Umberto D’Ancona (9 May 1896 – 24 August 1964) was an Italian

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

. He attended secondary school in

Fiume Rijeka (; Fiume ( �fjuːme in Italian and in Fiuman Venetian) is the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia. It is located in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County on Kvarner Bay, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea and in 2021 had a po ...

and later enrolled as a student in the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University of Budapest. During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

he interrupted his studies to fight as an artillery officer, and became wounded and was decorated for military valour. From 1916 to 1920 he studied at the University of Rome under the supervision of Giulio Cotronei. He graduated with a thesis on the effect of starvation on the digestive tract of the

eel Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 20 families, 164 genera, and about 1000 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...

. He was assistant to Giovanni Batista Grassi and later succeeded Grassi as director of the Comparative Anatomy Institute of the

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome (), formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", abbreviated simply as Sapienza ('Wisdom'), is a Public university, public research university located in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1303 and is ...

. He later moved to the

University of Padua The University of Padua (, UNIPD) is an Italian public research university in Padua, Italy. It was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from the University of Bologna, who previously settled in Vicenza; thus, it is the second-oldest ...

where he founded the hydrobiological station in

Chioggia Chioggia (; , ; ) is a coastal town and (municipality) of the Metropolitan City of Venice in the Veneto region of northern Italy. Geography The town is located on a small island at the southern entrance to the Venetian Lagoon about sou ...

that now bears his name. He was a member of the

Accademia dei Lincei The (; literally the "Academy of the Lynx-Eyed"), anglicised as the Lincean Academy, is one of the oldest and most prestigious European scientific institutions, located at the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in Rome, Italy. Founded in ...

and a corresponding member of the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

. His work covered marine biology and his interests ranged from physiology to hydrobiology, oceanography and evolutionary theory. He described numerous species, published over 300 papers and authored several books, among them ''Trattato di Zoologia'' (1953) and ''Elementi di Biologia Generale'' (1945). He studied the effect of reduced fishing effort on the fish stocks in the

Adriatic Sea The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Se ...

during

when fisheries were much reduced. In 1926 he married Luisa Volterra, daughter of the mathematician

Vito Volterra Vito Volterra (, ; 3 May 1860 – 11 October 1940) was an Italian mathematician and physicist, known for his contributions to Mathematical and theoretical biology, mathematical biology and Integral equation, integral equations, being one of the ...

. D'Ancona's work and discussions with Volterra on the effect of reduced fishing on fish stocks inspired Volterra's work on

mathematical biology Mathematical and theoretical biology, or biomathematics, is a branch of biology which employs theoretical analysis, mathematical models and abstractions of living organisms to investigate the principles that govern the structure, development ...

and led to the formulation of the Lotka-Volterra predator-prey model. After Volterra's death d'Ancona published his book ''La Lotta per l'Esistenza'' (1942) (translated into English as
The Struggle for Existence
' (1954)), which was inspired and motivated by the work of his father-in-law. The publication of this book in homage to Volterra in 1942 in

fascist Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...

-controlled Italy is noteworthy as Volterra had refused to sign the oath of allegiance to the fascist government, and had to resign his university post and his membership of scientific academies as a result.Gatto, M. (2009). On Volterra and D'Ancona's footsteps: The temporal and spatial complexity of ecological interactions and networks 1. Italian Journal of Zoology, 76(1), 3-15.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:D'Ancona, Umberto 1896 births 1964 deaths Scientists from Rijeka Academic staff of the University of Pisa Academic staff of the University of Padua 20th-century Italian biologists 20th-century Italian zoologists Budapest University alumni Sapienza University of Rome alumni Academic staff of the Sapienza University of Rome

See also

References