Please don’t Delete: Maths Dialogues
A cycle of meetings to talk about moments in the history of mathematics and aspects of its method. With a style that is not necessarily technical, the aim is to highlight the cultural, aesthetic, creative, playful and didactic value of hypothetical-deductive thinking and the actuality of the landscapes it is able to draw.
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Last Meeting
On 09/06/26, the 11th meeting of the cycle Please don’t Delete: Maths Dialogues was held with Prof. Alberto COGLIATI as speaker.
Title: Bernhard Riemann, a duecento anni dalla nascita
Abstract: Bernhard Riemann was certainly one of the most influential mathematicians in history. The audacity of his insights, the fruitfulness of his methods and the breadth of his interests make him one of the principal architects of contemporary mathematics. A mathematician of universal vocation, Riemann was among the last to master with equal depth the most different fields of the discipline, such as geometry, analysis, mathematical physics and number theory.
The extraordinary power of his thought is, however, set against a life marked by personal fragility - precarious health, anxiety, and hesitation in self-expression - which limited the immediate dissemination of his ideas. Recognition of the scale of his contribution was largely posthumous, even though it proved decisive for the subsequent developments of mathematics and modern physics.
In a mix of human story and scientific research, two hundred years after his birth, this talk aims to outline the scientific biography of one of the most original and profound minds in modern science.
The meeting will be held in Room U4-01 (U4 Building | Piazza della Scienza 4, Milano) and will be introduced by Prof. Gianmario Tessitore, Director of the Department.
The video of the meeting will be published shortly
Alberto Cogliati is a full professor of the History of Mathematics at the Department of Mathematics, University of Padova. His main field of research concerns the history of geometry, and in particular the history of differential geometry between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. His recent publications include: Non-Euclidean Geometry: A Brief History from Antiquity to Poincaré, Carocci, 2024. He is currently working on a new annotated edition of Gauss’s Disquisitiones generales circa superficies, for the Classic Texts in the Sciences series.