Luisa Bonolis
Visiting Senior Research Fellow (Aug 2019–Sep 2025)
Dr.
Luisa Bonolis has an MA in physics from the Sapienza University of Rome and a PhD in History of Science from the University of Bari. Her work focuses on the development of the physical and astrophysical sciences in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Luisa has conducted numerous oral history projects, the results of which have been published in several volumes, and she has written on topics ranging from the evolution of cosmic ray studies, nuclear and elementary particle physics, to early thermonuclear fusion research and the rise of matter-antimatter colliders in Europe. More recently her research interests have included the emergence of relativistic astrophysics, astro-particle physics, and multi-messenger astronomy. These topics are also extensively covered in one of her most recent books (co-author: Juan Andres Leon) Astrophysics, Astronomy and Space Sciences in the History of the Max Planck Society (Brill 2023).
She has been a researcher at the MPIWG since 2013 and is now a member of the Lise Meitner Research Group. Her current project focuses on specific case studies of scientific cooperation between Italy and China in large-scale projects related to the opening of international relations at the end of the Chinese Cultural Revolution and the establishment of the field of astro-particle physics in the 1990s.
She is on the editorial board of the European Journal of Physics H - Historical Perspectives on Contemporary Physics.
Selected Publications
Bonolis, Luisa and Juan Andres León Gómez (2024). “Astronomie, Astrophysik und die Erforschung des Weltraums.” In Die Max-Planck-Gesellschaft: Wissenschafts- und Zeitgeschichte 1945–2005, ed. J. Renn, C. Reinhardt, J. Kocka, F. Schmaltz, B. Kolboske, J. Balcar, and A. von Schwerin, 292–306. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. https://doi.org/10.13109/9783666993640.203.
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Bonolis, Luisa, Alessandra Vittorini Orgeas, and Antonio Bianconi, eds. (2024). Majorana, Ettore: Sulla meccanica dei nuclei radioattivi: la tesi di laurea di una mente geniale. Roma: Gattomerlino.
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Bonolis, Luisa, Franco Buccella, and Giulia Pancheri (2024). “Raul Gatto and Bruno Touschek’s Joint Legacy in the Rise of Electron-positron Physics.” The European Physical Journal H 49 (Article 24). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjh/s13129-024-00086-3.
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Bonolis, Luisa (2023). “Bruno Touschek (1921–1978): The Path to Electron-Positron Collisions.” In Bruno Touschek 100 Years: Memorial Symposium 2021, ed. L. Bonolis, L. Maiani, and G. Pancheri, 9–31. Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-23042-4_2.
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Bonolis, Luisa, Luciano Maiani, and Giulia Pancheri, eds. (2023). Bruno Touschek 100 Years: Memorial Symposium 2021. Springer Proceedings in Physics 287. Cham: Springer . https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-23042-4.
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Projects
Exploring the Highest Energies in the Universe: An Italian-Chinese Joint Venture in Cosmic-Ray Astronomy
Presentations, Talks, & Teaching Activities
Physics Department of Sapienza University of Rome, Frascati National Laboratories and Accademia dei Lincei
Physics Department, Sapienza University of Rome
107th National Conference of the Italian Physical Society (SIF)
Round Table: Probing the Cosmos in the Time of Multiplicity. A Historical Scientific Dialogue, with Barry Barish (University of California, Riverside), Reinhard Genzel (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching), Malcolm Longair (Cambridge University), Christian Spiering (DESY), Alan Watson (University of Leeds).
XL National Conference of the Italian Society of Historians of Physics and Astronomy (SISFA)
Annual Meeting of the Italian Society for the History of Physics and Astronomy.
European Gravitational Observatory-VIRGO Cascina (Pisa)
XXXIX National Conference of the Italian Society of Historians of Physics and Astronomy (SISFA)
Conference Luigi Bianchi. Between Galois & Einstein.
École Normale Supérieure (Paris), Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere e Arti, Venice.
CERN, Geneva.
European Week of Astronomy and Space Science, Prague.
Symposium Relativity at 100, European Week of Astronomy and Space Science.
Annual Meeting of the European Astronomical Society, Prague.
Prague. Symposium "Enduring Ideas, New Alliances: Social and Epistemic Factors in the Renaissance of General Relativity", 7th European Society for the History of Science Conference
The Birth of Research on Nuclear Fusion in Italy
Sapienza University, Rome. Department of Astronautical, Electrical and Energy Engineering.
International Solvay Institutes, Bruxelles
Harnack House, Berlin. A Century of General Relativity
XIV Marcel Grossmann Meeting. Sapienza University, Rome
DESY, Hamburg
International School for Advanced Studies, Trieste
Bad Saarow/Pieskow
University of Basilicata, Potenza, Italy
Courses at the Annual Winter School on History of Physics organized by the Italian Association for Physics Teaching (A.I.F.)