Paolo Aluffi was born in Italy, and studied mathematics in Torino under the direction of Alberto Collino, and then at Brown University, obtaining a Ph.D. with a dissertation in algebraic geometry under the supervision of William Fulton. He has held postdoctoral positions at the University of Chicago and Oklahoma State University, and joined the department of mathematics at Florida State University in 1991. He is currently professor of mathematics at FSU. Paolo Aluffi has visited many universities and mathematics institutes for extended periods of time. Among these are the Max-Planck-Institut in Bonn, Germany; Harvard University; the Institut des Mathématiques in Luminy, France; the Mittag-Leffler Institut in Stockholm, Sweden; the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley, California; and the California Institute of Technology. Beside `Algebra: Chapter 0', he has published more than 60 research papers in algebraic geometry. He has also published a book of mathematics for the `general public' in Italian, `Fare Matematica'.
