Maria Cibrario facts for kids

Elisa Maria Eugenia Cibrario Cinquini (born September 6, 1905, died May 16, 1992) was a brilliant Italian mathematician. She was famous for her work on special types of math problems called partial differential equations. She also worked with other important mathematicians like Guido Fubini, Giuseppe Peano, and Francesco Tricomi.

Her Life and Career

Growing Up and School

Maria Cibrario was born in Genoa, Italy, on September 6, 1905. She went to school in Lodi, Lombardy. In 1923, she started studying science and math at the University of Turin.

There, she learned from a famous mathematician named Guido Fubini. She finished her studies and graduated in 1927. After graduating, she became an assistant to another great mathematician, Giuseppe Peano. He helped her become a high school teacher in 1927.

Peano passed away in 1932. That same year, Maria became a lecturer. She then started working with Francesco Tricomi, another important mathematician.

Later Life and Work

In 1938, Maria married a mathematician named Silvio Cinquini [it]. They had three children together. Soon after they got married, both Maria and Silvio started teaching at the University of Pavia.

In 1947, Maria won a special competition. This allowed her to become a professor of mathematical analysis at the University of Cagliari. Later, she moved to the University of Modena. In 1950, she returned to Pavia as a full professor. She retired in 1980 as a professor emerita, which means she was still honored for her long service.

Maria Cibrario Cinquini passed away on May 16, 1992, in Pavia.

Her Math Research

Maria Cibrario's first big project in 1927 was about Laplace transforms. She used them to study certain math problems called parabolic partial differential equations.

From then until the early 1940s, she focused on a type of math problem called "mixed elliptic–hyperbolic partial differential equations." She found that earlier work by Tricomi in this area was not complete. So, she created a full way to sort these equations. She also found the best ways to solve each type.

This work later became very important for understanding how transonic aircraft fly. These are planes that fly near the speed of sound. A special math problem, the Cibrario–Cinquini equation, is named after her because of this important work.

Later in her career, she studied other complex math problems. These included non-linear differential equations and systems of hyperbolic equations. She even solved old problems that famous mathematicians like Édouard Goursat and Augustin-Louis Cauchy had worked on.

Awards and Honors

Maria Cibrario received many awards for her amazing work. In 1929, she won the Corrado Segre prize for her early research. In 1933, she won a prize for young researchers from the Accademia dei Lincei.

She joined the Istituto Lombardo Accademia di Scienze e Lettere in 1951. She became a full member in 1967. In 1968, she also became a member of the Academy of Sciences of Turin [it]. After she retired in 1981, she was chosen as a special member of the Accademia dei Lincei.