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News from ICTP 114 - Profile
GianCarlo Ghirardi, one of Italy's most prominent physicists, recently celebrated his 70th birthday.
Passion for Physics
GianCarlo Ghirardi
Last 5 September, in a jam-packed
Main Lecture Hall, ICTP celebrated the 70th birthday of GianCarlo
Ghirardi, a leading scientist in the field of quantum mechanics,
professor of theoretical physics at the University of Trieste
and long-time ICTP consultant. The conference--"Are There
Quantum Jumps? On the Present Status of Quantum Mechanics"--attracted
some of the world's most celebrated high-energy physicists, including
Roger Penrose, Oxford University, UK, and Stephen L. Adler, Institute
for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
The conference also reunited the three authors of the so-called
GRW theory, derived from the initials of its proponents: GianCarlo
Ghirardi, Alberto Rimini (University of Pavia, Italy)
and Tullio Weber (University of Trieste). The theory aimed
to reconcile the paradoxical behaviour of quantum mechanics in
the subatomic world with the more predictable behaviour of particles
in the macroscopic world that we all experience.
GianCarlo Ghirardi, who was born and raised in Milan, Italy, earned
a doctorate degree in physics from the University of Milan in
1959. He then moved to Trieste in August 1963 where he assumed
a full-time teaching position with the theoretical physics group
at the University of Trieste. "The year before", he
recalls, "I was fortunate enough to attend the first-ever
international seminar in theoretical physics in Trieste that was
organised by Paolo Budinich and Abdus Salam. The event, held at
Miramare Castle's horse stables, took place just two years before
the establishment of ICTP in Trieste. I could hardly imagine that
over the next 40 years I would be immersed in the life and activities
of such a prestigious institution."
At the University of Trieste, Ghirardi has focussed his teaching
on quantum mechanics (to which he has recently added a course
on new frontiers in quantum mechanics). He has taught related
courses on the same subject at the International School for Advanced
Studies (SISSA), ICTP's next-door institute. Teaching assignments
abroad have included brief stints at the University of Cincinnati,
Ohio, USA, and the University of Santiago, Chile.
Scattering theories and quantum symmetry were Ghirardi's first
fields of interest and these subjects served as focal points of
his book, Symmetry Principles in Quantum Theories, which
he coauthored with Luciano Fonda, a close friend and colleague
at the University of Trieste's Department of Theoretical Physics.
Ghirardi earned a full professorship in 1976 and from 1981 to
1985 he served as head of the University of Trieste's Institute
of Theoretical Physics, housed at ICTP's Main Building. He was
appointed to the position two additional times, from 1985-1991
and from 1993-1999 when the Institute was reconstituted into the
Department of Theoretical Physics.
"Serving as director for nearly 20 years proved very fruitful
for me both in terms of my research and career development,"
Ghirardi says. "And it also proved fruitful for the Centre's
scientific staff. In 1982 I secured an agreement between the University
and ICTP that led to even closer collaboration between the institutions.
At the same time, as an ICTP consultant, I acted as a local organiser
for a large number of courses in medical physics, neurophysics
and soil physics. In 1990 Abdus Salam appointed me head of the
Associates and Federation Arrangements Programmes, a position
that I have maintained ever since. And in 2003 I was named president
of the Consorzio per l'incremento degli studi e delle ricerche
in fisica, the organisation responsible for co-ordinating
the wide-ranging physics groups in Trieste."
Ghirardi has two great personal passions beyond his scientific
research. The first is a deep interest in the history and philosophy
of physics. He is one of the founders and first president of the
Italian Society for the Foundations of Physics and is author of
a book on quantum mechanics, Un'occhiata alle carte di Dio,
published in 1997 by Il Saggiatore in Milan, which has sold some
20,000 copies and was translated last year by Princeton University
Press under the title, Sneaking a Look at God's Cards.
His second deep interest is known only by his closest friends:
a collection of about 350 banknotes from 70 countries in which
the portraits of eminent scientists appear. Of notable value,
with several extremely rare pieces, "it is perhaps the most
complete collection of 'scientific' banknotes in the world. Sooner
or later I would like to organise a public exhibition."
