In Memoriam
Emma Previato (November 29, 1952 to June 29, 2022)
Our long-time colleague, Professor Emma Previato passed away shortly before midnight on June 29, 2022 just five months shy of her 70th birthday. She was born and raised in Italy in the province of Rovigo, near Padova and Venice. To this day, the older generations at the University of Padova remember her well from her days as an undergraduate at the university, where she was well known as an exceptionally talented young mathematician. Upon completing her Bachelor’s Degree in 1974 she served on the faculty at the University of Padova, first as an Assistant Professor, then as an Associate Professor until 1978. In this short four-year period she published her first six research papers.
From Padova, Emma moved to Harvard University in the fall of 1978 to study with the famous David Mumford, who had just been awarded the Fields Medal in 1974 for his work in Algebraic Geometry. She earned her PhD with Mumford in the spring of 1983 and then moved directly to Boston University where she spent the rest of her professional life. Over her 39 years at Boston University, she distinguished herself as an internationally recognized scholar working in Algebraic Geometry, Mathematical Physics, Differential Equations and Integrable systems. She published more than 80 research papers in peer-reviewed journals. She also co-edited three books including a volume on Integrable Systems and Quantum Groups, which she co-authored with Ron Donagi, Boris Dubrovin, and Edward Frenkel, and which was published in 2006 as volume 1620 of the prestigious Springer Lecture Notes in Mathematics series.
Emma’s many research contributions have been honored in various ways over the years. She was invited to some of the most prestigious research institutions in the world including the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, the Mittag Leffler Institute in Sweden, the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques outside of Paris, the Max Planck Institute in Bonn, the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley, among others. She was named an Inaugural Fellow of the American Mathematical Society in 2012. Just two years ago, in 2020, Cambridge University Press published a two-volume set (under one cover) entitled “Integrable Systems and Algebraic Geometry: A Celebration of Emma Previato’s 65th Birthday” in honor of her pioneering work in these areas.
Throughout her lifetime, Emma devoted an enormous amount of energy to her students, something that was deeply appreciated by undergraduates and graduate students alike. She advised a total of seven PhD theses, five Masters Theses, and another thirteen undergraduate senior theses for distinction. In 2003 she received the Mathematical Association of America Northeastern Section’s Award for Distinguished University Teaching of Mathematics. She founded Boston University’s student chapters of the Mathematical Association of America and also of the Association for Women Mathematics. She served for 10 years (starting in 2005) as the faculty organizer of Boston University’s annual symposium AFRAMATH.
Per Emma’s request, her remains have been cremated and will be sent back to her childhood neighborhood in Italy where her ashes will be buried alongside her mother’s grave in Padova.