Francesco Altomare - the remarkable mathematician and human being

Abstract

T. We laconically describe the great contributions of Professor Francesco Altomare to mathematical research and Ph.D education, and his unique status in the mathematical community. In particular, we present and giveexamples of his innovative and great achievements related to the following areas of mathematics: Functional Analysis,Operator Theory, Potential Theory, Approximation Theory, Probability Theory, Function Spaces, Choquet’s Theory,Dirichlet’s Problem and Semigroup Theory. Moreover, we report on and give concrete examples of his unique way towork together with Ph.D students, both before and sometimes also after their dissertation. Finally, we shortly describehis remarkable “class travel” from “simple” conditions with no academic traditions in his family in the small townGiovinazzo to finally become the broad, ingenious, and powerful mathematician he is regarded to be today.Keywords: Francesco Altomare, History of Mathematics, Functional Analysis, Operator Theory, Potential Theory, Approximation Theory, Probability Theory, Function Spaces, Choquet’s Theory, Dirichlet’s Problem, Semigroup Theoryand Evolution Equations, Ph.D education.