caption nationality field work_institutions image article_title name
alessandro figà talamanca in 1968 italian mathematics university of california alessandro figà talamanca.jpg alessandro figà talamanca
 alessandro figà talamanca
alessandro figà talamanca

alessandro figà talamanca -lrb- born in rome , 25 may 1938 -rrb- is one of the most important living italian mathematicians : he has been given several prestigious tasks , both in italy and abroad .
several times , he took part in managing the italian university system , and shared his opinions in newspapers , such as `` la repubblica .
`` he was a close friend of carlo pucci , a mathematician who spent most of his energy in improving the method of teaching maths in italy , and the management of italian maths departments .
-lrb- pucci was , especially , the re-founder of the istituto nazionale di alta matematica francesco severi . -rrb-
from 1995 to 2003 , talamanca , successor to pucci , was president of the istituto , and he continued what pucci had set up .
he was also vice-president of the european mathematical society .
moreover , he was a member of the consiglio universitario nazionale and , from 1999 to 2004 , of the comitato nazionale per la valutazione del sistema universitario - an institution that is supposed to find a way of improving the whole italian university system .
he did research , and got valuable results , in the field of harmonic analysis , on aleatory fourier series and the diffusion process , mostly in rome - at la sapienza - , but also in the us , especially in the sixties .
during that period he joined research activities in california , ucla , where he got his ph.d , in 1964 , and , in the same year , was acting assistant professor , and met the well-famous french-american mathematician serge lang , and also in boston , moore instructor at mit from 1966 to 1968 .
while teaching at mit , he read tom m. apostol 's calculus , a two volume book , and decided to bring it back to italy - when he was to become professor at the university of genova - with him : he was the one who proposed an italian edition of apostol 's work to a printer in turin , and he himself overwatched the translation , in 1977 .
talamanca has written a calculus book himself , but , when given the first english-language calculus class in the history of the faculty of engineering of the third university of rome , he decided to make use of lang 's one .
however , he has always preferred american books to russian ones , such as boris demidovich 's : he enjoys more the american friend-way of teaching maths rather than the strong soviet severity - as an example , in class he stated that , since now we have calculators , there 's no use in learning the whole list of integrals that demidovich reports .
he was lecturer at berkeley , from 1968 to 1969 , then at yale , from 1969 to 1970 , then visiting professor in maryland , in washington , wales and sydney .
he taught calculus for 50 years , including both italian and american universities .
mostly , he referred to la sapienza : in 2007 , he became general director of the maths ' department there , but he was to leave in 2009 because he was 71 .
that 's why he decided to accept to move to the third university , where , in recognition of his prestige , he was given calculus in english , to teach to foreign students , he is able to speak english , and modern greek : and managed to hold a whole lesson at athens in greek .
he told how hard it was , since , talking about very old times , there was no greek dictionary detailed enough to contain , for instance , the word `` differential equations '' : so , he was compelled to ask a greek colleague a few minutes before starting - it was '' Διαφορική εξίσωση '' -lsb- `` diaforikì exisosi '' -rsb- .
it is pretty curious that , in rome , the last student he examined was greek !
he is also very interested in analytic philosophy .
talking about that , he stated that `` russell was the start , then gödel the end '' .
he has always been up against eugene garfield 's impact factor system in science -lrb- `` see here : l'impact factor nella valutazione della ricerca e nello sviluppo dell ' editoria scientifica '' .
