For a list of my publications, slides from my seminars, CoCoA packages I have
written and other amenities, go
HERE
:WHERE:
- I worked at the Mathematics Department
[MUUK]
of Charles University
[UKCZ],
Prague, Czech Republic (EU).
My position is at the new
Eduard Čech Center,
[EČC], as a postdoctoral
fellow, until June 2007.
- Previously, in Italy, I studied in
Genova and graduated in 2001 with a thesis in Computer Algebra
(calculation of Ext modules) under the supervision of
L. Robbiano.
:WHAT:
COmputational ALgebraic Analysis
[CoAlA] is my main area of interest.
System of differential equations, Gröbner bases,
Dirac operators and its various (flat) faces.
I love using CoCoA for my research. Find
[MORE] about CoCoA and contact me
if you need help.
Some of my most
recent research interests include:
-
The Dirac operator in several vector variables, with V. Souček.
-
Hermitian Clifford Analysis, with D. Eelbode and I. Sabadini,
- Computational Social Aggregation
[CoSA] with D.C. Struppa, L. Sparks and M. Mannucci.
- The mathematics of voting systems and electoral studies, with my former
schoolmate L. Trucco
:HOW:
In order to prove the world
that we are good mathematicians, we have to write research papers. These papers are
then reviewed by other mathematicians, who most likely work in a closely
related area
of research and sometimes do not want you to publish things they could have published themselves.
Alternatively, if you are lucky, those who review your work are exactly those that you need to
invite to the next conference, or those whose last paper YOU reviewed so they
want to/have to pay you back (whatever that means...). Ultimately, they are
your collaborators or the collaborators of your collaborators. The whole
system is, in my opinion, corrupted (not to use the F word) and highly
inefficient: people who deserve recognition because they are brilliant, are
sometimes ignored or even faced with hostility. Some of them are too humble
to emerge, or end up with the wrong advisor. On the other hand, people who
have little right to claim themselves scientists have an easy life because
they "marry rich", so to speak, or simply because they know the right
people. Journals are measured with this absurd "impact factor" that
supposedly tells how good a journal is based on how many times their
articles have been cited in the literature. As if citations meant anything
other than the fact that somebody wanted to cite that paper to increase the
number of citation it gets.
SO?? The whole
thing has a somewhat positive side for those, like me, who are probably just
regular researchers: we can just keep doing what we want without too much
trouble, as long as we have fun! That's how I take it: not so seriously, to
avoid headaches. Call
me mad. Given that my best paper may end up being published only on an
average quality
journal after having been rejected for years, while my worst could very well
make it to the top of the AMS publications just because of political
reasons, I simply ignore all this and leave it to others to care about. I have fun running my experiments. I have fun
talking to people who know more things that I do. I have fun writing papers.
I have oh-so-much fun presenting my work at conferences and I strive to achieve
a broader audience than the usual three or four people (those who have
written the paper with me...). Whether or not I will officially become a
mathematician, let alone a famous one, I really don't care.
:WHY:
Why mathematics and not something
that pays more? I love teaching, I love not having to wake up everyday at
the same time, I love having months of vacation and sometimes even paid
trips to foreign countries. Plus, computer algebra and algebraic analysis
are horizontal, rather then vertical: I hate specializing, I like bridges. And CoCoA is easy to use, Italian, and
free! Sometimes we are too lazy to carry out computations by hand.
Sometimes, there is no other way to do it: you need a computer. Most of the
times, it's actually challenging to teach a machine to do what you would
like it to perform. Somehow, it's like teaching a very good and motivated
student who has basically no knowledge of your subject...aren't those the
best students? Ok, sometimes it's like training a monkey... but the show
must go on.
:MORE:
