Institute
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Research & Teaching
The INFN division of Pavia is hosted at the Department of Physics of Pavia University and works in close connection with it. In this division all the five areas of interest of the INFN are represented. The division was instituted in 1972, but there was already a group in 1962.
The Department of Physics of the Pavia University was established in 2012 from the conjuncion of the Department of Physics A. Volta and the Department of Nuclear and Theoretical Physics.
It inherits a long history and tradition in physics research, which dates back to Girolamo Cardano (1501-1576) and includes among its most distinguished exponents Alessandro Volta, who in 1778 was called to direct the Physics Cabinet of the University.
At present, research activities of the Physics Department fall traditionally into two main areas. One concerns the physics of fundamental interactions (nuclear and subnuclear physics, elementary particles), astrophysics, theoretical physics (theory of nuclei and of fundamental interactions, statistical mechanics, foundations of quantum mechanics). The other one is about physics of matter, both experimental and theoretical.
Other important research concerns educational and historical physics as well as scientific museology, with dissemination activities
Beyond traditional research of fundamental character, growing importance is given to applied and interdisciplinary physics, especially related to areas of great strategical interest such as health and biomedical physics, radioprotection and radiobiology, renewable energies and photovoltaics, cultural heritage, Information and Communication Technologies, econophysics. The INFN local division and the Department also collaborate with CNAO (Centro Nazionale di Adroterapia Oncologica), the newborn facility for the treatment of cancer deseases with hadron beams.
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