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Alfonso Cossa
From herald stock, he was born in Milan on 3rd November 1833.
In 1857 Cossa graduated in Medicine at the Pavia university. But his interests moved to Farming Chemistry. Cossa translated two work by the famous German chemist J. Von Liebig - The basic principles of agriculture (1855) and Theory and practice of agriculture (1857) - proposing to the large audience the innovative use of inorganic fertilisers.
In 1861 became professor of Chemistry t the Pavia university and principal of the local Technical Institute. In 1866 the professor was called to Udine by
Quintino Sella for establishing the local Technical Institute whose he was the principal and teacher up to 1872.
Thanks to the influence by Sella, famous mineralogist and crystallographer Cossa's interests moved from farming chemistry to mineralogic chemistry. In 1872-1873 Cossa was director and professor of the Superior School of Agriculture at Portici, and later was called to Turin as director of the farming station (1873-1882) and professor of Farming Chemistry at the Royal Industrial Museum. Since 1882 he taught docimastic chemistry. Cossa was a member of several Italian and foreign institutes such as The National Academy of Lincei (since 1877) and the Lombard Institute of Sciences and Literature. He was also president of the Academy of Sciences in Turin and was a member of its geological committee.
In 1887 Cossa was appointed as a director of the Application School for Engineers, and he got this office up to his death, occurred in Turin on 23rd October 1902.
The chemist's name is linked to the discovery of the platosemiamine - Cossa base - and the mine research. We can remember his work Ricerche chimiche e microscopiche su rocce e minerali d'Italia (Chemical and microscopic researches on Italian rocks and minerals) (1875-1881).
Cossa created the collection for 900 large sections approx. of thin rocks kept at the geomineralogic Museum of the Engineering School of Turin, at the Valentino Castle.
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