Coordinators: Raffaella Simili Sandra Linguerri

Poster made by Leopoldo Metlicovitz for the Milan International Exposition (1906). Roma, December 2018 - PTA Cover of L’Illustrazione italiana, XXVI-6, 1899: I nuovi treni elettrici Milano-Monza<br>

The result of our research have been presented in papers, submitted in conferences, disseminated during seminars and University lessons:

- M. Focaccia, Dal vapore al trasporto elettrico-I primi esperimenti in Italia agli albori del XX secolo (From steam to electric transport - The first experiments in Italy at the dawn of the twentieth century), QUADERNI DI STORIA DELLA FISICA (in press).

- M. Focaccia, Pietro Blaserna and the Birth of the Institute of Physics in Rome - A Gentleman Scientist at Via Panisperna, (translation of Uno scienziato galantuomo a via Panisperna. Pietro Blaserna e la nascita dell’Istituto fisico di Roma, in press, Springer Biographies- in collaboration with SIF)

2018- (report by invitation) M. Focaccia, Bologna nel Settecento: un paradiso per le donne, in L’internazionalizzazione al femminile, Dept. of Mathematics, Bologna, in collaboration with ADU, National Science Plan, October 24

2018 (communication after selection) M. Focaccia, Elettrificazione e Illuminazione in Italia tra Otto e Novecento, CIV National Congress, SIF, University of Calabria, September 19

2018 (pre-selection report) M. Focaccia, Pietro Blaserna and the Institute of Physics of Rome: a multiform view of science between unity and disunity, European Society for the History of Science, Biennial Conference, London, 15 September

2018 (seminar by invitation) M. Focaccia, Scienza a 2 voci: biografie di scienziate, in Biografie, percorsi e networks nell’età contemporanea. Un approccio transnazionale tra ricerca, didattica e Public History, Forlì, 26 May

Seminars and lectures were organized in collaboration with the professorships of History of Science (LM in Philosophical Sciences, Department of Philosophy and Communication, University of Bologna) and History of Science and Techniques (LM in Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage, School of Arts and Cultural Heritage, University of Bologna - Campus of Ravenna). Roma, December 2018 - PTA Italian Electrification and Lighting between the Nineteenth and Twentieth century<br>

Deliverables 2019

Publication of scientific papers and articles

National and international conference activities

High scientific dissemination: organization of events, seminars, exhibitions Italian Electrification and Lighting between the Nineteenth and Twentieth century Roma, December 2018 - PTA<br>

Plan of activities 2019 - 2021

For the next three years it was decided to rename the project: "The Institute of Physics between the two Wars: Orso Mario Corbino and Enrico Fermi”, conceived in the context of the renovated headquarters of the Fermi Center,
The project intends to retrace the history of the Institute of Physics since 1918 and in the following twenty years.
The research will focus on three main lines:

1- The leadership of Orso Mario Corbino (1918-1937).
Continuing the work begun with the study of the scientific biography of the first director, Pietro Blaserna (1836-1918), we intend to deepen the figure and the work of his successor, the physicist Orso Mario Corbino (1876 -1937). Corbino was called in Rome by Blaserna, together with Volterra and Cannizzaro and he directed the Institute of Physics from 1918 until his death.
The research aims at analyzing how and how much the Institute became a real creative environment, as other famous international research centers, where the physics focused on the most modern and innovative fields, such as the “new physics” of the nucleus. This was possible, first of all, thanks to the expertise, both scientific and organizational, and the vision of the new director Corbino. We want to focus on its biography and its scientific work starting from his rich correspondence, its numerous writings on the state of the discipline, his institutional novelties, his activity as a Politician -Minister of the Public Education and of the Economy - and his collaborations with other illustrious scientists (for ex. Guglielmo Marconi) as well as with the management of the electro-technical industries.
We will examine the abundant manuscript and largely unpublished material preserved in the Amaldi Archives in Rome and in the Historical Archive of La Sapienza; the material conserved in the State Archive, in the Accademy of Lincei and National Academy of Sciences, called the XL, archives; the copious correspondence preserved in various libraries and archives. Italian Electrification and Lighting between the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Roma, December 2018 - PTA<br>

2- The position of the Institute within an international overview.
We intend to focus on some particularly significant events both at the institutional (for example relationships with other research centers or the creation of the Radio Office), and at the communication level (for example the high diffusion of scientific culture, in particular of Physics). In fact, in this period the most accurate scientists were perfectly aware of the importance of conveying science and new discoveries, both theoretical and applicative, towards a wider and more varied audience.
In this regard, we will also examine the editorial and museum activities, the organization of exhibitions and conferences, with particular attention to the first International Congress of Nuclear Physics of 1931 in Rome, organized by Corbino, together with Guglielmo Marconi and with Enrico Fermi secretary, in which the principal physicists of the time took part.

We have already started with the examination of some scientific journals of the time, both national and international (Il Nuovo Cimento, Rendiconti dell’Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, La Nuova Antologia, Nature, etc.) Italian Electrification and Lighting between the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century<br>

Orso Mario Corbino (1876-1937) 1931, Nuclear Physics Congress, Rome<br>

3- Presence and scientific contribution of women both within and outside of the Institute, and in particular, their cooperation with Fermi.
In a context of gender studies, we want to study and highlight the work and figures of some women, Italian or foreign, who collaborated with Enrico Fermi or who had with him the mutual interest in radioactivity studies.
Among the Italians, Rita Brunetti during the period of Fermi in Florence, and Nella Mortara in Rome.
As far as it concerns the period spent by Fermi in the USA after 1938 he collaborated with Joan Hinton during the Manhattan Project; with Leona Woods at the University of Chicago and other laboratories; with Maria Goeppert-Mayer - Nobel Prize in 1963 - with whom he shared fruitful exchanges of ideas.
The project, already started, includes biographies, memories and quotations, exchanges of letters, scientific publications, archival and unpublished material. Italian Electrification and Lighting between the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Roma, December 2018 - PTA<br>

From the left seated: Enrico Fermi, Nello Carrara, Franco Rasetti. Behind, Rita Brunetti.
Firenze 1925<br>

“Chicago pile-1”, 2 December 1946 (4th anniversary) Roma, December 2018 - PTA<br>