Carlo Fornasini

Cavaliere dottore Carlo Fornasini (3 November 185424 December 1931) was an Italian micropalaeontologist who specialised in Foraminifera ('forams'). He was a pioneer in using fossil forams to sequence marine sedimentary deposits by their relative dates; a technique called biostratigraphy.

Biography He was the third son of Francesco Fornasini, a medical doctor, and his wife Carlotta .

He studied natural sciences at the University of Bologna, under the guidance of Giovanni Capellini (1833-1922), the Professor of Geology there. In 1877, he graduated with honours as dottore (in effect, PhD), on the basis of a thesis which argued from the sequence of the fossil record that certain chalks, marls and clays in the Savena valley near Bologna dated from the Pliocene (5.3-2.6 Ma) rather than, as had previously been thought (including by Capellini), from the Miocene (23.0-5.3 Ma). That same year, Capellini published a paper about this discovery which relegated Fornasini's contribution to that of an assistant and which passed off Fornasini's conclusions as his own. That sort of behaviour has become unacceptable. In 1928, Michele Gortani (1883-1966), who had succeeded Capellini as Professor of Geology, wrote that "the Master had deprived his most promising student, Carlo Fornasini, of the pleasure and pride of announcing his discovery [...] and the results of his studies" . Furthermore, Capellini may not have properly understood Fornasini's ideas. This affair may explain why Fornasini published nothing for the next four years. which settled important international questions of nomenclature, standardisation and cooperation. When the was founded in Bologna during the Congress, under the leadership of Giuseppe Meneghini (1811-1889) and Capellini, he was one of the original members. He remained a member until at least 1922, and between 1883 and 1903 served several times as deputy secretary and as a member of its council. In 1900 he joined the of Acireale, Sicily as a corresponding member. Poor health forced him to give up his scientific work by 1911.

He is commemorated by a bronze plaque in the Museo Geologico. Memorie della Reale Accademia delle Scienze dell'Istituto di Bologna (1889-1908), and Rivista italiana di paleontologia (1896-1903). Some of those species have been reclassified into other genera. That is a commonplace occurrence in biology, if a later researcher either revises a genus, or describes a new genus and moves that species into it. However, the fact that Fornasini is still credited as taxonomic authority for 77 of those 78 species shows that he was a careful, accurate and knowledgeable observer.

Eponyms The WoRMS database lists 18 species of Foraminifera whose specific epithet includes 'fornasini', all described between 1893 and 1948. They were most likely named in honour of Carlo Fornasini, but it would be necessary to consult the original descriptions to be certain.

Fondazione Dott. Carlo Fornasini In 1964, his son Carlo Francesco donated land and money in his will to set up in his father's memory the Fondazione Dott. Carlo Fornasini at Poggio Renatico. Its original aim was to encourage research into human organ transplantation, later expanded to the more general topic of social and human sciences, with particular regard to ethics and bioethics.