Felice Casorati

Felice Casorati (1835–1890), an Italian mathematician. The son of a physiologist at the University of Pavia, he studied engineering and architecture there. In 1858, he undertook a scientific journey to Göttingen and Paris with Brioschi and Betti, which enabled him to meet the leading European mathematicians—notably Riemann and Weierstrass—and played a decisive role in the revival of Italian mathematical research. Appointed professor at the University of Pavia, he succeeded Mainardi there in the chair of infinitesimal calculus and also taught algebra, analytic geometry, geodesy and analysis. His work focused mainly on complex analysis: he wrote a foundational treatise, Teoria delle funzioni di variabili complesse (1868), which contains the result known as the Weierstrass-Casorati theorem. He maintained extensive correspondence with Beltrami, Hermite and Weierstrass, and received several scientific honours.