The Milan Institute of Physics: A Research Institute from Fascism to the Reconstruction (History of Physics)

This book offers the first comprehensive and authoritative text on the history of physics in Italy’s industrial and financial capital, from the foundation of the University of Milan’s Institute of Physics in 1924 up to the early 1960s, when it moved to its current location. It includes biographies and a historical-scientific analysis of the main research topics investigated by world-renowned physicists such as Aldo Pontremoli, Giovanni Polvani, Giovanni Gentile Jr., Beppo Occhialini, and Piero Caldirola, highlighting their contributions to the development of Italian physics in a national and international context. Further, the book provides a historical perspective on the interplay of physics and politics in Italy during both the Fascist regime and the postwar reconstruction period, which led to the creation of the CISE (Centro Informazioni Studi Esperienze, a research center for applied nuclear physics, funded by private industries) in 1946, and of the Milan division of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) in 1951.

Leonardo Gariboldi is a research fellow in the History of Physics and Physics Education at the University of Milan. His research interests concern the history of nineteenth and twentieth-century physics, particularly with regard to Aldo Pontremoli, Beppo Occhialini, and the CISE nuclear research center. He teaches historical-scientific courses and cultural heritage degree courses and serves as the vice director of Brera Astronomical Museum.

Antonella Testa received her Master’s degree in Physics and a Ph.D. in the History of International Relations with Multimedia Methodologies, from the Università degli Studi di Milano. Since 1994, she has been working at the Università degli Studi di Milano; her activities focus on the history of physics and astronomy―with special attention to the history of eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth-century scientific instruments, and their related institutions―and space science. She is also involved in scientific museology for the preservation of historical heritage in the academic context and has carried out several projects on formal and informal methodologies of scientific education and dissemination. For the past five years, she has been an adjunct professor of “Conservation and Valorization of Scientific Instruments” for the “Cultural Heritage Conservation Science” Master’s degree program (Università degli Studi di Milano).

Luisa Bonolis holds a Master’s degree in Physics from Sapienza University of Rome and a Ph.D. in the History of Science from Bari University, Italy. Her main research interest is in the history of twentieth-century physics, especially focusing on the evolution of cosmic ray research and neutrino astrophysics, nuclear and elementary particle physics, high-energy astrophysics, early developments of colliders in Europe, early research on thermonuclear fusion, and oral history. Since 2013, she has been a research scholar at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, focusing on the emergence of Relativistic Astrophysics during the 1950s and early 1960s. Since joining the Research Program on the History of the Max Planck Society in 2016, she has also focused on the history of astrophysics, astronomy, cosmology, and space sciences in the Max Planck Society after WWII. Her current projects are especially focused on the emergence of astro-particle physics.