About INFN Padova
In the early 50’s Padua was one of the research groups, together with Milan, Rome and Turin, that founded the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), created to coordinate and support the activities of the first research groups in fundamental physics in the Italian Universities after the second world war.
Padova Division, with more than 120 employees and about 60 associated professors and researchers, is still one of the largest INFN centres. Since the initial studies about cosmic rays, carried on at Padua by Bruno Rossi as a pioneer, the research activities of this division have increased and expanded through the years and nowadays cover the most advanced fields of particle, astro-particle and nuclear physics and of instrumental and technological research.
International research
Since the beginning Padua researchers have taken advantage from intense international scientific contacts, giving their contribution to the main scientific enterprises carried out in leading labs all over the world. In 2017 Padova Division hosted more than 60 scientists from foreign institutions, to collaborate in its research activities, and invited about the same number of colleagues to present their research results.
Padua researchers have given relevant contributions to both experimental and theoretical branches of physics and have been in charge of important roles at a national and international level. Two examples are Federico Antinori and Roberto Carlin, leaders of two of the four large international collaborations of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, a result that is extraordinary for the Division and unique between the research centres at a world level.
Scientific training
INFN Padova Division is hosted by the Department of Physics and Astronomy of Padova University, with which it has an active and fruitful collaboration, and carries on part of its acitivities at the Nazional Laboratories of Legnaro (LNL).
Every year about fifty Master students, about 70% of the physics graduates in Padua, write their thesis about INFN research subjects. A similar precentage of PhD students take part in the research activities of INFN Padova or LNL.
A fundamental contribution is also given by dozens of young researchers that every year decide to start their scientific career with a scholarship or a research grant at INFN Padua.
Organization and activities
The Division is organized to provide the research activities with the necessary services, in the fields of administration, management and mechanical, electronics and computing technologies. Taking advantage from the developed expertise, Padua employees have designed and built some fundamental components of large experimental equipments and computing infrastructures, necessary for the INFN researchers to face the typical challenges of the frontier research.
The Division is also committed to the community outreach, in particular in schools, and to finding collaborations with local institutions and technology transfer opportunities to the local industries. INFN is an education centre approved by Regione Veneto and Padova division is mainly active in the trainig of young graduates.