Mauro Francaviglia (

Torino Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

, 22 June 1953 –

Arcavacata Arcavacata () is an Italian hamlet (''frazione'') of the municipality of Rende in the province of Cosenza, Calabria. Its population is 1,831. History The name Arcavacata comes from an ancient fortress-lookout ''Arce-vocata'' ("arx suited"), which ...

, 24 June 2013) 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, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

. He was a professor at

University of Torino The University of Turin (Italian language, Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Torino'', UNITO) is a public university, public research university in the city of Turin, in the Piedmont (Italy), Piedmont region of Italy. It is one of the List ...

and he worked mainly on

geometric Geometry (; ) is a branch of mathematics concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. Geometry is, along with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. A mathematician w ...

methods applied to

mechanics Mechanics () is the area of physics concerned with the relationships between force, matter, and motion among Physical object, physical objects. Forces applied to objects may result in Displacement (vector), displacements, which are changes of ...

mathematical physics Mathematical physics is the development of mathematics, mathematical methods for application to problems in physics. The ''Journal of Mathematical Physics'' defines the field as "the application of mathematics to problems in physics and the de ...

and

general relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity, and as Einstein's theory of gravity, is the differential geometry, geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of grav ...

Biography

Francaviglia obtained a degree in Mathematics at

in 1975 under the supervision of

Dionigi Galletto Dionigi Galletto (26 January 1932 – 25 September 2011) was an Italian mathematician and academician. He is known for his work on rigid body mechanics, on the mathematical theory of elasticity (including both linear elasticity and finite strai ...

. In the same university, he was a fellow of the CNR (the Italian National Research Council) from 1975 to 1978 and a teaching assistant from 1978 to 1980. In 1976 he was awarded the Bonavera Prize from the . He became full Professor at University of Torino in 1980, when he was 27 years old (the youngest full professor in his discipline). He spent the last years of his life at the

University of Calabria The University of Calabria () is a state-run university in Italy. Located in Arcavacata, a hamlet of Rende and a suburb of Cosenza, the university was founded in 1972. Among its founders there were Beniamino Andreatta, Giorgio Gagliani, Pietr ...

, in Arcavacata di Rende. Besides his scientific activities, Francaviglia was a prominent

philatelist Philately (; ) is the study of postage stamps and postal history. It also refers to the collection and appreciation of stamps and other philatelic products. While closely associated with stamp collecting and the study of postage, it is possible ...

. He has been president of the Unione Filatelica Subalpina di Torino, vice-president of the , council member of the , member of the

Royal Philatelic Society London The Royal Philatelic Society London (RPSL) is the oldest philately, philatelic society in the world. It was founded on 10 April 1869 as ''The Philatelic Society, London''. The society runs a postal museum, the Spear Museum of Philatelic History ...

and council member of the .

Research

Francaviglia's scientific interests covered a wide range of topics, including the application of

differential geometry Differential geometry is a Mathematics, mathematical discipline that studies the geometry of smooth shapes and smooth spaces, otherwise known as smooth manifolds. It uses the techniques of Calculus, single variable calculus, vector calculus, lin ...

classical mechanics Classical mechanics is a Theoretical physics, physical theory describing the motion of objects such as projectiles, parts of Machine (mechanical), machinery, spacecraft, planets, stars, and galaxies. The development of classical mechanics inv ...

and field theories,

calculus of variations The calculus of variations (or variational calculus) is a field of mathematical analysis that uses variations, which are small changes in Function (mathematics), functions and functional (mathematics), functionals, to find maxima and minima of f ...

symmetries Symmetry () in everyday life refers to a sense of harmonious and beautiful proportion and balance. In mathematics, the term has a more precise definition and is usually used to refer to an object that is invariant under some transformations ...

and

conservation laws In physics, a conservation law states that a particular measurable property of an isolated physical system does not change as the system evolves over time. Exact conservation laws include conservation of mass-energy, conservation of linear momen ...

, quantization and

thermodynamics Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, Work (thermodynamics), work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properties of matter and radiation. The behavior of these quantities is governed b ...

. He was author of over 250 papers, three monographs and 11 encyclopaedia long entries, and he supervised 6 PhD students. He was director of several courses at ; he organized 20 national and international conferences, among which the 14th World Conference on General Relativity in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

(1995). He was member of the Scientific Council of the

INdAM The Istituto Nazionale di Alta Matematica Francesco Severi, abbreviated as INdAM, is a government created non-profit research institution whose main purpose is to promote research in the field of mathematics and its applications and the diffusion ...

National Group for Mathematical Physics (GNFM) (1980–1996) and life member of the International Society on General Relativity. In 1990 he founded the Italian Society for General Relativity and Gravitation (SIGRAV), of which he was president for two terms (1992–1996 and 2008–2012). He also served as a member of the Board of the

International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

(IGRG) for nine years (1986–1995). Francaviglia was co-founder (1984) and Managing Editor of ''

Journal of Geometry and Physics The ''Journal of Geometry and Physics'' is a scientific journal in mathematical physics. Its scope is to stimulate the interaction between geometry and physics by publishing primary research and review articles which are of common interest to pract ...

'', Associate Editor of the '' Journal of General Relativity and Gravitation'' since 1999 and Managing Editor of the ''

International Journal of Geometric Methods in Modern Physics The ''International Journal of Geometric Methods in Modern Physics'' (IJGMMP) is a peer-reviewed journal, published by World Scientific, covering mathematical physics. It was originally published bimonthly beginning in January 2004; as of 2006 it ...

''. A special issue of the last journal has published a collection of scientific contributions from several Francaviglia's collaborators, presented in a workshop in his memory two years after his death.

Monographs

* ''Elements of Differential and Riemannian Geometry'', Monographs and Textbooks in Physical Sciences, Lecture Notes 4 (Proceedings Summer School on "Geometrical Methods in Theoretical Physics", Ferrara 1987), Bibliopolis, Napoli, (1988), * ''Relativistic Theories'' ''(The Variational Formulation)'', XIII Scuola Estiva di Fisica Matematica, Ravello 1988, Quaderni del CNR, Gruppo Nazionale di Fisica Matematica, (1991). * (with L. Fatibene), ''Natural and Gauge-Natural Formalism for Classical Field Theories: A Geometric Perspective including Spinors and Gauge Theories'', Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, (2003). ,

References

External links

*
Associazione culturale "Mauro Francaviglia"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Francaviglia, Mauro 1953 births 2013 deaths Differential geometers Italian relativity theorists 20th-century Italian mathematicians 21st-century Italian mathematicians University of Turin alumni Academic staff of the University of Turin Scientists from Turin Academics from Rende