The Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN; "National Institute for Nuclear Physics") is the coordinating institution for nuclear,

particle In the physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscule in older texts) is a small localized object which can be described by several physical or chemical properties, such as volume, density, or mass. They vary greatly in size or quantity, from ...

theoretical A theory is a rational type of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the results of such thinking. The process of contemplative and rational thinking is often associated with such processes as observational study or research. Theories may be ...

and astroparticle physics in Italy.

History

INFN was founded on 8 August 1951, to further the nuclear physics research tradition initiated by Enrico Fermi in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, in the 1930s. The INFN collaborates with CERN,

Fermilab Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), located just outside Batavia, Illinois, near Chicago, is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory specializing in high-energy particle physics. Since 2007, Fermilab has been opera ...

and various other laboratories in the world. In recent years it has provided important contributions to grid computing. During the latter half of the 1950s, the INFN designed and constructed the first Italian electron accelerator—the

electron The electron ( or ) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family, and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have no ...

synchrotron developed in

Frascati Frascati () is a city and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital in the Lazio region of central Italy. It is located south-east of Rome, on the Alban Hills close to the ancient city of Tusculum. Frascati is closely associated wit ...

. In the early 1960s, it also constructed in Frascati the first ever electron-positron

collider A collider is a type of particle accelerator which brings two opposing particle beams together such that the particles collide. Colliders may either be ring accelerators or linear accelerators. Colliders are used as a research tool in particl ...

(

ADA Ada may refer to: Places Africa * Ada Foah, a town in Ghana * Ada (Ghana parliament constituency) * Ada, Osun, a town in Nigeria Asia * Ada, Urmia, a village in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Ada, Karaman, a village in Karaman Province, ...

- ''Anello Di Accumulazione''), under the scientific leadership of

Bruno Touschek Bruno Touschek (3 February 1921 – 25 May 1978) was an Austrian physicist, a survivor of the Holocaust, and initiator of research on electron-positron colliders. Biography Touschek was born and attended school in Vienna. In 1937, he was not ...

. In 1968, Frascati began operating

ADONE ADONE (''big AdA'') was a high-energy (beam energy 1.5 GeV, center-of-mass energy 3 GeV) particle collider. It collided electrons with their antiparticles, positrons. It was 105 meters in circumference. It was operated from 1969 to 1993, by ...

(''big'' AdA), which was the first high-energy

particle collider A collider is a type of particle accelerator which brings two opposing particle beams together such that the particles collide. Colliders may either be ring accelerators or linear accelerators. Colliders are used as a research tool in particle ...

, having a beam energy of 1.5 GeV. During the same period, the INFN began to participate in research into the construction and use of ever-more powerful accelerators being conducted at CERN. The INFN has ''Sezioni'' (Divisions) in most major

Italian universities Higher education in Italy is mainly provided by a large and international network of public and state affiliated universities. State-run universities of Italy are under the supervision of Italian's Ministry of Education. There is also a number of ...

and four national laboratories. It has personnel of its own, but it is mostly the main funding agency for high-energy physics in Italy. University personnel can be affiliated with INFN and receive from it research grants.

Laboratories

* Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, situated near the

Gran Sasso Gran Sasso d'Italia (; ) is a massif in the Apennine Mountains of Italy. Its highest peak, Corno Grande (2,912 metres), is the highest mountain in the Apennines, and the second-highest mountain in Italy outside the Alps. The mountain lies wi ...

mountain *

Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro The Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro (Legnaro National Laboratories, LNL) is one of the four major research centers of the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN). The primary focus of research at this laboratory is in the fields of ...

, in

Legnaro Legnaro is a ''comune'' in the Province of Padua in the Italian region Veneto, located about southwest of Venice and about southeast of Padua. As of 31 December, 2010, it had a population of 8,594 and an area of .All demographics and other stati ...

Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati The INFN National Laboratory of Frascati (LNF) was founded in 1954 with the objective of furthering particle physics research, and more specifically to host the 1.1 GeV electrosynchrotron, the first accelerator ever built in Italy. The Labo ...

, in

* Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, in Catania

Divisions

Presidents

*1954-1959

Gilberto Bernardini Gilberto is the Iberian and Italian version of the originally Norman-French given name '' Gilbert'', used in Italian, Portuguese and Spanish languages. In Galician, it's spelled Xilberto or Xilberte. ''Gilbert'' is ultimately derived from the Ger ...

*1960-1965

Edoardo Amaldi Edoardo Amaldi (5 September 1908 – 5 December 1989) was an Italian physicist. He coined the term "neutrino" in conversations with Enrico Fermi distinguishing it from the heavier "neutron". He has been described as "one of the leading nuclear ...

*1966-1970

Giorgio Salvini Giorgio Salvini (24 April 1920 – 8 April 2015) was an Italian physicist and politician. Life Born in Milan, in 1953 Salvini was responsible for the construction of the first Italian circular particle accelerator, the electron synchrotron of Fra ...

*1970-1975 Claudio Villi *1976-1977 Alberto Gigli Berzolari *1977-1983

Antonino Zichichi Antonino may refer to: * Antonino (name), a given name and a surname (including a list of people with the name) * Antonino, Kansas, an unincorporated community in Ellis County, Kansas, United States See also * Antoniano (disambiguation) * Antoñ ...

*1983-1992

Nicola Cabibbo Nicola Cabibbo (10 April 1935 – 16 August 2010) was an Italian physicist, best known for his work on the weak interaction. Life Cabibbo, son of a Sicilian lawyer, was born in Rome. He graduated in theoretical physics at the Università di Rom ...

*1993-1998

Luciano Maiani Luciano Maiani (born 16 July 1941, in Rome) is a Sammarinese physicist best known for his prediction of the charm quark with Sheldon Glashow and John Iliopoulos (the " GIM mechanism"). Academic history In 1964 Luciano Maiani received his degree ...

*1998-2004 Enzo Iarocci *2004-2011 Roberto Petronzio *2011-2019 Fernando Ferroni *2019- Antonio Zoccoli

References

External links

Official website
{{authority control Institutes associated with CERN Physics institutes in Italy