Enrico Bombieri

Background

Enrico Bombieri was born on November 26, 1940, in Milan, Italy. He developed an early interest in mathematics and published mathematical work while still young. His formative studies in Milan connected him with Giovanni Ricci, whose number-theoretic influence shaped Bombieri's early research.

Bombieri later spent part of his training at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied number theory with Harold Davenport. The Cambridge period placed his work within the English analytic-number-theory tradition and broadened the international setting of his mathematical education.

Education

Bombieri studied mathematics at the University of Milan under Giovanni Ricci and received his doctorate in 1963. The University of Milan, founded in 1924, was one of Italy's major public universities and provided the institutional setting for his early mathematical formation.

In 1963–1964 he continued his studies at Trinity College, Cambridge, working with Harold Davenport. Founded in 1546, Trinity was one of the University of Cambridge's principal colleges and had a distinguished tradition in mathematical research. Bombieri's Cambridge work extended his preparation in number theory before his return to Italy.

Career

Bombieri began his academic career at the University of Cagliari, where he was an assistant professor from 1963 to 1965 and a professor of mathematics from 1965 to 1966. The university, founded in 1606 and reorganized as a modern state university in the twentieth century, was part of Italy's expanding postwar higher-education system.

In 1966 he moved to the University of Pisa, serving as a professor of mathematics until 1974. Pisa had a long mathematical tradition and was an important center of Italian research in analysis and geometry. Bombieri's work during this period covered analytic number theory, complex analysis, algebraic geometry, and partial differential equations.

Bombieri joined the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa in 1974 and remained there until 1977. Founded in 1810 on the model of the École normale supérieure, the institution combined advanced university study with intensive research training. In 1974, he received the Fields Medal at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Vancouver for contributions to prime-number theory, univalent functions and the local Bieberbach conjecture, functions of several complex variables, and partial differential equations and minimal surfaces.

In 1977 Bombieri joined the School of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. The Institute, founded in 1930 as an independent center for fundamental research, brought together scholars working without the routine teaching obligations of a conventional university. Bombieri served as a professor from 1977 to 2011, became IBM von Neumann Professor in 1984, and has been professor emeritus since 2011.

His research includes the large sieve and its application to the distribution of prime numbers, the Bombieri–Vinogradov theorem, Diophantine approximation and geometry, algebraic geometry, complex analysis, finite groups, and minimal surfaces. With Ennio De Giorgi and Enrico Giusti, he contributed to the resolution of the Bernstein problem in higher dimensions, showing the change in behavior of entire minimal graphs beyond dimension seven.

Achievements

• Bombieri made fundamental contributions to analytic number theory, especially the large sieve and its application to the distribution of prime numbers, including work associated with the Bombieri–Vinogradov theorem.

• With Ennio De Giorgi and Enrico Giusti, Bombieri contributed to the resolution of Bernstein's problem for minimal graphs in higher dimensions, a result that clarified the dimensional threshold at which nonplanar entire minimal surfaces occur.

• His research extended across Diophantine approximation, algebraic geometry, complex analysis, finite groups, partial differential equations, and minimal-surface theory.

Works

More photos

• monograph

  • Heights in Diophantine Geometry

    (Co-authored with Walter Gubler. This monograph develops t...)

    2006

Membership

Bombieri has been associated with major scientific academies and learned societies, including the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, the Accademia Nazionale dei XL, the Academia Europaea, the Académie des Sciences of the Institut de France, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. These institutions recognize significant contributions to science and provide national and international forums for scholarly exchange.

• Member

  Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei , Italy

• Member

  Accademia Nazionale dei XL , Italy

• Member

  Academia Europaea , United Kingdom

  1995 - present

• Member

  Académie des Sciences, Institut de France , France

• Member

  American Academy of Arts and Sciences , United States

  1979 - present

• Member

  National Academy of Sciences , United States

  1996 - present

• Member

  Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences , Sweden

Connections

Bombieri married Susan Russell on January 21, 1967. They have one child, Donata Bombieri.

Father:

Carlo Bombieri

Mother:

Luisa (Cambi) Bombieri

child:

Donata Bombieri

Wife:

Susan Russell

Married Enrico Bombieri on January 21, 1967.

References

• Institute for Advanced Study: Enrico Bombieri Institutional profile documenting Bombieri's research areas, appointments, degrees, honors, memberships, and emeritus status.
• International Mathematical Union: Fields Medals 1974 Official account of Bombieri's Fields Medal and the mathematical contributions recognized by the award.
  1974
• Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei: Enrico Bombieri Academy profile documenting Bombieri's association with the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei.
• Enrico Bombieri: 1980 Balzan Prize for Mathematics Balzan Foundation profile documenting Bombieri's prize and mathematical career.
  1980
• American Academy of Arts and Sciences: Enrico Bombieri Academy profile identifying Bombieri as a mathematician and educator elected in 1979.