history

The Scuola Matematica Interuniversitaria (SMI) started its activities thirty five years ago. The aim of the School is to provide young researchers with a basic training in Mathematics and its applications in various sectors, including Physics, Computer Science, Economics and Finance, Engineering. In pursuit of this aim, the School organises post-graduate courses addressed to young graduate students, both from Italy and from abroad, and prepares them for attendance to Ph.D. courses, Dottorati di ricerca in Italy, post-graduate Schools and research activities in general.
Almost one hundred professors from Italian and foreign universities, selected among those who have most actively taken part in the School activities, are currently members of SMI. The School activities are planned by the Board of Directors. At present the Board of Directors is formed by the following elected members: L. De Michele (University of Milano-Bicocca, Chief Director), S. Salsa (Polytechnic School of Milan), G. Gentili (University of Florence), G. Monegato (Polytechnic School of Turin), G. Ottaviani (University of Florence).
For thirty years SMI has yearly organised basic, post-graduate Summer Courses in Mathematics at the Department of Mathematics of the University of Perugia, and Advanced Courses in Cortona, at the Palazzone of the Scuola Normale Superiore.

The Summer Courses in Perugia, addressed to young graduate or senior students interested in research, are held from the last week of July to the end of August, over a period of five weeks. In Perugia, SMI yearly offers a choice of basic courses consisting of twenty-five hours of lessons and fifteen hours problem-solving sessions. Regular attendance to two of the courses is compulsory; students are required to take part in the discussion of problems and undertake written examinations. At the end of the courses they are given a final evaluation.
The courses in Cortona are addressed to students who have already been introduced to research. As a rule, every summer SMI offers a choice of four courses, each of them lasts two or three weeks and consists of two sessions of six hours of lessons per week each, problem-solving sessions and seminars; classes in each of the two sessions are held by two different lecturers.

Both in Perugia and in Cortona the teaching staff is composed by internationally well-known experts; most of them are foreign university professors, with whom the students often establish lasting, deep and fruitful scientific relations.
Italian participants are chosen among the best graduate students of Italian universities. A good number of high-qualified foreign students is admitted to courses, both in Perugia and in Cortona.

All the costs of the School activities, including organisation and operating expenses, lecturers' remuneration, costs of logistic, administrative expenses and so on are completely covered by the School. In the last years, the annual cost of the courses organised by SMI has amounted to about 300.000 euro; SMI's Balance Sheet is published yearly in the Notiziario dell'Unione Matematica Italiana.
All the activity of the Scuola Matematica Interuniversitaria has been made possible up to now by the financial support of the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR), the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Istituto Nazionale di Alta Matematica (INdAM) and the Consorzio Interuniversitario per l'Alta Fomazione Matematica (CIAFM), the European Mathematical Society (EMS), the Fondazione della Cassa di risparmio delle Province Lombarde (CARIPLO), Cassa di Risparmio di Perugia (CRPG).

1997