Carlo Emilio Bonferroni (28 January 1892 – 18 August 1960) was an Italian

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

who worked on

probability theory Probability theory is the branch of mathematics concerned with probability. Although there are several different probability interpretations, probability theory treats the concept in a rigorous mathematical manner by expressing it through a set ...

Biography

Bonferroni studied piano and conducting in Turin Conservatory and at

University of Turin The University of Turin (Italian language, Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Torino'', UNITO) is a public university, public research university in the city of Turin, in the Piedmont (Italy), Piedmont region of Italy. It is one of the List ...

under

Giuseppe Peano Giuseppe Peano (; ; 27 August 1858 – 20 April 1932) was an Italian mathematician and glottologist. The author of over 200 books and papers, he was a founder of mathematical logic and set theory, to which he contributed much notation. The sta ...

and

Corrado Segre Corrado Segre (20 August 1863 – 18 May 1924) was an Italian mathematician who is remembered today as a major contributor to the early development of algebraic geometry. Early life Corrado's parents were Abramo Segre and Estella De Ben ...

, where he obtained his

laurea In Italy, the ''laurea'' is the main post-secondary academic degree. The name originally referred literally to the laurel wreath, since ancient times a sign of honor and now worn by Italian students right after their official graduation ceremony ...

. During this time he also studied at

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hist ...

and ETH Zurich. During World War I, he was an officer among the engineers. Bonferroni held a position as assistant professor at the

Polytechnic University of Turin The Polytechnic University of Turin ( it, Politecnico di Torino) is the oldest Italian public technical university. The university offers several courses in the fields of Engineering, Architecture, Urban Planning and Industrial Design, and is con ...

, and in 1923 took up the chair of financial mathematics at the Economics Institute of the

University of Bari The University of Bari Aldo Moro ( it, Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro) is a state-supported higher education institution founded in 1925 in Bari, Apulia, in Southern Italy. The university is one of the most prestigious universities in ...

. In 1933 he transferred to

University of Florence The University of Florence (Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Firenze'', UniFI) is an Italian public research university located in Florence, Italy. It comprises 12 schools and has around 50,000 students enrolled. History The first universi ...

, where he held his chair until his death. Bonferroni is best known for the

Bonferroni inequalities In probability theory, Boole's inequality, also known as the union bound, says that for any finite or countable set of events, the probability that at least one of the events happens is no greater than the sum of the probabilities of the individu ...

(a generalization of the union bound), and for the

Bonferroni correction In statistics, the Bonferroni correction is a method to counteract the multiple comparisons problem. Background The method is named for its use of the Bonferroni inequalities. An extension of the method to confidence intervals was proposed by Ol ...

in statistics (which he did not invent, but which is related to the Bonferroni inequalities).

Biography

See also

References

Further reading