Scientific Contents and Goals

The project was conceived as part of the renovation of the historic headquarters of the Physics Historical Museum and the Enrico Fermi Study and Research Centre (CREF). Its aim is to trace the history of the Royal Institute of Physics during the period when it was located in via Panisperna, preserving and disseminating the memory of its protagonists and of the research carried out here at a time when Italian physics was at the forefront of the international scene.

Following on from the work begun with the study of the scientific biography of the founder and first director of the Royal Institute of Physics, Pietro Blaserna (1836-1918), we will study the figure and work of his successor, the physicist Orso Mario Corbino (1876- 1937), with particular attention to some of the most significant events linked to his management, with particular reference to relations with Enrico Fermi and his group of collaborators.

Furthermore, in the context of gender studies, we will study and highlight the work and personalities of some scientists who worked at the Royal Institute of Physics during: Matilde Marchesini and Margarethe Traube, Evangelina Bottero and Carolina Magistrelli, Nella Mortara, Laura Capon and Ginestra Giovene.

Secondly, Enrico Fermi’s cooperation with women scientists during the American period (1939-1954). Among the names under study Joan Hinton, who worked with Fermi on the Manhattan Project; Leona Woods, at the University of Chicago and other laboratories; Maria Goeppert-Mayer, Nobel Prize winner in 1963, with whom he shared research and a fruitful exchange of ideas.

Research includes correspondence, scientific publications, published and unpublished archival material.