The Italian Society on General Relativity and Gravitation (SIGRAV), founded in 1990, is a

non-profit association A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

whose purpose is to bring together the members of Italian scientific community who are interested in various aspects of

general relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity, and as Einstein's theory of gravity, is the differential geometry, geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of grav ...

and in gravitation physics. SIGRAV brings together experts and researchers involved in classical and

quantum gravity Quantum gravity (QG) is a field of theoretical physics that seeks to describe gravity according to the principles of quantum mechanics. It deals with environments in which neither gravitational nor quantum effects can be ignored, such as in the v ...

astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline, James Keeler, said, astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the ...

, relativistic cosmology and experimental gravity, and it has been organizing biennial national congresses. Its other activities include managing the SIGRAV School and the Virgo School. At the time of the national congress it awards the SIGRAV prizes and the Amaldi medal. The official address of SIGRAV is located at viale F. Crispi, in L'Aquila, at the premises of the Gran Sasso Science Institute (GSSI).

List of the presidents

The following list includes both the honorary as well as the elected ones, ordered according to appointment year.

Honorary presidents

Tullio Regge Tullio Eugenio Regge (; 11 July 1931 – 23 October 2014) was an Italian theoretical physicist. Biography Regge obtained the ''laurea'' in physics from the University of Turin in 1952 under the direction of Mario Verde and Gleb Wataghin, and ...

Four year term presidents

Mauro Francaviglia Mauro Francaviglia (Turin, Torino, 22 June 1953 – Arcavacata, 24 June 2013) was an Italian mathematician. He was a professor at University of Turin, University of Torino and he worked mainly on Differential geometry, geometric methods applied t ...

, 1992-1996 * Pietro Fré, 1996-2000 *Eugenio Coccia, 2000-2004 *Luca Lusanna, 2004-2008 *Mauro Francaviglia, 2008-2012 *Salvatore Capozziello, 2012-2018 *Fulvio Ricci, 2018-2022 *Stefano Liberati, 2022-

Amaldi medals

Every 2 years, SIGRAV awards the prestigious European Prize for Gravitational Physics “

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 p ...

” The Prize, consisting in a gold medal valued about 10K€ (whenever the Prize is not shared), is reserved to scientists who carry out their activity in Europe and have given seminal contributions to the Physics of Gravitation. The Prize will be awarded every two years, following the indications of the SIGRAV Board, during the SIGRAV National Conferences. * 2004

Roger Penrose Sir Roger Penrose (born 8 August 1931) is an English mathematician, mathematical physicist, Philosophy of science, philosopher of science and Nobel Prize in Physics, Nobel Laureate in Physics. He is Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics i ...

* 2006 Bernard Schutz * 2008

Sergio Ferrara Sergio Ferrara (born 2 May 1945) is an Italian physicist working on theoretical physics of elementary particles and mathematical physics. He is renowned for the discovery of theories introducing supersymmetry as a symmetry of elementary particles ( ...

* 2010

Thibault Damour Thibault Damour (; born 7 February 1951) is a French physicist. He was a permanent professor in theoretical physics at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHÉS) from 1989 to 2022. Since then, he is professor emeritus. An expert in g ...

* 2012

Viatcheslav Mukhanov Viatcheslav Fyodorovich Mukhanov (; born October 2, 1956) is a Soviet/Russian born German theoretical physicist and cosmologist. He is best known for the theory of Quantum Origin of the Universe Structure. Working in 1980-1981 with Gennady Chib ...

and

Alexei Starobinsky Alexei Alexandrovich Starobinsky (; 19 April 1948 – 21 December 2023) was a Soviet and Russian-Jewish theoretical physicist and cosmologist. He was a pioneer of the theory of cosmic inflation, for which he received the 2014 Kavli Prize in ...

* 2014 Nazzareno Mandolesi and Sergei Odintsov * 2016 Guido Pizzella and

Adalberto Giazotto Adalberto Giazotto (1 February 1940 – 16 November 2017) was an Italian physicist. Born in Genoa to musicologist Remo Giazotto, Adalberto Giazotto earned his degree in physics from the Sapienza University of Rome. He helped design the Virgo in ...

