International Conference for the tercentenary of the birth of Ruggiero Giuseppe Boscovich
Dates: 2011-09-08 - 2011-09-11
9.9
(1 decade 2 years ago)
Where: Pavia, Italy
Venue: University of Pavia
Description
The University of Pavia, together with the
Scientific Commission for the National Edition of Boscovich?s collected works
and correspondence (the Italian National Academy of Sciences, the Croatian
Academy of Sciences and Arts, the INAF - Astronomical Observatory of Brera, the
Pontifical Gregorian University), is happy to announce an International
Conference to commemorate the third centenary of the birth of the polymath
Ruggiero Giuseppe Boscovich.
The Conference is sponsored by the Italian
Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) and the University of
Pavia (1361). From 1764 to 1768 Boscovich was professor of Mathematics at the
University of Pavia, in a ?golden? period that saw the flourishing of scientists
like Alessandro Volta (1745-1827), Antonio Scarpa (1752-1832), Lazzaro
Spallanzani (1729-1799) and Giovanni Scopoli (1723-1788). Today?s analysis of
Boscovich?s work will take place in its appropriate context: the historic
lecture halls of the University. On Thursday September the 8th an exhibition of
Boscovich?s papers and books will be open in the Theresian Hall of the University Library (designed by Piermarini, architect of ?La Scala?,
in 1772), on Friday the 9th there will be a visit to the University Scientific
Museums and Collections and on Sunday the 11th a visit to the Brera Observatory
in Milano, designed and completed by Boscovich in 1765.
Boscovich was born in the independent Republic of
Ragusa (today Dubrovnik, Croatia). At fourteen he left the local Jesuit school
for the Collegio Romano, where he became a Jesuit and a Professor. The
contribution of his ideas to the advancement of knowledge in every field of
eighteenth century science, from natural philosophy, with his original unitary
force and atomic theory, to mathematics, astronomy, geodesy, was acknowledged by
his contemporaries. Recent scholarship outlines the relevance of his research in
theoretical and practical optics, placing him among the founders of modern
refractometry and spherometry, and starts to analyse his deep interest in the
field of electricity, a discipline wich was soon to be quantified along
differing lines by Volta in Pavia and Coulomb in Paris.
Boscovich had a deep influence on the European
scientific and philosophical debate. Volta quotes him in his first and
fundamental work of 1769, but so do Kant, Faraday, Kelvin, Maxwell, Nietzsche,
Boltzmann. A crater on the Moon has been named after Boscovich and today he is
also seen as a forerunner of the Theories of Everything (TOE).
The Pavia Conference will be attended by the
foremost international specialists on Boscovich?s studies and will enhance the
results of other important conferences held in Dubrovnik (1958, 1961, 1987),
Milan (1962, 1987), Rome (1988) and Vienna (2008). During the Pavia Conference
the results of the Italian project for the digital publication of Boscovich?s
collected works and correspondence as well the translation in Italian of some of
his major works on natural philosophy will be presented.
Invited speakers
? Ugo Baldini, University of Padua
? ?arko Dadić, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts,
Zagabria
? Roger Hahn, University of California,
Berkeley
? John Heilbron, Worcester College, Oxford (to be
confirmed)
? J?rgen Renn, Max-Planck-Institute for the History
of Science, Berlin
? Hans Ullmaier, Forschungszentrum J?lich
Gmbh, J?lich
Topics
? Research on Boscovich?s primary and secondary
sources
? Boscovich as a philosopher of nature and science:
theories of matter, space, time, causality, physical actions
? Cultural, scientific and artistic context in Italy
and Europe
? Boscovich and the Enlightenment
? Boscovich as a Jesuit and the vicissitudes of the
Jesuit Order
? Boscovich and the development of Geometry and
Mathematics
? Boscovich and the development of Mechanics (Statics
and Dynamics)
? Boscovich and the development of Astronomy and
Geodesy
? Boscovich on Probability and the Handling of
observational data
? Boscovich and the development of Geometrical and
Physical Optics
? Boscovich and the development of Hydraulics and
Fluid Dynamics
? Boscovich and the development of Meteorology: his
work in the Physics of the Atmosphere
? Boscovich and the emerging sciences: electric,
magnetic, chemical, thermal, geological and vital phenomena
? Boscovich?s literary works in verse and prose
? Teaching and institutional activity of Boscovich
and his ideas on the reform of education in Rome, Pavia and Milan
? Boscovich?s diplomatic activity: his relations with
the Republic of Ragusa
? Boscovich?s journeys and travel diaries
? The contemporary reception of Boscovich?s
works
? The legacy of Boscovich in modern science
Presentations can be given in any language but
abstracts and papers for the proceedings have to be submitted in English
Scientific Committee
President Tommaso Scarascia Mugnozza,
President of the Italian National Academy of Sciences
Vice Presidents Edoardo Proverbio,
Department of Astronomy of the University of Cagliari; Milan Mogus, President of
the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts; Angiolino Stella, Rector of the
University of Pavia; Gianfranco Ghirlanda, Rector of the Pontifical Gregorian
University; Tommaso Maccacaro, President of INAF; Giovanni Pareschi, Director of
Astronomical Observatory of Brera
Secretary Fabio Bevilacqua, Professor
of History of Science ? University of Pavia
Members Lucio Claudio Andreani, Elio
Antonello, Ugo Baldini, Daniele Boffi, Vincenzo Cappelletti, Paolo Casini, Guido
Cimino, ?arko Dadić, Alessandra Fiocca, Lucio Fregonese, Paolo Freguglia, Paolo
Galluzzi, Livia Giacardi, Enrico Giannetto, Roger Hahn, Paolo Mazzarello,
Giovanni Paoloni, Luigi Pepe, Clara Silvia Roero, Arcangelo Rossi, Giancarlo
Setti, Rita Tolomeo, Maurizio Torrini, Pasquale Tucci
Organizing Committee
Chairman Fabio Bevilacqua
Members Lucio Claudio Andreani, Lidia
Falomo, Alessandra Ferraresi, Lucio Fregonese, Enrico Giannetto, Franco Giudice,
Luca Guzzardi
Secretariat Patrizia Contardini
Information
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987694
Conference fee: 230 Euros (includes two
lunches, coffee breaks, booklet of abstracts, digital Conference
Proceedings).
Conference dinner: 30 Euros (Friday
10th).
Download here the poster of the Conference.