◀ ▲ ▶History / 20th-century / Person: Cimmino, Gianfranco Luigi Giuseppe
Person: Cimmino, Gianfranco Luigi Giuseppe
Gianfranco Cimmino was an Italian mathematician who worked in mathematical analysis, numerical analysis and the theory of elliptic partial differential equations.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- Gianfranco, born on Thursday 12 March 1908, was baptized with the name of Gianfranco Luigi Giuseppe but only used the given name Gianfranco.
- In 1923, when Cimmino was fifteen years old, he graduated from high school with the classical certificate.
- Cimmino was only nineteen years old when he graduated with his thesis on approximate methods of solution for the heat equation in 2-dimensions, but he was appointed as an assistant to Picone who held the chair of analytical geometry at the University of Naples.
- In Naples, Cimmino was a member of an impressive team led by Picone.
- Picone left Naples in 1932, together with Miranda, but Cimmino remained there until 1938.
- After Picone left, Cimmino became a lecturer in charge of the courses of Higher Analysis between 1932 and 1935.
- In particular, Cimmino was the first mathematician to study the Dirichlet problem with generalized boundary conditions.
- Towards the end of that period, Professor Cimmino devised a numerical method for the approximate solution of systems of linear equations that he reminded me of in these days, following the recent publication by Dr Cesari ..., which provides a systematic treatment of the above mentioned computing methods but which, however, does not consider the one by Cimmino, a method which, in my opinion, is most worthy of consideration in the applications because of its generality, its efficiency and, finally, because of its guaranteed convergence which can make the method practicable in many cases.
- While in Naples, Cimmino entered the competition for the chair of Mathematical Analysis at the University of Cagliari, in Sardinia.
- We have seen that Cimmino made contributions to partial differential equations of elliptic type and to computing approximate solutions to systems of linear equations.
- Indeed, one of his last reviews for the 'Zentralblatt', appeared in 1988, concerned a paper on the use of Cimmino's method in radiation therapy planning.
- The story of Cimmino's method is interesting for several reasons.
- It is also interesting to observe that Cimmino's impact on his main research area, the theory of partial differential equations, while non-negligible, has not been as great and as lasting as his work in numerical mathematics.
- The reasons for this are complex, but may be due at least in part to the state of relative isolation in which Cimmino (as well as other members of the Neapolitan mathematical school) conducted his research, publishing his most important papers in Italian and in journals of rather limited circulation.
- Cimmino published seven books, most of which were based on notes from his lecture courses.
Born 12 March 1908, Naples, Italy. Died 30 May 1989, Bologna, Italy.
View full biography at MacTutor
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Origin Italy
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
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- @J-J-O'Connor
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References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
