Luciano Orlando (13 May 1887, Caronia, Messina – 21 August 1915, Isonzo) was an Italian mathematician and military engineer.[1][2]

Biography

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Orlando received in 1903 his laurea from the University of Messina, where he was a student of Bagnera and Marcolongo. After a year of graduate study at the University of Pisa, he became an assistant and libero docente at the University of Messina. After the 1908 Messina earthquake, he moved to Rome, where he taught at the Istituto superiore di Magistero and at the Aeronautical School of Engineering of the Sapienza University of Rome. He took part in some university competitions but was unsuccessful and when, in 1915, he went into military action, some of his friends warned him that they thought his courage might quickly lead to his death. He died as Captain of Military Engineers, leading an action of his company of demolition specialists against the bridge of St. Daniel near Tolmin.[1] (Half of the entire Italian WW I casualties occurred in the Battles of the Isonzo.)

He was an Invited Speaker of the ICM in 1908 in Rome.[3][4]

Orlando's most important publications deal with mathematical physics, especially the theory of elasticity and the theory of integral equations. He was one of the first to recognize the importance of Pincherle-Goursat kernels, which are an important special case of Fredholm kernels. Also noteworthy is some of Orlando's algebraic research, inspired by his teacher Bagnera.[1]

He was the father of the journalist, writer and politician Ruggero Orlando.[5]

Selected publications

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References

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  1. ^ a b c "Luciano Orlando (1887 – 1915)". Edizione Nazionale Mathematica Italiana, mathematica.sns.it.
  2. ^ Aubin, David; Goldstein, Catherine, eds. (2014). The War of Guns and Mathematics: Mathematical Practices and Communities in France and its Western Allies around World War I. History of Mathematics, Vol 42. American Mathematical Society. pp. 18–19. ISBN 978-1-4704-1469-6; pbk; xviii+391 pp.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  3. ^ Orlando, L. "Sulla risoluzione delle equazioni integrali". Atti del IV Congresso internazionale dei matematici (Roma, 6–11 Aprile 1908). Vol. 2. pp. 122–128.
  4. ^ Orlando (Rome): Sulla risoluzione delle equazioni integrali.  "The author showed a method of solving integral equations with a polynomial nucleus and by means of the method of successive approximations passed to the general case. He also considered equations which contain the derivative of the unknown function." from p. 14 of: Moore, C. L. E. (October 1908). "The fourth international Congress of Mathematicians: sectional meetings". Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 15: 8–43. doi:10.1090/S0002-9904-1908-01685-9.
  5. ^ Mauro Forno (2013). "Orlando, Ruggero". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 79. Treccani.