INFN-LNF Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati
The Minister of University and Research, Anna Maria Bernini, visited today, Friday, June 13, 2025, the Frascati National Laboratory, LNF, of the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN).
Minister Bernini was welcomed by the President of INFN, Antonio Zoccoli, the Director of the LNF, Paola Gianotti, the General Director of INFN, Attilio Sequi, and representatives of the scientific community of the Laboratory. The Mayor of Frascati, Francesca Sbardella, was also present. After a presentation of the research programs carried out by INFN and future prospects, Minister Bernini visited the SPARC_LAB accelerator, where experiments are conducted to produce particle acceleration using plasma, the Bruno Touschek Visitor Centre, an exhibition dedicated to the history of particle physics, and the matter-antimatter collider DAΦNE.
“We were very pleased to welcome the Minister of University and Research Anna Maria Bernini to the Frascati National Laboratory, the cradle of INFN, where in the 1960s the world’s first matter-antimatter collider was built,” commented Antonio Zoccoli, president of INFN. “We accompanied Minister Bernini on a visit to the sites where we are carrying out our most ambitious initiatives, such as the EuPRAXIA project, funded by MUR with over 100 million euros in infrastructure funds, which will provide Europe with a distributed infrastructure of compact and innovative accelerators. This project, which has its coordination headquarters at LNF of INFN, is based on the use of innovative plasma acceleration technology.”
Director Paola Gianotti commented: “I am very proud that the Minister wanted to see firsthand the National Laboratories of Frascati and learn about our research and our community. I am confident that the interest she has shown in the activities of INFN in general and those of LNF in particular will remain strong. I hope there will soon be new opportunities for meetings and dialogue between politics and the research world, in the common interest of investing available resources in the best possible way, for the good of the country.”