Even science loves the quiet of Italian villages, especially if they are trendy. Pollica, one of the most beautiful in Southern Italy, welcomes the Pollica Physics Center (PPC): the first International Physics Study Center
theory of the South. In the heart of Cilento, which has become a garrison of legality after the killing of the Mayor in 2010 Angelo Vassallo, the town conquers the primacy of international center in collaboration with the University of Oxford, Harvard, Princeton, the National Institute of Nuclear Physics, the Federico II Universities of Naples and Salerno, the Campania Region, the Municipality of Pollica. For Southern Italy it is the recognition of a scientific work started with international summer workshops and thanks to the commitment of the Steering and Scientific Committees, both of high profile.
Pollica at the center of international scientific research
The models that inspired the scientists to create the new facility were the Aspen Center For Physics in Colorado and the Kavli Institute Theoretical Physics in California. History. Since 2015, three young physicists- Mario Martone, lecturer at King's College London, Angelo Esposito, professor at the Sapienza University of Rome e Clare Toldo, researcher at Harvard University - have started working to create excellence in a field where Italy boasts very solid traditions. From Enrico Fermi ad Evangelista Torricelli, Nicholas Cabibbo, a George Parisi, Nobel Prize in 2021, Italian research institutes and universities have discovered theories and published studies that have revolutionized the principles of physics. Italian physics is among the most appreciated in the world. Many mathematical experiments and models are used by global companies. The three tenacious scholars who somehow want to restart research in Southern Italy represent a partial response to the emigration of so many talents and the impoverishment of experimentation. The scarce public economic resources available and private financing are evidence of a worrying decline. The promoters of the Cilento Center first devised cycles of conferences to verify how practicable the idea of a structure was in the municipality where Ernest Hemingway stayed in the 50s. Subsequently developing relationships and contacts with half the world. They succeeded, making room in the Steering Committee for two other prestigious Italian physicists: Mauro Valli of Wisdom and Pietro Benetti Genolini of King's College London.
CERN in Geneva and three sister American universities
In a few weeks, the 29 May, will start the international physics seminar, which in 2022 brought 80 physicists from all over the world to Pollica. Cilento wants to be part of the world geography of the studies of an extraordinary discipline. ” It is a result that fills us with pride and pushes us to invest more and more on the quality of our appointment” say the three promoters. Their satisfaction is made more meaningful by the presence in the Scientific Committee of members of the Italian Institute of Physics, of CERN in Geneva, of the three American universities and of Luciano Maiani, Director General of CERN in Geneva. Maiani is also known for being the second Italian to hold the role of Director of Cern, after Carlo Rubbia, Nobel Prize in 1984. ” In 2015 we bet on an area known for its hospitality and its natural beauty – explains Mario Martone, President of the Pollica Physics Centre – proposing to make it a place of study and international comparison. A project which, year after year, has grown and takes shape with the establishment of the Center and the birth of the Scientific Committee, an expression of prominent names of international research". The project on disciplines often considered complex and difficult to understand was carried out with the support of the Campania Region, the Municipality of Pollica, the Federico II University, the University of Salerno and the National Institute of Nuclear Physics. An Italian-foreign partnership that demonstrates how to create value for culture, science and context. Usually these structures are located in areas already structured for research next to Institutes, Faculties, industrial areas. The Pollica distance will be covered by technologies and telematic connections. The historic center of Pollica overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea, it is not silent about all this. The researchers and teachers have established excellent relations with the inhabitants, who, although known for their hospitality and the myth of the Mediterranean diet, have understood that theoretical physics also serves to explain and anticipate natural phenomena. Like the charm of their land which now stimulates calculations, graphs and theorems.