* 2018

Stefano Vitale Stefano Vitale (born 1951, Naples, Italy) is an Italian physicist and a retired professor of experimental physics at the University of Trento. He is known for his scientific contributions in the field of gravitational wave (GW) research and th ...

and Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat * 2021 Heino Falcke and Andrzej Mariusz Trautman * 2023

Joseph Silk Joseph Ivor Silk (born 3 December 1942) is a British-American astrophysicist. He was the Savilian Chair of Astronomy at the University of Oxford from 1999 to September 2011. He is an Emeritus Fellow of New College, Oxford and a Fellow of th ...

and

Gabriele Veneziano Gabriele Veneziano ( ; ; born 7 September 1942) is an Italian theoretical physicist widely considered the father of string theory. He has conducted most of his scientific activities at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, and held the Chair of Elementar ...

* 2025

Alain Brillet Alain Brillet (; born 30 March 1947) is a French physicist specialized in gravitational wave detectors. Biography Alain Brillet graduated from the ESPCI Paris in 1970, following which he worked for the CNRS in Orsay during his Ph.D. thesis unt ...

and

Renate Loll Renate Loll (born 19 June 1962, Aachen) Is a German physicist. She is a Professor in Theoretical Physics at the Institute for Mathematics, Astrophysics and Particle Physics of the Radboud University in Nijmegen, Netherlands. She previously wo ...

SIGRAV Prizes

Two prestigious “SIGRAV Prizes” for “Classical and Quantum Gravity” and “Astrophysics, Cosmology and Experimental Gravity” are awarded upon nomination by SIGRAV every two years, to young Italian scientists below the age of 40 at the time of the nomination, who have particularly distinguished themselves in the fields of general relativity and gravitational physics, and who are among the most promising researchers in the fields of gravitation and cosmology.

List of the recipients for the “Classical and Quantum Gravity” prize

* 1994 Massimo Bianchi,

Augusto Sagnotti Augusto Sagnotti (born 1955) is an Italian theoretical physicist at Scuola Normale (since 2005). Biography Sagnotti earned a Laurea in Electrical Engineering from the University of Rome "La Sapienza" in 1978 (advisors: Bruno Crosignani and Paol ...

* 1998

Massimo Porrati Massimo Porrati (born 1961 in Genova, Italy) is a professor of physics and a member of the Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics at New York University. He graduated from the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, Italy with a "Diploma di Scienze" d ...

* 2000 Alberto Zaffaroni * 2002 Massimo Giovannini * 2004 Carlo Angelantonj * 2006 Claudio Dappiaggi * 2008 Gianguido Dall’Agata * 2010 Dario Martelli, Alessandro Tomasiello * 2012 Fabrizio Canfora, Dario Francia * 2014 Simone Giombi * 2016 Paolo Pani * 2018 Riccardo Ciolfi * 2021 Andrea Giusti * 2023 Giulia Gubitosi * 2025 Laura Sberna

List of the recipients for the “Astrophysics, Cosmology and Experimental Gravity” prize

* 1994 Pietro Tricarico * 1998 Gabriele Ghisellini * 2000

Alessandra Buonanno Alessandra Buonanno (born 1968) is an Italian-American theoretical physicist and director at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) in Potsdam. She is the head of the "Astrophysical and Cosmological Relati ...

, Luigi Stella, Mario Vietri * 2002 Livia Conti, Viviana Fafone, Alberto Vecchio * 2004 Giovanni Miniutti * 2006

Marta Burgay Marta Burgay (30 November 1976, Torino) is an Italian radio astronomer whose initial claim to fame was being the discoverer of PSR J0737-3039, the first double pulsar (two pulsars orbiting each other), through using the 64-metre Parkes radio telesc ...

* 2008 Michele Vallisneri * 2010

Rosalba Perna Rosalba Perna is an Italian and American theoretical astrophysics, astrophysicist whose research concerns high-energy cosmic sources including gamma-ray bursts and neutron star mergers. She has also studied exoplanets and the growth of supermassi ...

* 2012 Mariafelicia De Laurentis * 2014 Michele Liguori, Giovanni Marozzi, Giulia Pagliaroli * 2016 Marco Drago, Enrico Barausse * 2018 Marica Branchesi * 2021 Micol Benetti, Davide Gerosa * 2023 Sunny Vagnozzi * 2025 Martina Gerbino

References

External links

SIGRAV website
{{authority control Scientific societies based in Italy Physics societies Scientific organizations established in 1990