José Babini (10 May 1897,

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

– 18 May 1984, Buenos Aires) was an Argentine mathematician, engineer, and historian of mathematics and mathematical sciences. Babini worked for a construction company, where the owners recognized his mathematical talent and made it possible for him to pursue academic study. From 1918 he studied in Buenos Aires. In 1921 he graduated with a qualification to teach natural science and mathematics. In 1922 he received his degree as a

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

. Already in 1917 he contacted the well-known Spanish mathematician

Julio Rey Pastor Julio Rey Pastor (14 August 1888 – 21 February 1962) was a Spanish mathematician and historian of science. Biography Julio Rey Pastor studied high school in his hometown, and began his studies in Sciences in Vitoria. He moved to the Universi ...

. Instead of working as a civil engineer, Babini taught mathematics at the Faculty for Industrial Chemistry of the ''Universidad Nacional del Litoral'' in

Rosario Rosario () is the largest city in the central provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Santa Fe Province, Santa Fe. The city, located northwest of Buenos Aires on the west bank of the Paraná River, is the third-most populous city in the ...

. There he introduced new methods of

numerical analysis Numerical analysis is the study of algorithms that use numerical approximation (as opposed to symbolic computation, symbolic manipulations) for the problems of mathematical analysis (as distinguished from discrete mathematics). It is the study of ...

and was considered a leading Argentine expert in this field. He then taught at the Faculty of Sciences of Education (''Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación'') in

Paraná, Entre Ríos Paraná () is the capital city of the Argentine province Entre Ríos, located on the eastern shore of the Paraná River, opposite the city of Santa Fe, capital of the neighbouring Santa Fe Province. The city has a population of 268,889 inhabit ...

and at the ''Colegio Nacional y la Escuela Industrial''. When Aldo Mieli came from Paris to Argentina in 1938, he and Babini founded at the ''Universidad Nacional del Litoral'' in Rosario the ''Instituto de Historia y Filosofía de la Ciencia'' (with the support of Rey Pastor). The ''Instituto'' existed until 1943. Babini was an editor for the journal '' Archeion'' (founded by Mieli in 1919 with the name ''Archivio di Storia della Scienza'') and with Mieli edited the series ''Panorama general de historia del ciencia'' in 12 volumes. In this series, Babini wrote, with Desiderio Papp, ''El siglo de iluminismo'' on the exact sciences in the 19th century (volume number 8 of the series). He was a major organizer of science in Argentina and a member of the national research council

CONICET The National Scientific and Technical Research Council (, CONICET) is an Argentine government agency which directs and co-ordinates most of the scientific and technical research done in universities and institutes. History The National Scient ...

. From 1955 to 1966 he was the dean of the ''Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales'' of the National University in Buenos Aires. In 1957 he was the rector and interim director of the newly founded ''Universidad Nacional del Nordeste''. He also presided over Argentina's newly founded university publishing house EUDEBA (''Editorial Universitaria de Buenos Aires''). Babini was a member of the editorial board of ''Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences'' and was a co-founder of the journal ''Quipu: Revista Latinoamericana de Historia de las Ciencias y la Tecnología'' (based in Mexico City). He was Invited Speaker of the ICM in 1928 in Bologna. He was the author, co-author, or editor of numerous books (at least 70) and essays as well as translations. In particular, he also published the first books on the history of science as it developed in Argentina.

Selected publications

*with J. Rey Pastor: Historia de la matemática, 1953 *Biografía de los infinitamente pequeños, 1957 *Historia sucinta de la matemática, 1953 *Origen y naturaleza de la ciencia, 1947 *Arquímedes, 1948 *Historia de la ciencia argentina, 1951 *La evolución del pensamiento cientifico en la Argentina, 1953 *El saber en la historia, 1971 *El siglo de las luces: ciencia y tecnología, 1971 *Historia de la medicina, 1980

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Babini, Jose Historians of mathematics 1897 births 1984 deaths People from Buenos Aires 20th-century Argentine mathematicians