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PEOPLE
A NEW ROADMAP FOR EUROPEAN RESEARCH IN ASTROPARTICLE PHYSICS
Interview with Aldo Ianni, researcher at INFN Gran Sasso National Laboratories, newly-elected Chairman of the APPEC (Astroparticle Physics European Consortium) Scientific Committee.
Solar neutrinos, geoneutrinos, the phenomenology of neutrino interactions, and the search for dark matter with liquid argon and sodium iodide detectors: this is the perimeter within which Aldo Ianni moves, and to which he has dedicated his research activities, since 2001, in the world's most important laboratory for underground astroparticle physics research, INFN Gran Sasso National Laboratories (LNGS). At LNGS, Ianni has taken on various roles, from head of the Research Division to being in charge, in 2021, of Science Strategy and International Collaboration between underground laboratories, which marked the beginning of his collaboration with APPEC (Astroparticle Physics European Consortium), the consortium that coordinates research activities in astroparticle physics in Europe. And it is with his election as Chairman of the consortium's Scientific Committee, last month, that a broader horizon and a major challenge opened up for Ianni: charting the direction of European research in astroparticle physics for the next decade. The 2027-2036 roadmap will identify strategic research projects in which to invest in Europe, taking into account the goals of the scientific community, national strategic plans, and technical and financial feasibility. We asked Aldo to tell us how it will be drafted and what challenges he expects to encounter in the process.
Let’s start with an overview of research in astroparticle physics. Where do we stand? What are the open issues?
Astroparticle physics is a vast field of study, inaugurated rather recently. In fact, astroparticle physics was born at the end of the 1980s, just before one of its founders, the Russian scientist Veniamin Berezinsky, started his research activities right here at Gran Sasso.NEWS
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A SEPTEMBER OF EVENTS ACROSS FESTIVALS AND THE EUROPEAN RESEARCHERS' NIGHT