VOLTERRA

ITALY (see also List of Individuals)

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3.5.1860 Ancona/I - 11.10.1940 Roma/I

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Vito Volterra graduated in 1878 from the Istituto Tecnico in Florence. He then transferred to Pisa University and there won a competition for permanent collaboration. In 1882 he submitted a PhD thesis where he treated a problem in hydromechanics. In 1883, he was there appointed professor of mechanics and moved in the same position to the Politecnico of Turin in 1892. Finally, in 1900, he took over the chair of mathematical physics at Roma University. In 1905, Volterra was made a Senator of the Italian Kingdom; although he would have preferred to pursue a career of pure science, politics and war disrupted his plans. In World War I, Volterra joined the army to perfect airships. He returned in 1919 to science but was again disrupted by politics from 1922, when the fascists aimed to change the Italian educational system. In 1931, he opposed the regime and was dismissed from the University of Rome, where he had taught for more than 30 years. From then, he mostly lived abroad. Volterra was a Member of the Royal Society from 1910, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in Rome; he was an Officer of Légion d'Honneur and received Honorary Knighthood from King George V of England.

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Volterra was called a modern Renaissance man for the extraordinary variety of his interests, his scientific curiosity and love of art and music. He made his most important contributions in higher analysis, mathematical physics, the theory of elasticity, and mathematical biometrics. In hydrodynamics, Volterra's equation describes viscoelastic processes. Volterra founded today's National Research Council of Italy and contributed significantly to the spread of knowledge among the academic world.

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_{Anonymous (1941). Vito Volterra. Obituary Notices of Fellows of The Royal Society 3: 690-729. P}

_{Poggendorff, J.C. (1898). Volterra, Vito. Biographisch-Literarisches Handwörterbuch 3: 1401-1402, 4: 1579-1580, 5: 1319-1320, 6: 2775, 7b: 5804-5805. Barth: Leipzig, with bibliography.}

_{Tan, M.L. (1995). Vito Volterra. Notable 20th century scientists 4: 2091-2093. Gale: New York. Volterra, V. (1903). Sur la stratification d'une masse fluide en équilibre. Acta Mathematica 27: 105-124.}

_{Volterra, V. (1932). Sur les jets liquides. J. Mathématiques Pures et Appliquées Série 9 11: 1-35. Volterra, V. (1954). Opere matematiche. Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei: Roma.}

_{Wavre, R. (1940). Vito Volterra. Enseignement Mathématique 38: 347-348.}