Ulisse Dini (1874-1876, 1900-1918)

A mathematician, twice appointed director of the Scuola Normale, Dini was the first Director to have also been a student (between 1863 and 1867).
In 1908, he issued a new regulation that consolidated the dual vocation of the Scuola Normale: an institution of preparation for teaching and a centre of high-level scientific and literary culture.
He introduced additional subsidies for particularly brilliant students and aggregate students: various students benefited from these, including the scholar and future director Luigi Russo.
The percentage of women admitted increases: 23 in the first decade, 23 between 1910 and 1914, 20 between 1915 and 1917.
The students of the Dini directorship are many: among them Giovanni Gronchi, future president of the Republic, Mauro Picone, one of the most important mathematicians of the early twentieth century, and Rita Brunetti, physicist and scientific popularizer.