Skip to main content

News

INFN turns 70

Pubblicato il 05 October 2021

INFN, the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics, just turned70 years old and opened the celebrations for this milestone with an event at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, in the presence of the Minister of University and Research, Maria Cristina Messa.

From its birth on August 8, 1951 until today, the Institute has been instrumental in research in fundamental physics in Italy, achieving excellent results and historical discoveries.

From the first Italian circular accelerator to the participation in CERN in Geneva and the discovery of the Higgs boson, to the Virgo antenna that hunts for gravitational waves: the history of INFN has coincided with the history of Italian physics.

GARR joins the good wishes from the scientific community by recognising the scientific value of INFN and also recalling its fundamental contribution given at the dawn of the Italian computer networks.

Few years earlier the Constitution was promulgated" recalled the president GARR Sauro Longhi, "and in a few years Europe’s the foundations will be laid. An institute of open and inclusive research where ideas, dreams, aspirations have found space and resources for their realization, the National Institute of Nuclear Physics could only be born in that golden era. INFN is a project that has enhanced knowledge - the only engine of development and cultural and social integration ".

"INFN is one of the founding members of Consortium GARR ", noted GARR director Federico Ruggieri, "and since its origins it has being contributing with people, ideas and skills to the creation of the national research network. Many theoretical assumptions and scientific practices we regard nowadays as “normal” for all researchers are also the result of the creativity and commitment of people who have made this institution great and we are therefore grateful for INFN’s great contribution ".

Words of appreciation and congratulations also came from the deputy director Claudia Battista who recalls how "INFN is not only one of the main user communities of the network, thanks to its involvement in large international research infrastructures and scientific initiatives, but has often actively collaborated in the definition of new telecommunication and data transmission models and solutions. The physics sector, with its advanced requirements, has often been the forerunner of technological innovations. This role is always alive, also thanks to the technological skills present within INFN. For our part, we are ready to face together new challenges such as the new supercomputing hub at the Bologna Technopole or the Einstein Telescope in Sardinia ".

On the occasion of this important anniversary, INFN has created a dedicated site to tell its first 70 years of activity through stories, images, testimonies and events.

Further information