Pietro Monti-Guarnieri, a PhD student in Physics at the University of Trieste and the Trieste Section of the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN), took third place in the local selection of FameLab, the international competition that sees young talents in popular science competing against each other.

His place on the podium, while rewarding his great passion and enthusiasm for his field of research, will not allow the UniTS PhD student to move forward in the competition. Instead, it will be the young scientists ranked in the top two places, Arshia Ruina and Meriem Behiri, who will advance to the national final.

Physicist Arshia Ruina, who came in first place, is a postdoctoral fellow at lNFN - section of Padua. Her clear presentation and fascinating subject matter focused on the particles that constantly ‘rain’ down on us, delivering endless information about the Universe and its history.

In second place was Meriem Behiri, a PhD student in Astrophysics and Cosmology at SISSA in Trieste, who showed enthusiasm, clarity and passion in her presentation on radio waves and their extraordinary capabilities.

The audience prize, for an audience composed of students from Galilei, Carducci-Dante and Deledda-Fabiani high schools of Trieste and the Buonarroti High School of Monfalcone, went to Denise Khouri Chalouhi from ICGeB, who fascinated all with tales of ‘good’ bacteria.

The contestants convinced a jury composed of Nicola Bressi (Trieste Natural History Museum), Giulia Casasole (SISSA), Emanuela Colombi (University of Udine) and Francesco Longo (University of Trieste) with their presentations, sticking meticulously to the three-minute time limit.

The event, presented by Daniele Tavagnacco, researcher OATs-INAF and University of Trieste, was also enlivened by a talk on artificial intelligence, by Francesco Giacomarra, University of Trieste, winner of FameLab Italia 2023, and an interlude by the Trieste Science + Fiction Festival – La Cappella Underground.

FameLab is an international competition held in Italy since 2012 thanks to Psiquadro, and in collaboration with Cheltenham Festivals and all local partners. For Trieste, these partners are Immaginario Scientifico Science Musuem, the University of Trieste, the University of Udine, SISSA and the Municipality of Trieste, as part of the Trieste City of Knowledge Protocol.