Gino Fano

Gino Fano (5 January 18718 November 1952) was an Italian mathematician, best known as the founder of finite geometry. He was born to a wealthy Jewish family in Mantua, in Italy and died in Verona, also in Italy.

Fano made various contributions to projective and algebraic geometry. His work in the foundations of geometry predates the similar, but more popular, work of David Hilbert by about a decade.

He was the father of physicist Ugo Fano and electrical engineer Robert Fano and uncle to physicist and mathematician Giulio Racah.

Mathematical work Fano was an early writer in the area of finite projective spaces. In his article on proving the independence of his set of axioms for projective n-space, among other things, he considered the consequences of having a fourth harmonic point be equal to its conjugate. This leads to a configuration of seven points and seven lines contained in a finite three-dimensional space with 15 points, 35 lines and 15 planes, in which each line contained only three points.

World War II

Fano lost his university position in Italy in November 1938 due to the Racial Laws promulgated by Mussolini's government. He moved to Lausanne in Switzerland and remained there until 1945; though he gave some lectures during this period, he did not hold a formal university position in Switzerland.