History of Physics

• Italian Physical Society (SIF)

  The way we were. The first Congress of Italian Physical Society (SIF) after the Second World War. Como, 5-7 November 1947. For a brief history of SIF see here

• Gruppo Nazionale di Struttura della Materia (GNSM)

  In 1965 the Gruppo Nazionale di Struttura della Materia (GNSM - National Group of Structure of Matter) was founded. It was a time of unequal development of physics branches and, generally speaking, of scientific disciplines. The scholars of the physics of matter began to publish a "Notiziario" to "diffuse information and comments on the advances of a physics branch that has been rapidly developing in the last years, the physics of aggregate states of matter: atoms, molecules, solid state, liquid state".

  For background on this period, see:

  Physics of matter in Italy: 1945-1965 - Giuseppe Giuliani
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  La nascita della fisica della materia: 1945-1965 - I. Bonizzoni e G. Giuliani; in: G. Giuliani (a cura di), Per una storia della fisica italiana (1945-1965), I., 1-34, Pavia, (2002)
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  Bollettini del GNSM (Gruppo Nazionale di Struttura della Materia del CNR) negli anni 1966-1969:

  • Ottobre 1966
  • Gennaio 1967
  • Aprile 1967
  • Luglio 1967
  • Ottobre 1967
  • Gennaio 1968
  • Aprile-Luglio 1968
  • Ottobre 1968 - Numero speciale
  • Aprile 1969

• From INFN to INFM: The Long Battle

  After Fermi departed for the United States (1938), his heritage has been taken up by Edoardo Amaldi (1908-1989). After the Second World War, in the context of the general weakness of scientific structures and increasing interest in nuclear research applications, Amaldi was able to embed the research on elementary particles into the stream of applied nuclear research. The outcome was an unequal development of the various branches of Physics and Physics among the other experimental disciplines. The creation of the INFN (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare - National Institute of Nuclear Physics) in 1951 and its subsequent independent financial support assured by law (1971) constituted, for its structure, its autonomy and its budget, a privileged exception in the horizon of Italian research.

  Starting from the sixties, Luigi Giulotto (1911-1986) began, among others, a long-lasting cultural and political battle aimed at an equilibrated development of physical research: the Physics of Matter, whose technological outcome was of strategic relevance, was severely underdeveloped. However, Giulotto's commitment, though based on correct analysis and sustained, eventually, by ambitious goals - to obtain what would be later called INFM (National Institute for the Physics of Matter) - has been hampered by tactical errors and resentful polemics. The path has been difficult: the INFM was founded only in 1994.

  Two essays were written by Luigi Giulotto, with a preface by Antonio Casella:
  La politica della ricerca scientifica: due interventi di Luigi Giulotto, Antonio Casella. Tratto da: Per una storia della fisica italiana: 1945-1965. Vol. I. A cura di G. Giuliani, Pavia, 2002.

• An organization similar to INFN and INFM has been recently (2001) also acquired by astrophysicists through the foundation of the INAF (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica - National Institute of Astrophysics).

  In 2003, the government of Mr. Berlusconi, disregarding the historical development and its lessons (and without any wariness about the fate of a young research structure and its impact on a strategic research field), inserted the INFM into the restructured CNR (National Council of Research), leaving outside the other two National Institutes (INFN, INAF): see (in particular, article 23).

• Giulotto asks for a INFN sub-unit in Pavia

  As said above, the process that ended in the foundation of INFM was complex. In the fifties, several small groups of physicists working on the physics of matter have been financed by INFN; at the end of the fifties, a Commission for the Structure of Matter of the INFN was formed. Of course, the amount of money given to these groups was an insignificant fraction of INFN budget. Giulotto, too, asked for the constitution of a research sub-unit in Pavia.

  Giulotto and Specchia proposal to Bernardini. February, 8, 1960

  Bernardini's response. February, 18, 1960

  Amaldi's response. March, 12, 1960

  The letter dated January 1960 is from Edoardo Amaldi to the Italian Nuclear Physics Institute's Scientific Committee chaired by himself. Here the President of the Scientific Committee proposes the constitution of Sections for "Structure of Matter" in some cities, in particular, in Pavia.

  Giulotto's answer, in March, here.

  The subunit was formally created on March 11, 1960 by a resolution of the Scientific Committee here.

  Only later, Giulotto began his battle against the "privileges" of INFN.

