Antonio Ambrosetti (25 November 1944 – 20 November 2020) was an Italian

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

who worked in the fields of

partial differential equation In mathematics, a partial differential equation (PDE) is an equation which imposes relations between the various partial derivatives of a Multivariable calculus, multivariable function. The function is often thought of as an "unknown" to be sol ...

s and

calculus of variations The calculus of variations (or Variational Calculus) is a field of mathematical analysis that uses variations, which are small changes in functions and functionals, to find maxima and minima of functionals: mappings from a set of functions t ...

Scientific activity

Ambrosetti studied at the

University of Padua The University of Padua ( it, Università degli Studi di Padova, UNIPD) is an Italian university located in the city of Padua, region of Veneto, northern Italy. The University of Padua was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from B ...

and was professor of mathematics at the

International School for Advanced Studies The International School for Advanced Studies (Italian: ''Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati''; SISSA) is an international, state-supported, post-graduate-education and research institute in Trieste, Italy. SISSA is active in the ...

. He is known for his basic work on topological methods in the calculus of variations. These provide tools aimed at establishing the existence of solutions to variational problems when classical direct methods of the calculus of variations cannot be applied. In particular, the so-called

mountain pass theorem The mountain pass theorem is an existence theorem from the calculus of variations, originally due to Antonio Ambrosetti and Paul Rabinowitz. Given certain conditions on a function, the theorem demonstrates the existence of a saddle point. The th ...

he established with

Paul Rabinowitz Paul H. Rabinowitz (born 1939) is the Edward Burr Van Vleck Professor of Mathematics and a Vilas Research Professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He received a Ph.D. from New York University in 1966 under the direction of Jürgen Moser. ...

is nowadays a classical tool in the context of nonlinear analysis problems.

Recognition

Ambrosetti has been awarded the

Caccioppoli prize The Caccioppoli Prize is awarded by the Italian Mathematical Union to an Italian mathematician not exceeding the age of 38 who established a wide international reputation. The prize is entitled to the memory of the Italian mathematician Renato Cacci ...

in 1982, and the

Amerio Prize Amerio or Amério is an Italian surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Luigi Amerio (1912–2004), Italian electrical engineer and mathematician *Romano Amerio Romano Amerio (17 January 1905 – 16 January 1997) was a Swiss Italian the ...

by the Istituto Lombardo Accademia di Scienze e Lettere in 2008. Jointly with

Andrea Malchiodi Andrea Malchiodi (born September 30, 1972) is an Italian mathematician who is active in the fields of partial differential equations and calculus of variations, with several contributions to geometric analysis. Scientific activity Malchiodi rec ...

, Ambrosetti has been awarded the 2005 edition of the

Ferran Sunyer i Balaguer Ferran Sunyer i Balaguer (born 1912, Figueres - 27 December 1967, Barcelona) was a Spanish mathematician. He is the namesake of the Ferran Sunyer i Balaguer Prize in mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topic ...

prize. In 1983 he has been

invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians This is a list of International Congresses of Mathematicians Plenary and Invited Speakers. Being invited to talk at an International Congress of Mathematicians has been called "the equivalent, in this community, of an induction to a hall of fame." ...

and he was fellow of the Accedemia Nazionale dei Lincei.

References

External links

Website at the International School for Advanced Studies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ambrosetti, Antonio 1944 births 2020 deaths 21st-century Italian mathematicians University of Padua alumni People from Bari Variational analysts Academic staff of the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa