Ottaviano Fabrizio Mossotti (18.04.1791-20.03.1863) was an Italian physicist. He was born in Novara. He studied at the University of Milan and worked at the Milan Observatory. He then lived in England and Argentina, and was a professor at the University of Buenos Aires. From 1824 he was professor at the University of Corfu, and from 1841 at the University of Pisa.
His research concerned molecular physics, electricity, magnetism and mathematical physics. He studied cohesive forces in liquids and solids and the polarisation of dielectrics. He developed (1846) a theory of dielectrics, later extended by R. Clausius (the Clausius — Mossotti equation).