Gabrio Piola

Gabrio Piola (15 July 1794 to 9 November 1850) was an Italian mathematician and physicist and a member of the Lombard Institute of Science, Letters and Arts. He studied in particular continuum mechanics, and his name is linked to the Piola-Kirchhoff tensors. Count Gabrio Piola Daverio was born in Milan into a rich aristocratic family, studied at home and then at the local high school, and because of his exceptional ability in mathematics and physics went on to study mathematics at the University of Pavia as a student of Vincenzo Brunacci, obtaining his doctorate on 24 June 1816. Although he was offered the chair of applied mathematics in Rome, he did not follow an academic career and preferred to devote himself to private teaching; one of his students was Francesco Brioschi.