Agnes Scott College

Maria Cinquini-Cibrario

September 6, 1905 - May 16, 1992


Maria Cibrario was born in Genova, Italy on September 6, 1905. She graduated in 1927 from the University of Turin, Italy, in the field of mathematics and became an Assistant Teacher of mathematics in 1928, then Analysis Teacher in 1932, first in Turin and later in Pavia. She married Silvio Cinquini in 1938, also a University Professor of Mathematics, and had three children: Giuseppe, Vittoria and Carlo. She became Professor of Mathematical Analysis in 1947 and taught first in Cagliari, then in Modena and back in Pavia from 1950 on. She published about 100 original papers in partial differential equations and related fields. Lynn Osen writes about her work in mathematics:

Her work and research have helped to achieve the classification of linear partial differential equations of the second order of mixed type (including for many of these existence and uniqueness theorems). She has also researched nonlinear hyperbolic equations and systems of such equations, and she is credited with solving the Coursat problem for the hyperbolic nonlinear equation of the second order. Her work in these branches of analysis has gone far beyond that of her predecessor in this field, Sofia Kovalevsky.

Maria Cinquini-Cibrario died in Pavia, Italy on May 16, 1992.

References

  1. Personal correspondence from Giulio Grecchi
  2. Kramer, E.E. "Six more Female Mathematicians," Scripta Mathematica 23(1957).
  3. Osen, Lynn M. Women in Mathematics, MIT Press, 1974, p159.
  4. MathSciNet [subscription required]
  5. Author Profile at zbMath