Mimmo Iannelli (Rome, 1946) graduated with a degree in Physics in 1968, he was a CNR researcher at the Institute for Computational Applications in Rome, and later a professor in Rome and Trento. His scientific work focuses on evolution equations and has long been oriented towards the analysis of mathematical models in population theory.

He has participated in various research projects funded by the MIUR and CNR. In particular, he was the national coordinator of the CNR Strategic Project “Mathematical Methods and Models in the Study of Biological Phenomena” (1998–2000), national coordinator of the PRIN project “Mathematical Population Theory: methods, models, comparison with data” (2007), and coordinator of the EPICO project “Epidemics description and control” (2004–2008) funded by the Autonomous Province of Trento.

He has organised schools and conferences, including “Mathematics of Biology” (Cortona 1979), “Mathematical Problems in Environmental Protection and Ecology” (Trento 1991), “Evolution Equation 2000: applications to physics, industry, life sciences and economy” (Trento 2000), “Mathematical Methods and Models in the Study of Biological Phenomena” (Rome 2001), “International Conference on Computational and Mathematical Population Dynamics” (Trento 2004).

He has been a visiting professor at Harvey Mudd College (Claremont, California), the University of Texas at Arlington, Purdue University, Arizona State University, University of Bordeaux II and the CRM centre in Barcelona.

He is the author of various publications on evolution equations and mathematical models in ecology and epidemiology. In particular, the books “Mathematical theory of age-structured population dynamics” (Giardini, Pisa 1995), “Gender-structured population modelling: mathematical methods, numerics and simulations” (SIAM 2005, with M. Martcheva and F. Milner), “An Introduction to Mathematical Biology” (Springer 2014, with A. Pugliese), and “The basic approach to age-structured population dynamics” (Springer 2017, with F. Milner).

Athanase Papadopoulos is Director of Research at the Institut de Recherche Mathématique Avancée and at the Centre de Recherche et Expérimentation sur l'Acte Artistique in Strasbourg. His main field of research is topology and geometry, and he has also published on the history and philosophy of mathematics, music theory, and the relationship between mathematics and art.

He has taught at various universities around the world, including Brown University, the City University of New York, the University of Southern California, Banaras Hindu University, Tsinghua University in Beijing and others, and has been a research fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, the Max Planck Institute in Bonn, the Erwin Schrödinger Institute in Vienna, the Tata Institute in Mumbai and several other institutions worldwide.

He is the author of over 200 articles and 40 monographs and edited volumes, mainly on mathematics, but also on history, philosophy and music theory.

Frédéric Patras, mathematician and philosopher, is Research Director at the CNRS at the University of Côte d’Azur in Nice. His work focuses on algebra and its various applications, as well as the philosophy of mathematics, within which he has been particularly interested in structuralism and phenomenology.

He has published, in Italian, Il pensiero matematico contemporaneo (Bollati Boringhieri, 2006, paperback edition 2017), and La Possibilité des nombres/The Essence of Numbers (2014, 2020) and, with P. Cartier, Classical Hopf Algebras (2021).

Paolo Zellini is an Italian mathematician and essayist, one of the most original voices in contemporary thinking on the meaning of mathematics. Born in Rome in 1946 and graduating in Mathematics at the Università di Roma La Sapienza, he has carried out research in various Italian and international locations, including Rome, Pisa and the United States. During his career, he has taught at the Universities of Pisa, Udine and finally Rome Tor Vergata, where he is now emeritus professor of numerical analysis.

His scientific contributions concern numerical linear algebra, matrix theory, algorithm complexity and numerical optimisation. Alongside these interests, he has carried out in-depth reflection on the very meaning of mathematical research, placing it in a broader historical and philosophical perspective, attentive to the evolution of ideas.

In his best-known essays, such as Brief History of Infinity and The Mathematics of the Gods and the Algorithms of Men, Zellini has investigated the evolution of mathematical thinking through the concept of infinity and the notion of number, approaching these issues with a perspective that spans not only the history of mathematics but the history of thinking as a whole, even outside the western tradition. In this intellectual path, he recognised the decisive influence of the work of Elémire Zolla.

He is one of the founders of an interdepartmental centre for the study of ancient thinking at the Università di Roma Tor Vergata and regularly collaborates with the cultural pages of various national newspapers. His work combines scientific rigour and philosophical depth in a continuous dialogue between science and humanistic tradition.

Formerly Professor of Higher Geometry at “Tor Vergata” University, Ciro Ciliberto was born in Naples on 14 October 1950. He graduated in Mathematics from the University of Naples in 1973. Assistant Professor at the University of Naples from 1974 to 1980. Professor of Mathematics at the University of Naples from 1977 to 1978 and of Algebraic Geometry from 1978 to 1980. Extraordinary Professor of Higher Mathematics at the University of Lecce in 1980-1981. Subsequently, he was first extraordinary then full professor of Algebraic Geometry at the University of Naples from 1981 to 1985. Then Professor of Superior Geometry at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. Deputy President of the National Institute of High Mathematics “Francesco Severi” in the years 1990-1995 and member of the Scientific Commission of the same Institute from 1995 to 1999. Director of the Doctorate School in Mathematics at the University of Rome Tor Vergata in the years 1990-1994, and subsequently member of the Scientific Committee of that School. Detached Professor at the "Inter-disciplinary Centre B. Segre" of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in the years 1993-1996. President of the Italian Mathematical Union from 2012 to 2018. Member of the Meetings Committee of the European Mathematical Society since 2013 and President of the aforementioned committee since 2018. Member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, the Accademia delle Scienze Fisiche e Matematiche in Naples and the Accademia Gioenia in Catania. Website: https://www.mat.uniroma2.it/~cilibert/

Ciliberto is the author of more than 200 scientific publications. His main area of interest is Algebraic Geometry and the history of the discipline. His main research topics are: projective curves; algebraic surfaces; degeneracy techniques and their applications: families of nodal curves, Noether-Lefschetz theory, extensionality problems, Gauss maps, classification of Fano varieties, linear systems of plane curves and nodal curves on K3 surfaces, obstructions to degeneracy; abelian varieties, curves and their moduli spaces; projective-differential geometry of special varieties, focal properties, secant-defective varieties.

Alessandra Caraceni is currently a Type B Fixed-Term Researcher (RTdB) at the Scuola Normale Superiore, where she has been working since 2021. Previously, she held the position of INdAM researcher at the same institution, consolidating her commitment to high-level research.

Alessandra’s academic career is characterised by a continuous deepening of her mathematical skills. After obtaining her PhD at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa in 2015 with first-class honours, she went on to undertake prestigious international research experiences. Between 2019 and 2021, she was a Florence Nightingale Fellow at the University of Oxford and Lady Margaret Hall.

Previously, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bath (2016–2019) and held teaching and research positions at Université Paris-Sud – Orsay, both on a full-time (2015–2016) and part-time (2014–2015).

Alessandra attended the Ordinary Course in the Science Class at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa and completed both her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Mathematics with honors at the University of Pisa.

In addition to research, Alessandra is actively involved in the promotion and education of mathematics. Since 2014, she has been a member of the ‘Olympic Commission’, the Italian national committee for the Maths Olympics. In this context, she regularly gives lectures and seminars aimed to high school students and teachers, covering topics related to teaching and maths competitions.

Her passion for learning and knowledge is also reflected in the field of art: in 2004, she obtained the diploma of “Compimento Medio” in Cello at the Luigi Boccherini Music Institute in Lucca.

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.