In 1929, he founded the Institute of Mathematics (Istituto di Matematica) at the University of Milan, along with Gian Antonio Maggi and Giulio Vivanti.

In 1952 he had the appellation "Federigo Enriques" attached to the institute, to commemorate his memory.

He was a major contributor to the Enciclopedia Italiana, and from 1946 to 1967 editor of the journal Il periodico di matematiche.

The Chisini conjecture in algebraic geometry is a uniqueness question for morphisms of generic smooth projective surfaces, branched on a cuspidal curve.

A special case is the question of the uniqueness of the covering of the projective plane, branched over a generic curve of degree at least five.