• Giulotto's Campaign for Physics of Matter

  Among the first steps taken by Giulotto, we must recall a letter sent to the Minister of Industry and other personalities about the physics research in Italy. This letter contains many of the themes of Giulotto's campaign, in particular, the proposal for the foundation of a National Institute similar to the INFN for the physics of matter or the transformation of the INFN into a National Istitute of Physics. Later, Giulotto entered a debate promoted by an Italian magazine with a letter addressed to several Institutions (1966). On the same day, Giulotto sent another letter to the same Institutions on a possible government decree concerning the INFN. This decree was approved on July 26, 1967: it endowed the INFN with autonomy and direct financial support from the government. On September 2, 1967, Giulotto wrote again about this decree; the answer of the Minister of "Pubblica Istruzione", Luigi Gui, was not a formal one. Giulotto next step was an open letter to the deputies, followed by a request of information about the INFN: 1, 2. The letter to the deputies fired a violent polemics at a meeting of the Italian Physical Society (Bollettino della Società Italiana di Fisica, n. 66, 9-17, 1969): a Giulotto's statement ("...the chiefs of this association [INFN]...have been in a condition of strengthening their dominance over Italian research by assuring research and personal grants to their friends, and by the control of numerous competitions for University chairs...") gave rise to a violent reaction characterized by heavy personal attacks, while the substantial points of Giulotto's position were largely neglected. Angelo Loinger, with his stinging style, remarked this point (Bollettino della Società Italiana di Fisica, n. 67, 15, 1969).

• In his campaign, Giulotto addressed all political parties. As an example, let us see some correspondence from Giulotto, who was certainly a moderate, with representatives of the Communist party. Here Umberto Terracini, then President of the group of the Communist Senators, discusses Giulotto's position on the state of the Italian research; Giulotto's comment. The correspondence with Giorgio Piovano, then a Senator from Pavia, is interesting. Piovano, intrigued by Giulotto's letter to the deputies, asks for a talk (December 5, 1968). On January, 11, 1969, Piovano sends to Giulotto a draft of a question about the INFN to be addressed to the Government; Giulotto approves enthusiastically. On March, 1, 1969, in sending the response on a query concerning the ICTP of Trieste, Piovano says "I haven't yet received an answer to my query about the INFN. However, I have been pressed from many sides and reproached as if I have made an enormity"; Giulotto's comment. Generally speaking, the parties' response assured a formal interest; only the Communist party response was based on a party's stand on the subject.

• About 1975, Giulotto's tactic changed from an almost solitary campaign to a coordinated action aiming at definite goals. On February 13, 1975, Giulotto participated in a hearing of the VII Commission of Italian Senate named "Inquiry into scientific research in Italy". By then, the issues stressed by Giulotto many years before had become the subject of a wide debate, not only among physicists of matter. In 1976, Giulotto was in charge by GNSM prepared a document entitled "Sulla struttura degli enti di ricerca nel campo della fisica - Disfunzioni e nodi politici" (On the structure of research institutes in the physics field - Malfunctions and political knots).

• In December 1977, 197 researchers signed a document asking for the foundation of an "Istituto Nazionale di Struttura della Materia" (National Institute of the Structure of Matter). However, relevant names and research units needed to be included in the list of subscribers. For instance, the Genova research unit wrote: "...we are worried about the possibility of a complete separation of University research from CNR...which has, among its institutional tasks, acting as a go-between towards applications. This possibility of encouraging a better coexistence between fundamental research and applications will be missing in the new Institute, as it is, in fact, in the INFN...". These discussions about Italian research and its organization must be viewed in the context of a wider debate concerning the University reform. This debate is well exemplified in an article by Carlo Schaerf appeared in November 1978. At that time, the debate about the University reform was more than 10 years old, since it started in 1967 with the proposal of law number 2314 by the then Minister of "Pubblica Istruzione" Luigi Gui and flared up during the students' movement of 1968.

• On January 26, 1978, the Physics Committee of CNR took an interesting position on the "197's document". The Committee acknowledges that "the problem raised...is real and deserves attention. In particular, [the Committee] acknowledges the relevance that a vital branch of physics, with interesting connections with problems of industrial innovation, could strengthen its action of coordination and national planning ...It is also evident that the present structure of GNSM as a National Group of CNR does not allow funding adequate to the research needs and, above all, does not guarantee the continuity that is necessary for the development of quinquennium plans nor allows taking quick and efficient decisions that are required by application problems. As for the suggested solutions, the Committee cannot take a position. ...However, the Committee holds that there should be a panel that compares and affects programs and funding of the various branches of a discipline."

Here is a list of significant publications related to the history of physics in Italy:

• La Fisica nucleare a Pavia

  A. Piazzoli, D. Scannicchio, La Goliardica Pavese (1998), with a preface by G. Giuliani.

• L'Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare. Storia di una comunità di ricerca

  Edited by G. Battimelli, Laterza (2001)

• Per una storia della fisica italiana: 1945-1965.(I)

  Edited by G. Giuliani, La Goliardica Pavese (2002).

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• Physics of matter in Italy: 1945-1965

  G. Giuliani (2003)

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• Per una storia della fisica italiana: 1945-1965. II. La fisica dei semiconduttori

  Paolantonio Marazzini, Marco Rossi (2005).

  Preface by G. Giuliani PDF

• The Origins of Semiconductors Physics in Italy: 1945-1965

  Marco Rossi, Quaderni di Storia della Fisica, 14, 3-25, 2007.

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