1853-1925

Italian mathematician who invented the field of absolute differential calculus. This was a more general extension of work initiated by Carl Gauss and, as the foundation of tensor analysis, was used extensively by Albert Einstein in developing the theory of relativity. Ricci-Curbastro collaborated extensively in his later years with his student Tullio Levi-Civita. One of his most important papers (and the only one in which he used only the name "Ricci") was requested by Felix Klein and acknowledged as a necessary piece of work.