| Francesco Paolo Cantelli | |
| Birth Place: | Palermo, Italy |
| Death Place: | Rome, Italy |
| Alma Mater: | University of Palermo |
| Workplaces: | Palermo Astronomical Observatory Cassa Depositi e Prestiti University of Catania University of Naples Sapienza University of Rome |
| Known For: | Borel - Cantelli lemma Glivenko–Cantelli theorem Cantelli's inequality |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Filippo Angelitti |
Francesco Paolo Cantelli (20 December 187521 July 1966) was an Italian mathematician. He made contributions to celestial mechanics, probability theory, and actuarial science.
Cantelli was born in Palermo. He received his doctorate in mathematics in 1899 from the University of Palermo with a thesis on celestial mechanics and continued his interest in astronomy by working until 1903 at Palermo Astronomical Observatory (osservatorio astronomico cittadino), which was under the direction of Annibale Riccò.[1] Cantelli's early papers were on problems in astronomy and celestial mechanics.
From 1903 to 1923 Cantelli worked at the Istituto di Previdenza della Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (Pension Fund for the Government Deposits and Loans Bank). During these years he did research on the mathematics of finance theory and actuarial science, as well as the probability theory. Cantelli's later work was all on probability theory. Borel - Cantelli lemma, Cantelli's inequality and the Glivenko–Cantelli theorem are result of his work in this field. In 1916–1917 he made contributions to the theory of stochastic convergence. In 1923 he resigned his actuarial position when he was appointed professor of actuarial mathematics at the University of Catania. From there, he went to the University of Naples, where he worked as a professor and then in 1931 to the Sapienza University of Rome where he remained until his retirement in 1951. He died in Rome.
Cantelli made fundamental contributions to the foundations of probability theory and to the clarification of different types of probabilistic convergence. He also made seminal contributions to actuarial science.[2] He was the founder of the Istituto Italiano degli Attuari for the applications of mathematics and probability to economics. Cantelli was the editor of the Giornale dell'Istituto Italiano degli Attuari (GIIA) from 1930 to 1958.[3]