L’attività di Fabio Conforto all’INAC

Research in the field of “applied mathematics” represented one of the aims of the Istituto Nazionale per le Applicazioni del Calcolo (INAC), founded by Mauro Picone in Naples in 1927 and subsequently transferred to Rome at the C.N.R. The Institute aspired to “establish itself as one of the most effective driving forces of scientific research not only in the field of applications of mathematics to the various experimental sciences and to technology, but also in that of pure mathematics”. Some of the most brilliant Italian mathematicians collaborated to the Institute. The year 1933 marked the beginning of an intense and fruitful collaboration between Fabio Conforto (1909-1954) and the Institute, a collaboration that would last for many years, during which Conforto made important contributions in the field of applied mathematics. Conforto’s research addresses concrete problems brought to the examination of mathematical analysis by many fields of technology: from applications in the field of aeronautical construction or building science to those about optics or problems of elasticity. In this work we want to present Conforto’s research activity at INAC between the thirties and the forties of the 20th century. Conforto’s works about applied mathematics, while presenting an undoubted theoretical value, also reached important practical contributions, confirming the close connection between technology and pure science.