Mathematica
  3. See (Cheng Cheng) and (Fichera 1979).
  4. See the biographical sketch by (Tricomi 1962).
  5. According to (Fichera 1979): this paper gives biographical sketches and describes the scientific contributions of many Italian scientists who worked in the theory of elasticity, including Enrico Betti, Eugenio Beltrami, Giacinto Morera, Vito Volterra.
  6. (Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei 2014).

References

Biographical and general references

Scientific references

  • Cheng, Alexander H.-D.; Cheng, Daisy T. (2005), "Heritage and early history of the boundary element method", Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements 29 (3): 268–302, doi:10.1016/j.enganabound.2004.12.001 .
  • Gurtin, Morton E. (1983), "The Linear Theory of elasticity", in Flügge, Siegfried; Truesdell, Clifford A., Festkörpermechanik/Mechanics of Solids, Handbuch der Physik (Encyclopedia of Physics), VIa/2, Berlin–Heidelberg–New York: Springer-Verlag, pp. 1–295, ISBN 3-540-13161-2  ISBN:0-387-13161-2.

External links