Gaetano Pietra (10 August 1879, in

Castiglione delle Stiviere Castiglione delle Stiviere ( Upper Mantovano: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Mantua, in Lombardy, Italy, northwest of Mantua by road. History The town's castle was home to a cadet branch of the House of Gonzaga, headed by the M ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

– 1961, in Villanova dello Iudrio,

Udine Udine ( , ; fur, Udin; la, Utinum) is a city and ''comune'' in north-eastern Italy, in the middle of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic Sea and the Alps (''Alpi Carniche''). Its population was 100,514 in 2012, 176,000 with t ...

, Italy) was an Italian

statistician A statistician is a person who works with theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private and public sectors. It is common to combine statistical knowledge with expertise in other subjects, and statisticians may wor ...

Life and career

Gaetano Pietra was a professor at the

University of Ferrara The University of Ferrara ( it, Università degli Studi di Ferrara) is the main university of the city of Ferrara in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. In the years prior to the First World War the University of Ferrara, with more than 5 ...

. In 1927, he founded and directed the School of Statistics of the

University of Padua The University of Padua ( it, Università degli Studi di Padova, UNIPD) is an Italian university located in the city of Padua, region of Veneto, northern Italy. The University of Padua was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from B ...

. He was formerly the director of the Institute of Statistics in the Superior School of Commerce in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

as well as a member of the Superior Council for Statistics. He defined statistical training as “the formation of a mental habitus suitable to quantitive analysis and the analysis of mass problems” and left no doubt as to his view of the hierarchy among the kinds of knowledge that were required for the administration of the state, since “in a structured economic system, economic theory as well as economic policy resolve themselves into economic statistics." Gaetano Pietra also played an important role in the organization of supplies during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

before dedicating himself to scientific statistics, held an official position (as president of the political sciences and law faculties at the University of Padua) until the regime’s fall in July 1943. In April 1945, he was appointed vice-commissar, and from January 1946, president of Udine’s Chamber of Commerce, Industry, and Agriculture. He was also elected to the Senate for the Demo Christian party in 1948-1953. He founded the Italian Statistical Society and he was its president.

Research Interests

Variability and concentration measures, concordance between cyclical series.

Education

Degree in Law, University of Padua.

Academic Positions

Full professor of statistics at the University of Padua and Ferrara (up to 1949), member of the Istituto interno di Statistica, member of the Istituto veneto di scienze lettere ed arti. Founder and president of the Italian Statistical Society.

Honours and awards

President of Udine’s Chamber of Commerce, Industry, and Agriculture. Senator for the Demo Christian party in 1948-1953. Emeritus Professor at the University of Padua.

Known for

He provided important and original contributions to the relationships between variability and concentration, and concordance between cyclical series.

Publications

* Sulla misura della concentrazione e della variabilità dei caratteri, Roma, (1914); * Sulla teoria della variabilità delle serie statistiche, Roma, (1915); * Appunti intorno alla misura della variabilità e della concentrazione dei caratteri, Roma, (1915); * The theory of statistical relation with special reference to cyclical series, Roma, (1925); * Dell’interpretazione parabolica nel caso in cui entrambi I valori delle variabili sono affetti da errori accidentali, Roma, (1932); * Lezioni di statistica, Padova, (1935); * Di una formula per il calcolo delle medie combinatorie, Bologna, (1938); * La statistica metodologica e la scuola italiana, Pisa, (1939); * Discordanze tra medie. Ancora sul metodo dei profili. La curva di Lorenz, Ferrara, (1939); * Studi di statistica metodologica, Milano, (1948).

Link

https://sites.google.com/site/dizionariosis/dizionario-statistico/statistici-n-o-p/pietra-gaetano http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/gaetano-pietra/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Pietra, Gaetano Italian statisticians 1961 deaths 1879 births