Writer Umberto Eco was an Italian novelist, literary critic, philosopher, semiotician, and university professor. He is best known for his novel 'The Name of the Rose' (1980), which was made into a film in 1986. He also wrote works of philosophical fiction, such as 'Foucault's Pendulum' (1988) and 'The Island of the Day Before' (1994). Eco was a professor of semiotics at the University of Bologna and wrote extensively on the subject. He was also a member of the Italian Academy of Sciences.