Pia Nalli

Pia Maria Nalli (Palermo, Kingdom of Italy, February 10, 1886 - Catania, Italy, September 27, 1964) was an Italian mathematician known for her work on summability of Fourier series, on Morera's theorem for analytic functions in several variables and for finding the solution to the Fredholm integral equation of the third kind for the first time. See . Her research interests ranged from algebraic geometry to functional analysis and tensor analysis. She was a speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in 1928.

She was one of the first women to serve as professors at the University of Catania, along with Carmelina Naselli, Gina Fasoli and Dina Bertoni Jovine. She is also remembered for her fight against discrimination against women in Italian universities. See . A street in Rome is named after him.

 Early years 
Nalli was born on 10 February 1886 into a middle-class family with seven children in Palermo. She studied at the University of Palermo, where she obtained a laurea in 1910 under the supervision of Giuseppe Bagnera,  with a thesis on algebraic geometry, and the same year joined the Circolo Matematico di Palermo.

 Academic career 
Nalli worked as an assistant to Giuseppe Bagnera at the University of Palermo between April 1 and November 16, 1911. After that, she taught at various institutes, first at the girls' school in Avellino, then in Trapani, and from 16 November 1912 at the girls' technical school in Palermo. During this time, Nalli continued her research, completing his thesis "Esposizione e confrontationo critico delle diverse definizioni proposte per l'integrale definito di una funzione limitationta o no", a study of the theory of integrals based on the recent work of Émile Borel, Henri Lebesgue, Charles-Jean de la Vallée Poussin, Giuseppe Vitali and Arnaud Denjoy.

In 1921, Nalli was named an extraordinary professor at the University of Cagliari. In the competition for the post she ranked second to Mauro Picone, perhaps partly because women were seldom given senior university roles. Picone chose to stay at the University of Catania, so the Cagliari position went to Nalli.

Two years later she placed first for a chair at the University of Pavia, yet the offer never came. After facing similar setbacks at other institutions, she finally became a professor at the University of Catania in 1927. Around this time, likely with guidance from Tullio Levi-Civita, she shifted her research from functional analysis to tensor calculus.

She was an invited speaker at the 1928 International Congress of Mathematicians.

 Death and legacy 
Nalli died on September 27, 1964 in Catania. A street in Rome, the Via Pia Nalli,  is named after her.

 References 

Category:Mathematicians
Category:Italian scientists
Category:1886 births
Category:1964 deaths