About us

The Scuola Matematica Interuniversitaria (SMI) started its activities in 1971. The aim of the School is to provide young researchers with a basic training in Mathematics and its applications in various sectors, including Physics, Computer Science, Economics and Finance, Engineering. In pursuit of this aim, the School organises post-graduate courses addressed to young graduate students, both from Italy and from abroad, and prepares them for attendance to Ph.D. courses, Dottorati di ricerca in Italy, post-graduate Schools and research activities in general.

Almost one hundred professors from Italian and foreign universities, selected among those who have most actively taken part in the School activities, are currently members of SMI. The School activities are planned by the Steering Commettee, which is currently formed by the following elected members: Adriano Tomassini (University of Parma, Director), Luca Chiantini (University of Siena), Giovanni Monegato (Politecnico of Turin), Massimo Picardello (University of Rome “Tor Vergata”), Fabio Podestà (University of Florence). Alessandro Figà Talamanca  is honorary Director.

For more than 40 years SMI has organised basic, post-graduate Summer Courses in Mathematics at the Department of Mathematics of the University of Perugia, and Advanced Courses in Cortona, at the Palazzone of the Scuola Normale Superiore.

The Summer Courses in Perugia, addressed to young graduate or senior students interested in research, are held from the last week of July to the end of August, over a period of five weeks. In Perugia, SMI yearly offers a choice of basic courses consisting of twenty-five hours of lectures and fifteen hours problem-solving sessions. Regular attendance to two of the courses is compulsory; students are required to take part in the discussion of problems and undertake written examinations. At the end of the courses they are given a final evaluation.
The courses in Cortona are addressed to students who have already been introduced to research. As a rule, every summer SMI offers a choice of two to four courses, each of them lasts two or three weeks and consists of two sessions of five/six hours of lectures per week each, problem-solving sessions and seminars; classes in each of the two sessions are held by two different lecturers.

Both in Perugia and in Cortona the teaching staff is composed by internationally well-known experts; most of them are foreign university professors, with whom the students often establish lasting, deep and fruitful scientific relations.
Italian participants are chosen among the best graduate students of Italian universities. A good number of high-qualified foreign students is admitted to the courses, both in Perugia and in Cortona.

All the costs of the School activities, including organisation and operating expenses, lecturers’ remunerations, costs of logistic and administrative expenses, and all other similar expenses are completely covered by the School. In recent years, the annual costs of the courses organised by SMI amounted to about 300.000 Euros. The financial statement of SMI is published yearly in “Notiziario dell’Unione Matematica Italiana”.
All the activity of the Scuola Matematica Interuniversitaria has been made possible up to now by the financial support of the Italian Department of University and Research (MIUR), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Istituto Nazionale di Alta Matematica (INdAM) and Consorzio Interuniversitario per l’Alta Fomazione Matematica (CIAFM).

Past directors:

1971 – 1977 :  Alessandro Figa’-Talamanca;
1978 – 1980 :  Alberto Conte;
1981 – 1994:  Giovanni Monegato;
1995 – 2003:  Graziano Gentili;
2004 – 2014 :  Leonede De Michele
2015 – 2017 : Sandro Salsa
2018 - 2020 : Adriano Tomassini
2021 –  :  Adriano Tomassini

 

Statuto