 |
 |
 |
 |
PEOPLE
NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND MEDICINE: THE CHALLENGE OF SPES AT LEGNARO NATIONAL LABORATORIES
Interview with Faïçal Azaïez, Director of INFN Legnaro National Laboratories
Interview with Faïçal Azaïez, Director of INFN Legnaro National Laboratories Particle accelerators, radiation detectors, technology transfer activities: the complex machine of INFN Legnaro National Laboratories addresses challenges in various fields ranging from nuclear physics and astrophysics to interdisciplinary research, and is entrusted, as of 2023, to Faïçal Azaïez. Former Director of the Institute for Nuclear Physics of Orsay in France and the iThemba Laboratory for Accelerator Based Science in South Africa, Azaïez has very clear goals for Legnaro's direction: to make these national Laboratories a world reference for science and technology. We met with him to hear about the present, but more importantly, the future of this center for low-energy nuclear physics.
You have been appointed Director of Legnaro National Laboratories (LNL) in 2023. How was your first year as Director? Did it meet your expectations?
It has gone far beyond that! I have never found such a positive and collaborative work environment as the one I found at INFN and LNL. Then, from the perspective of my assignment and the work to be done, I had a pretty clear idea of what to expect. You have to imagine nuclear physics as a family, where all the members know each other.NEWS
RESEARCH
CAPTURING THE ACCRETION FLOW OF M87* BLACK HOLE
Six years after the publication of the historic image of the supermassive black hole M87*, the first capturing a black hole, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration unveils a new analysis of M87*.
RESEARCH
FERMI CONFIRMS SIGNIFICANT PERIODICITY IN GAMMA-RAY EMISSION FROM A BLAZAR R
The international collaboration of NASA’s Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) mission, in which INFN participates, analysing over 15 years of observations, has confirmed a significant periodic oscillation in the gamma-ray electromagnetic flux and in other electromagnetic bands emitted by the relativistic jet of blazar PG 1553+113, about 5 billion light-years from Earth.
EINSTEIN TELESCOPE
SIGNED AN INTER-AGENCY AGREEMENT FOR THE PROMOTION OF SOS ENATTOS CANDIDACY
On 19 December, the Autonomous Region of Sardinia, the Universities of Cagliari and Sassari, INFN, INAF National Institute for Astrophysics and INGV National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology signed an inter-agency agreement for the coordination and promotion in Sardinia of initiatives to support the candidacy of the Sos Enattos mining site to host the Einstein Telescope.
TECHNOLOGIES
A NEW GENERATION OF PLASTIC SCINTILLATORS THANKS TO 3D PRINTING
Innovative ultrafast plastic scintillators have been created for the first time through 3D printing as part of the research project called SHINE (Plastic Scintillators Phantom via Additive Manufacturing Techniques), funded by the National Scientific Commission 5 of INFN.
COLLABORATION AGREEMENTS
BAMBINO GESÙ PEDIATRIC HOSPITAL AND INFN TOGETHER FOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT OF ONCOLOGICAL RADIOPHARMACEUTICALS
On 19 December, Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital and INFN signed a five-year collaboration agreement to enhance the study and development of radiopharmaceuticals, to improve oncological radiotherapy techniques and to contribute to the optimization of increasingly precise and personalized treatments.
COLLABORATION AGREEMENTS
MUR, LAZIO REGION AND INFN TOGETHER FOR THE FUTURE OF PLASMA ACCELERATORS
The MUR Ministry of University and Research, the Lazio Region and INFN signed a four-year collaboration agreement on December 19 for the EuPRAXIA project (European Plasma Research Accelerator with Excellence In Applications) at the INFN Frascati National Laboratories.
FOCUS
THE ELECTRON-ION COLLIDER ALSO SPEAKS ITALIAN
While in the last century we have acquired fundamental notions about the atom and the force that explains the interactions between the atomic nucleus and the electrons orbiting around it (the electromagnetic force), we still miss the details of what happens inside the nucleus. This microcosm is dominated by a force, the strong interaction, that binds the protons and neutrons of which it is composed, and the quarks, the elementary particles that make them up. With the aim of better understanding it, the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York will equip itself with a new machine: ...
IN FEBRUARY THE STEM AND FERMI DAYS