Mariarosaria (Mariolina) Padula (died 29 September 2012) was an Italian mathematical physicist specializing in fluid dynamics, including free boundary problems and compressible flow with viscosity. She was a professor of mathematical physics at the University of Ferrara, and is also known for revitalizing and heading the university's mathematical journal, Annali dell’Università di Ferrara, and forging it into an internationally known journal. [1] [2] [3]
Padula studied mathematics at the University of Naples Federico II, [1] and published her first works in mathematical physics in 1973. [3] She was a student of Salvatore Rionero. [4]
She continued at the University of Naples as an assistant and associate professor until 1994, when she won a professorship at the University of Basilicata. In 1995, she moved to the department of mathematics and computer science at the University of Ferrara, where she remained for the rest of her career. [1]
Padula was the author of a monograph on her research specialty, Asymptotic stability of steady compressible fluids (Lecture Notes in Mathematics 2024, Springer, 2011). [5]
A symposium on mathematical fluid dynamics in Padula's honor was held at the University of Ferrara in 2014. [6] In the same year, a special issue of Annali dell’Università di Ferrara was published in her memory. [3]
Padula married another student of Rionero, Giovanni Paolo Galdi; they later separated. [4] She was the mother of Giovanbattista Galdi, a professor of linguistics at Ghent University. [6]
Laura Maria Caterina Bassi Veratti was an Italian physicist and academic. Recognized and depicted as "Minerva", she was the first woman to have a doctorate in science, and the second woman in the world to earn the Doctor of Philosophy degree. Working at the University of Bologna, she was also the first salaried female teacher in a university. At one time the highest paid employee of the university, by the end of her life Bassi held two other professorships. She was also the first female member of any scientific establishment, when she was elected to the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna in 1732 at 21.
Gabrio Piola was an Italian mathematician and physicist, member of the Lombardo Institute of Science, Letters and Arts. He studied in particular the mechanics of the continuous, linking his name to the tensors called Piola–Kirchhoff.
Gaetano Fichera was an Italian mathematician, working in mathematical analysis, linear elasticity, partial differential equations and several complex variables. He was born in Acireale, and died in Rome.
Paco Axel Lagerstrom was an applied mathematician and aeronautical engineer. He was trained formally in mathematics, but worked for much of his career in aeronautical applications. He was known for work in applying the method of asymptotic expansion to fluid mechanics problems. Several of his works have become classics, including "Matched Asymptotic Expansions: Ideas And Techniques".
Giovanni Battista Rizza is an Italian mathematician, working in the fields of complex analysis of several variables and in differential geometry: he is known for his contribution to hypercomplex analysis, notably for extending Cauchy's integral theorem and Cauchy's integral formula to complex functions of a hypercomplex variable, the theory of pluriharmonic functions and for the introduction of the now called Rizza manifolds.
Bertrando Spaventa was a leading Italian philosopher of the 19th century whose ideas had an important influence on the changes that took place during the unification of Italy and on philosophical thought in the 20th century.
Dionigi Galletto was an Italian mathematician and academician.
Alessandro Faedo was an Italian mathematician and politician, born in Chiampo. He is known for his work in numerical analysis, leading to the Faedo–Galerkin method: he was one of the pupils of Leonida Tonelli and, after his death, he succeeded him on the chair of mathematical analysis at the University of Pisa, becoming dean of the faculty of sciences and then rector and exerting a strong positive influence on the development of the university.
Vincenzo Tiberio was an Italian researcher and medical officer of the Medical Corps of the Italian Navy and physician at the University of Naples. Observing that people complained of intestinal disorders after the walls of a well which supplied drinking water was cleaned off, he published a little noticed 1895 paper on the bactericidal effect of some molds, 35 years before Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin.
Dario Graffi was an influential Italian mathematical physicist, known for his researches on the electromagnetic field, particularly for a mathematical explanation of the Luxemburg effect, for proving an important uniqueness theorem for the solutions of a class of fluid dynamics equations including the Navier-Stokes equation, for his researches in continuum mechanics and for his contribution to oscillation theory.
Carlo Cattàneo was an Italian academic and one of the general relativity theorists and mathematical physicists in the 1960s and 1970s. He made contributions to general relativity theory, fluid mechanics, and elasticity theory.
Pietro Paoli was an Italian mathematician.
Emanuele Foà was an Italian engineer and engineering physicist, known for his contribution to mathematical fluid dynamics. In particular he proved the first known uniqueness theorem for the solutions to the three-dimensional Navier–Stokes equations for incompressible fluids in bounded domains.
Carlo Miranda was an Italian mathematician, working on mathematical analysis, theory of elliptic partial differential equations and complex analysis: he is known for giving the first proof of the Poincaré–Miranda theorem, for Miranda's theorem in complex analysis, and for writing an influential monograph in the theory of elliptic partial differential equations.
Orazio Tedone was an Italian mathematical physicist. He is perhaps best known for the Larmor–Tedone formulae for solving Maxwell's equations.
Francesco Sbrana was an Italian applied mathematician and mathematical physicist.
Mario Pascal was an Italian applied mathematician, specializing in fluid mechanics and aerodynamics.
Hans Wilhelm Alt is a German mathematician, specializing in partial differential equations and their applications.
Rolf Rannacher is a German mathematician and a professor of numerical analysis at Heidelberg University.
Eduard Feireisl is a Czech mathematician.