Emma Castelnuovo


Emma Castelnuovo was an Italian mathematician of Jewish descent.
In 2013, the year of her 100th birthday, the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction created an award named after Castelnuovo to recognize outstanding contributions to mathematics education.

Education and career

Emma Castelnuovo was born in Rome on 12 December 1913 to Elbina and Guido Castelnuovo; her father and her uncle Federigo Enriques were both professors of mathematics.
Castelnuovo graduated from the University of Rome in 1936 with a thesis on algebraic geometry. After this she worked as a librarian at the same university. She won a permanent position in 1938, but in the same year Italy passed new laws preventing Jews from holding state positions, preventing her from taking it. Instead, she became a secondary school teacher from 1945 until her retirement in 1979.

Contributions

Castelnuovo wrote a textbook, Geometria intuitiva, per le scuole medie inferiori, which was first published in 1948. It had multiple later editions and translations.
She served on the executive committee of the ICMI from 1975 to 1978.