Francesco Severi

Francesco Severi
Francesco Severi (photo by Konrad Jacobs)
Born	13 April, 1879 Arezzo
Died	8 December 1961 (aged 82) Rome
Nationality	Italian
Fields	Mathematics
Institutions	Università di Torino, Università di Bologna, Università di Padova, Università di Roma, Istituto Nazionale di Alta Matematica (now Istituto Nazionale di Alta Matematica "Francesco Severi"
Alma mater	Università di Torino, 1900
Doctoral advisor	Corrado Segre
Other academic advisors	Enrico d'Ovidio, Federigo Enriques, Eugenio Bertini
Notable students	Luigi Fantappiè, Gaetano Fichera
Known for	Algebraic geometry, several complex variables
Influenced	Algebraic geometry, several complex variables
Notable awards	1906 Gold medal of the Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze detta dei XL, 1907 Prix Bordin (jointly with Federigo Enriques), 1908 Guccia Medal del Circolo Matematico di Palermo (awarded at the fourth International Congress of Mathematicians), 1913 "Premio reale" of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei
Religious stance	Catholic

Francesco Severi (13 April 1879, Arezzo, Italy - 8 December 1961, Rome) was an Italian mathematician. He is famous for his contributions to algebraic geometry. He became the effective leader of the Italian school of algebraic geometry.

Together with Federigo Enriques, he won the Bordin prize from the French Academy of Sciences.

He contributed in a major way to birational geometry, the theory of algebraic surfaces, in particular of the curves lying on them, the theory of moduli spaces and the theory of functions of several complex variables. He wrote prolifically, and some of his work has subsequently been shown to be inadequate, in investigations in particular by Oscar Zariski and David Mumford. At the personal level he was remarkably touchy, and he was involved in a number of controversies.

See also

• CR-function
• Morera's theorem
• Néron-Severi group
• Severi-Brauer variety

Bibliography

• Moore, Clarence Lemuel Elisha, "The fourth International Congress of Mathematicians", Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society 14 (10): 481-498, doi:10.1090/S0002-9904-1908-01656-2, http://www.ams.org/bull/1908-14-10/S0002-9904-1908-01656-2/home.html . A report of the fourth International Congress of Mathematicians with a short exposition of the motivation fo the awarding of the Guccia medal to Severi.

References

• Severi, Francesco (1931), "Sur une propriété fondamentale des fonctions analytiques de plusieurs variables", Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des sciences 192: 596–599, ZBL 0001.14802, http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k3145g.image.r=Comptes+rendus.f596.langFR  (in French, available at Gallica. The paper containing the first proof of Morera's theorem for holomorphic functions of several variables.
• Severi, Francesco (1958), Lezioni sulle funzioni analitiche di più variabili complesse - Tenute nel 1956-57 all'Istituto Nazionale di Alta Matematica in Roma (Lectures on analytic functions of several complex variables - Lectured in 1956-57 at the Istituto Nazionale di Alta Matematica in Rome), Padova: CEDAM - Casa Editrice Dott. Antonio Milani, ZBL 0094.28002 . Notes from a course held by Francesco Severi at the Istituto Nazionale di Alta Matematica (which at present bears his name), containing appendices of Enzo Martinelli, Giovanni Battista Rizza and Mario Benedicty.

External links

• O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Francesco Severi", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive . Contains also 12 further references.
• Francesco Severi at the Mathematics Genealogy Project.
• Francesco Severi: a short résumé of his life available at the "Societa Italiana di Storia delle Matematiche" (in Italian.
• INDAM: web site of the Istituto Nazionale di Alta Matematica "Francesco Severi".