Francesca Vidotto


Francesca Vidotto is an Italian theoretical physicist.

Biography

She earned her UG/MA in theoretical physics at the University of Padova and the PhD as double-degree at the University of Pavia and the Aix-Marseille Université. Afterwards, she was a postdoc researcher at the universities of Grenoble, Nijmegen and Bilbao.
From 2019 to 2025, she was Assistant Professor of Physics & Astronomy and Philosophy at the University of [Western Ontario], where she hold a Canada Research Chair in Foundations of Physics. She was also a core member and associate director of .
Her research explores the quantum aspects of the gravitational field, in the framework of Loop Quantum Gravity. Her work covers topics from the cosmological and astrophysical applications of quantum gravity to the reflections on the nature of space-time and the foundations of quantum mechanics. She is best known for two research directions: Spin foam Cosmology, and Planck stars, with special emphasis on white holes and black hole remnants. Her main research interests have been cosmology, the quantum effect of black holes, and the foundations of quantum mechanics.
Vidotto won the first prize in the 2023 FQXi contest "How could science be different?" for her essay . She is an advocate for equity, inclusion and diversity in the physics field. She also believes philosophy and physics go hand in hand.

Publications

Scientific book