At age 100, Gene died Sept. 25, 2023, of frailty syndrome in Bryn Mawr, Pa.
Gene was born May 11, 1923, in Milan, Italy. His family fled Italy when he was 15, spent a year in France, and arrived in the United States in 1939. He was drafted into the Army in 1943 and spent two and a half years as a translator and interpreter in France and Germany.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from MIT in 1946, a master’s degree in mathematics at the University of Illinois-Urbana in 1947, and a doctorate in mathematics at Princeton in 1950. He worked at Louisiana State University, the California Institute of Technology, and the University of Minnesota before joining the University of Pennsylvania in 1964, retiring in 1994.
Gene was known for his pioneering work in differential geometry, geometric flow, string-theory research, and other complex mathematical concepts. His name is attached to several theorems, conjectures, characterizations, and principles, most notably the Calabi-Yau manifolds. He won the Leroy Steele Prize for his “fundamental work on global differential geometry,” and received Italy’s highest honor, the Order of Merit.
Gene is survived by his wife of 71 years, Giuliana; and children Nora and Joseph.
Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.