Senator Vito Volterra, famous mathematician and physicist and one of the few Jews to serve as member of the Papal Academy, died Friday morning of heart failure. He was 80 years old. Funeral services were held today.
Prof. Volterra was president of the International Committee of Weights and Measures and former president of the Accademia dei Lincei, the National Research Council and other scholarly bodies. He had been at odds with the Fascist regime for several years because of his refusal to take an oath imposed on Italian scholars by the Government. As a result of this refusal he was ousted from his chair at Rome University and his other Government posts. However, he was soon afterward invited to join the Papal Academy. Although a Senator, Prof. Volterra had not entered the Senate chamber for many years. He was active in affairs of the Rome Jewish community.
Volterra was born in Ancona, In 1883, at the age of 23, he became Professor of Mechanics at Pisa University. In 1893 he went to Turin University and in 1900 became Professor of Physics at Rome University. In addition to pure mathematics, he wrote extensively on theoretical physics and astronomical geography.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
