Dionigi Galletto

Dionigi Galletto (26 January 1932 – 25 September 2011) was an Italian mathematician and academician.

He is known for his work on rigid body mechanics, on the mathematical theory of elasticity (including both linear elasticity and finite strain theory), on the history of mathematics and on cosmology and extragalactic celestial mechanics: in particular he is considered one of the founders of the latter branch of cosmology.

He was professor of mathematical physics at the University of Turin: as such, he is considered to be the founder–reorganiser of the Mathematical physics school of Turin in the Post–Second World War period. Among his students was Mauro Francaviglia.

Biography

He started his university studies in Rome as a student of Severi: however his studies were interrupted due to the military service, which led him to Padua. There he graduated with honours in 1960 under Giuseppe Grioli's guidance, with a thesis on the continuum theory with asymmetric stress: from 1961 to 1968 he worked in Padua as an associate professor, holding also courses on differential geometry as a lecturer.

In 1968, having won a competitive examination for a chair in rational mechanics, he was appointed extraordinary professor of rational mechanics at the University of Palermo: there, Galletto held also courses of mathematical methods for physicists as a lecturer. in 1971 he became full professor of mathematical physics, a position he held up to 2007, when he retired. Besides the course of mathematical physics, Galletto held various courses relating to the area of his scientific interest: for example he held courses on astronomy as a lecturer.

In 1979 he was elected corresponding member of the Accademia Nazionale di Scienze, Lettere e Arti di Modena: and few months later, on 7 March 2007, he was elected corresponding non resident member to the class of mathematical sciences of the Società Nazionale di Scienze Lettere e Arti in Napoli.

Work

Research activity During his career, he published more than 150 papers in Italian and international journals. The beginning of his scientific production was under Grioli's scientific influence: Galletto worked on the topic of his laurea thesis, i.e. on the theory of continua having asymmetric stress characteristics. However, soon he followed his independent research path, with pioneering works that forerun the so called generalised continuum theory. In this theory, among other things, the stress tensor considered is no longer the Cauchy tensor or any similar, double symmetric tensor, but an asymmetric tensor that generalizes it: and this gives to the theory many further important structural peculiarities.

Selected publications

Research works . . . A continuation of the work , with the same title. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . "Universe models and light propagation" (English translation of the title).

Biographical, commemorative and historical works . "Einstein's thought in the work of Guido Fubini and Francesco Severi" (English translation of the title). . , available from the Accademia delle Scienze di Torino. A commemoration of Gaetano Fichera. . .