Memorial F. Mosetti

It is not without commotion that I remember and honour our famous colleague and my dear friend Prof. Ferruccio Mosetti, recently and prematurely deceased. Ferruccio Mosetti was born in Trieste in March 1929. At the age of 20, in 1949, he started his research career and was employed at the Osservatorio Geofisico Sperimentale of Trieste (OGS) from 1950. He graduated in physics at Trieste University in 1951, presenting a thesis on the microbarograph, and was professor in oceanography from 1962. He taught oceanography at Bari University from 1960 to 1963, and Earth Physics from 1963 to 1965. Then he moved to Trieste University to teach Earth Physics. He, was director of OGS from 1957 to 1970, and both organized and performed oceanographic research at the new OGS marine laboratories. He was full professor of Oceanographic Measurements at Trieste University from 1970 to his death on October 29, 1992. he received the golden medal from the Ministry of Universities and Scientific Research in 1989 for his achievements. The scientific career of Prof. Mosetti was mainly conducted at OGS, where he performed the major part of his work, but also at the Institute of Geodesy and Geophysics of Trieste University. His research covered various fields of applied geophysics, in particular geoelectrics, geohydrology, computational methodologies, and oceanography, and consists of more than 400 publications in national as well as international journals. In addition, he published three treatises on general oceanography, which were the first in Italian, and several books. A relevant part of his work was the general study of natural periodic phenomena and their importance in bioclimatology, and he created new methodologies of periodic and harmonic analysis, continuing themes -studied before by Prof. Vercelli. He deduced a general law on natural periodicity from an analysis of results obtained studying oscillating temporal phenomena in geophysics and climatology: the component periods are not randomly distributed but follow a geometric square-root succession. This rule is valid also for the testP, which was created in cooperation with Prof. Piccardi, and which shows the influence of the earth?s magnetic field fluctuations on the precipitation of bismuth oxychloride. Some of his meteorological research also led to interesting results, and is repeatedy cited by international scientists. His research .into the construction of a new type of microbarograph belongs to this field; this instrument is based on the correlation between microbaric waves and microseisms, and on the long period oscillations in atmospheric pressure. Both national leadership and international fame is accorded to Prof. Mosetti in the oceanographic field. He affronted important topical themes with theoretical as well as experimental work. In his theoretical work, he studied the problem of sealevel long period fluctuations, pointing out the causes of these variations. He also created new methods of analyzing oceanographic fluctuation periodicity. Further contributions were in the theoretical study of tides, in particular those of the Adriatic sea, and of the harmonic constant variability field. He intensively studied the vertical distribution of ocean temperature and its variability, and having set forth a new theory, verified its compatibility with the data collected in the Adriatic sea Knowledge of the sea temperature distribution as a function of depth, and of the fluctuations correlated with it, allowed him to express those variables as a function of time. In experimental oceanography, Prof. Mosetti conducted research into various topics, such as bathymetric measurements and morphologic studies, on the basis of which a detailed morpho-bathymetric map of the Adriatic sea was constructed, together with geophysical measurements in the study of the sea bottom (in particular he proposed a new method for surveying the nature of the sea bottom by means of electrical resistivity analysis), and physical and chemical investigations of the sea bottom. His analytical studies of sea water physical and chemical properties were fundamental in defining a new method for identifying coastal water bodies, and for designing a new instrument, based 011 original concepts, for measuring salinity from the electrical conductivity. Thanks to this technique, he was able to deduce a new formula for salinity determination at any temperature on the basis of electrical conductivity. This listing of the scientific research fields covered by Prof. Mosetti illustrates the wide spectrum of investigation: he possessed an eclectic and versatile mind. Some aspects of Prof. Mosetti?s personality should be mentioned, since he was not frequently seen at recent congresses due to health problems. The first was the fecundity of his scientific research, well documented by more than 400 scientific articles, several of which have become classics. The second was his capacity to produce innovative ideas. The third was his brilliant lecturing style which stimulated students as well as his peers. The fourth was his ability to present complex concepts in simple words. Prof. Mosetti was much loved by his students because of his sense of duty: he should have gone into hospital on September 1992, but waited to conduct the October exams; and soon after, under surgery, he died. He was not interested in adulation, never received advantages from his position, never asked even for what was due to him, and, in fact, received much less than he merited. He was always able to resolve conflicts with his friendly irony: this was our colleague and friend Ferruccio Mosetti. He lived lovingly with his beautiful family as a perfect husband and father. Our sympathies are with his wife Giorgia and his beloved daughters and son: Viviana, Gabriella, Paola, Valentina, and Francesco. Ferruccio will remain with us always in our memories.