Person: Chisini, Oscar

Oscar Chisini was an Italian mathematician who worked in algebraic geometry.

The young Oscar received a classical education, first in Ravenna and then in Bologna.
Later, enrolled as an engineering student at the University of Bologna, Oscar Chisini met Federigo Enriques in a meeting that was to change his life.
The four volumes of this monograph, started in 1915 and finished in 1934, were conceived in what Chisini called a peripatetic way, that is walking under the porches of Bologna with Enriques possibly stopping to write on the flooring with the tip of his umbrella.
The Great War marked a break in Chisini's academic career, as he volunteered in the alpine artillery.
As an algebraic geometry researcher, Oscar Chisini is to be considered part of the so-called Italian school, featuring among others Luigi Cremona, Corrado Segre, Guido Castelnuovo, Francesco Severi, Beniamino Segre and, of course, Federigo Enriques.
Overall, Chisini expressed a dynamic vision of science in which history and mistakes are to play a prominent role.

Born 14 March 1889, Bergamo, Italy. Died 10 April 1967, Milan, Italy.

View full biography at MacTutor

Origin Italy

Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0!

O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive