Nationality Italian Role Mathematician Notable students Lamberto Cesari Name Leonida Tonelli Doctoral advisor Cesare Arzela | Known for Tonelli's theorem Fields Mathematics | |
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Born 19 April 1885Gallipoli, Apulia, Italy ( 1885-04-19 ) Institutions University of CagliariUniversity of ParmaUniversity of BolognaUniversity of PisaScuola Normale Superiore Died March 12, 1946, Pisa, Italy | ||
How to pronounce leonida tonelli italian italy pronouncenames com
Leonida Tonelli (19 April 1885 – 12 March 1946) was an Italian mathematician, noted for creating Tonelli's theorem, a variation of Fubini's theorem, and for introducing semicontinuity methods as a common tool for the direct method in the calculus of variations.
Contents
- How to pronounce leonida tonelli italian italy pronouncenames com
- Education
- Work
- Selected publications
- References
Education
Tonelli graduated from the University of Bologna in 1907.
Work
He is one of the founders of Modern Theory of Functions of Real Variables and his work on the Calculus of Variations is a milestone in analysis.
The present writer's father, W. H. Young, used to recall that this very question — what principle can we use as the foundation of the calculus of variations — had been put him by a young Italian mathematician. His reply was a question: "Can you use semicontinuity?" The young Italian was Leonida Tonelli. Semicontinuity was then still a recent concept, known only to a few. In the hands of Tonelli, it became an important tool in a fundamental new approach to the calculus of variations.