Person: Morin (3), Ugo
Ugo Morin was an Italian mathematician who worked in classical algebraic geometry and abstract algebra.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- It is now a part of Croatia but at the time that Gabriele Morin (born 12 July 1868) and Maria Picinich (born 5 March 1873) were born there it was part of Austria but had a large Italian speaking minority which included Gabriele and Maria.
- When Ugo was born in Trieste in 1901, that city too was part of the Austrian Empire but again there was a large number of Italian speaking people.
- Ugo spent his early years in Trieste but the situation there was difficult with very active groups trying to force that city to become part of Italy.
- Ugo's parents decided to move to a part of Austria that was more peaceful and there he attended school.
- Morin was one of the Italian nationalists who had joined D'Annunzio and then fought under him.
- Morin undertook university studies in Fiume while the city was occupied by D'Annunzio's troops, studying science there.
- There were two main interests in Morin's life, the sea and mathematics.
- Morin received his laurea in 1926 from the University of Padua and he was then appointed as Comessatti's assistant.
- Morin was influenced by these men and also by several other leading anti-Fascists in the University of Padua who were in other departments, particularly Egidio Meneghetti (1892-1961), professor of pharmacology at Padua and a leading figure of the Giustizia e Libertà movement and Norberto Bobbio (1909-2004), who started teaching at the University of Padua in philosophy of law in 1942 and who, in that year, joined the Partito d'Azione, a socialist anti-Fascist party.
- Morin competed for the Chair of Analytic Geometry at the University of Florence in which he was successful, taking up the appointment in December 1942.
- When Morin moved from Padua to Florence in 1942 he certainly did not give up his association with Padua for he frequently travelled between the two cities.
- In Florence Morin became friendly with Piero Calamandrei (1889-1956), who was professor of law in Florence and a strong critic of Fascism.
- With his frequent trips between the cities, Morin was able to maintain contacts between the anti-Fascists in Padua and those in Florence.
- Morin worked closely with Meneghetti, Bobbio and Zwirner and they were joined by Carlo Rosselli (1899-1937), the founder of the anti-Fascist resistance movement Giustizia e Libertà.
- This speech was Fascist in its ideas and Morin led the opposition to the rector's speech from members of the university staff.
- Morin, however, managed to escape capture and went into hiding.
- It was a time of severe difficulty for Morin who was forced to continually change his hiding place.
- By the end of November 1944 Morin was acting as the representative of the Partito d'Azione in the National Liberation Committee of Padua and in January 1945 he entered the National Liberation Committee in Venice.
- Morin negotiated with the German garrison and, on the afternoon of 28 April, he signed the agreement he had made with the Germans that they would be allowed to leave Venice unharmed provided they guarantee that they would not damage the city, its port facilities and its infrastructure.
- Morin was elected as president of the National Liberation Committee in Venice on 1 August 1945 and he held this role until he left the committee on 5 March of the following year.
- We have said nothing about Morin's contributions to mathematics over these extremely difficult years of World War II.
- Some of the profound themes of twentieth century geometry are intertwined with some of the beautiful geometric ideas that Ugo Morin has developed and nurtured over the course of his life.
- Let us return to Morin's activities following the end of World War II.
- Morin went back to his home town of Trieste to help his colleagues there re-establish the Faculty of Science.
- Morin also edited some textbooks for teaching geometry in secondary schools during the 1950s and in the 1960s worked on texts for teachers of mathematics in secondary schools prepared for the Ministry of Education.
- Many honours have been given to Morin, both in his lifetime and following his death.
- A high school in Mestre and a research centre "Ugo Morin" in Paderno del Grappa, Treviso, have been named after him.
Born 7 February 1901, Trieste, Austrian Empire (now Italy). Died 1 January 1968, Padua, Italy.
View full biography at MacTutor
Tags relevant for this person:
Origin Italy
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
- Github:
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- non-Github:
- @J-J-O'Connor
- @E-F-Robertson
References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
