Antonino Zichichi
Antonino Zichichi is an Italian physicist who has worked in the field of nuclear physics. He has served as President of the World Federation of Scientists and as a professor at the University of Bologna.
Biography
Zichichi was born in Trapani, Sicily, in 1929. He has collaborated on several discoveries in the field of sub-nuclear physics and has worked in numerous research laboratories such as Fermilab in Chicago and CERN in Geneva. In 1963, he founded the Centro Ettore Majorana of Erice, dedicated to scientific culture. The Ettore Majorana centre sponsors the International School of Subnuclear Physics, where Zichichi serves as director.He was president of the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare from 1977 up to 1982 and in 1980 he strongly backed the creation of the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso. Since 1978 he served also as President of the European Physical Society for over 10 years.
Zichichi is an emeritus professor of physics at the University of Bologna. He is president of the World Federation of Scientists, an organization concerned with the fight against planetary emergencies. In 1982, with P. A. M. Dirac and Pyotr Kapitsa, he drafted the Erice statement. Zichichi gave the opening talk at the 4-day international symposium Subnuclear Physics: Past, Present and Future held in 2011 in Vatican City. Zichichi talked with Pope John Paul II about the responsibility of the Roman Catholic Church in the case of Galileo Galilei, playing a role in the public request of forgiveness issued by the Pope in October 1992.
Honors and assignments
- Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
- Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
- Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
- President of European Physical Society
- President of Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics
- President of the NATO Commission for Technologies for Disarmament
- Representative of EEC in the Scientific Committee of the International Centre for Science and Technology in Moscow
- President of Historical Museum of Physics and Research Centre "E. Fermi"
- Laurea Honoris Causa from Peking University, Buenos Aires, Malta, Bucharest, Arizona, Torino
- Member of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Ukraine
- Member of the Academy of Sciences of Georgia
- Member of Pontifical Academy of Sciences
- Fellow, The World Academy of Sciences
- Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland
- Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
- Enrico Fermi Award
- Asteroid 3951 Zichichi is named after Zichichi.
Publications
- L'infinito, Lausanne, G. Galilei, 1988; Milano, Rizzoli, 1994 ; Milano, Nuova Pratiche Editrice, 1998.
- Scienza ed emergenze planetarie. Il paradosso dell'era moderna, Milano, Rizzoli, 1993.
- Perché io credo in Colui che ha fatto il mondo, Milano, Il Saggiatore, 1999,
- L'irresistibile fascino del Tempo. Dalla resurrezione di Cristo all'universo subnucleare, Milano, Il Saggiatore, 2000,
- Subnuclear Physics. The first 50 years highlights from Erice to ELN, Singapore, World Scientific, 2000.
- Galilei divin uomo, Milano, Il Saggiatore, 2001,
- Il vero e il falso. Passeggiando tra le stelle e a casa nostra, Milano, Il Saggiatore, 2003,
- Galilei. Dall'Ipse Dixit al processo di oggi. 100 risposte, Milano, Il Saggiatore, 2004,
- Tra Fede e Scienza. Da Giovanni Paolo II a Benedetto XVI, Milano, Il Saggiatore, 2005,
- , World Scientific, 1999;
- Giovanni Paolo II. Il Papa Amico della Scienza, Marco Tropea Editore, 2011,
- Zichichi, A.,; the content of the paper is a part of the special volume published by the Italian Physical Society to celebrate the Hundredth Anniversary of Bruno Pontecorvo.