Francesco Brioschi

Who was Francesco Brioschi?

Francesco Brioschi was an Italian mathematician.

Brioschi was born in Milan in 1824. From 1850 he taught analytical mechanics in the University of Pavia. After the Italian unification in 1861, he was elected depute in the Parliament of Italy and then appointed twice secretary of the Education Minister. In 1863 he founded the Politecnico di Milano university, where he worked until his death; here, he taught mainly hydraulics, but sometimes he lectured in analytical mechanics and construction engineering, too. In 1865 he entered in the Senate of the Kingdom. In 1870 he became a member of the Accademia dei lincei and in 1884 he succeeded Quintino Sella as president of the National Academy of the Lincei. He directed the Il Politecnico review and, between 1867 and 1877, Annali di matematica pura e applicata. He died in Milan in 1897.

As mathematician, Brioschi publicized in Italy various algebraic theories and studied the problem of solving fifth and sixth degree equations using elliptic functions. Brioschi is also remembered as a distinguished teacher: among his students in the University of Pavia there were Eugenio Beltrami, Luigi Cremona and Felice Casorati.