Ugo Fano (July 28, 1912 – February 13, 2001) was an Italian American physicist, notable for contributions to theoretical physics.

[3] Fano earned his doctorate in mathematics at the University of Turin in 1934, under Enrico Persico, with a thesis entitled Sul Calcolo dei Termini Spettrali e in Particolare dei Potenziali di Ionizzazione Nella Meccanica Quantistica (On the Quantum Mechanical Calculation Spectral Terms and their Extension to Ionization).

As part of his PhD examination he also made two oral presentations entitled: Sulle Funzioni di Due o Più Variabili Complesse (On the functions of two or more complex variables) and Le Onde Elettromagnetiche di Maggi: Le Connessioni Asimmetriche Nella Geometria Non Riemanniana (Maggi[4] electromagnetic waves: asymmetric connections in non-Riemannian geometry).

Later in 1939, he immigrated to the United States due to increasing antisemitic measures taking effect in Italy.

There he trained, until the early 1990s, about thirty graduate students and postdoctoral research associates,[3] many of whom now occupy leading positions in theoretical atomic and molecular physics in the United States, Europe, and Japan.