Ulisse Dini

Ulisse Dini ( born November 14, 1845 in Pisa, † October 28, 1918 ) was an Italian mathematician and politician.

Dini studied mathematics at the University and the Scuola Normale Superiore in his hometown. One of his professors was Enrico Betti. In 1865 he went on a scholarship to Paris, where he studied under Charles Hermite and Joseph Bertrand and published several essays. In 1866 he was appointed to the University of Pisa, where he taught algebra and geodesy. In 1871 he became professor of analysis and geometry as the successor of Betti. 1888-1890 was Dini Rector of the University of Pisa and from 1908 until his death in 1918 director of the Scuola Normale Superiore.

From 1871, when he was elected to the city council of Pisa, he was also active as a politician. In 1880 he was elected to the Italian Parliament.

Dini worked on real analysis at a time when it was put to rigorous foundations. He gave a criterion for the convergence of a Fourier series and dealt with potential theory and the differential geometry of surfaces, building on the work of Eugenio Beltrami. In 1878 he wrote a book on the foundations of the theory of real functions, Fourier series over 1880 and 1907 or 1915, a two-volume Analysis textbook.

One of his students was Luigi Bianchi.