Oscar Chisini

Oscar Chisini ( born March 4, 1889 in Bergamo, † April 10, 1967 in Milan ) was an Italian mathematician.

Life and work

Chisini came from old Venetian noble family and went to Ravenna and Bologna to school. He studied engineering and mathematics at Federigo Enriques then at the University of Bologna, where in 1912 he graduated. He was then an assistant to Enrique, with whom he worked on his four-volume monograph lectures on geometric theory of equations and algebraic functions ( 1915-1934 ). In World War I he was in the artillery in the fighting in the Alps ( and invented there an artillery observation unit, which he had also patented ). In 1923 he became a professor in Cagliari and from 1925 in Milan, where he remained until his retirement in 1959. In 1929 he founded, together with Gian Antonio Maggi and the Istituto di Matematica Giluio Vivanti the University of Milan, whose board he was up to his death.

Chisini dealt with algebraic geometry and mathematics education. He found a proof of the solvability of singularities of algebraic surfaces, the desire to how much evidence the Italian algebraic- geometric school of rigor but left something ( a rigorous proof delivered in 1935 the American Robert Walker). He has published many articles on elementary mathematics and popular science essays in the Periodico di Matematiche whose editor, he was from 1946 to 1967. Chisini also wrote many contributions to the Enciclopedia Italiana. The Chisini agent is named after him.

He was a member of the Accademia dei Lincei.