In the week celebrating International Day of Persons with Disabilities (3rd December), UniTS announces the results of the ‘Inclusive Tourism for Everyone’ Hackathon, promoted as part of the European Shaping Inclusive Tourist Experiences (SITE) project funded by the Interreg Italy-Croatia Programme 2021-2027.

The SITE project is coordinated by Lorenzo Castelli, associate professor of Operational Research at the Department of Engineering and Architecture (DIA) of the University of Trieste, in collaboration with the Trieste Inclusion and Accessibility Lab (TrIAL) research group, led by Ilaria Garofolo, full professor of Technical Architecture at the same department.

The aim of SITE is to increase the attractiveness of destinations in the programme area throughout the year by spreading a cross-border culture of Universal Design in the tourism ecosystem, thereby reducing the architectural, sensory and communication barriers that limit access for people with disabilities and other groups with specific needs, such as families and the elderly.

The Hackathon, moderated by Caterina Vidulli, founder of Central Marketing Intelligence and communication manager of the SITE project, was organised by UniTS Trieste together with the Italian and Croatian partners of the project, with the participation of the Municipality of Trieste, Promoturismo FVG, CRIBA FVG, INU (Italian Institute of Urban Planning) and the Start-Up Turismo association. 

Thirty-four university students from Italy, Croatia and Slovenia were involved, studying a variety of subjects: architecture, urban planning, languages, tourism management, social sciences and computer science. Among the mentors who supported and guided the work were experts in environmental accessibility, easy language, tourism marketing, sociologists and representatives of Cooperativa Oltre Quella Sedia.

Over the course of two days, participants were asked to develop innovative ideas and solutions that integrate the principles of universal design, with the aim of designing tourist experiences that are truly welcoming, accessible and enjoyable for everyone: people with disabilities, families, the elderly and visitors with limited language skills. The multidisciplinary groups collaborated in an atmosphere of strong creativity and problem-solving, bringing together technical, design and social skills.

A particularly significant moment was the guided tour of the city, conducted by PromoTurismo FVG with the participation of CRIBA FVG and the Cooperativa Oltre Quella Sedia. The experience allowed the teams to observe the urban context of Trieste first-hand and identify some of the main critical issues experienced by tourists when travelling around the city. 'The tour offered participants a concrete look at the difficulties that many visitors encounter on a daily basis. This is where truly attentive and inclusive tourism can begin,' says Paola Pascoli, representative of CRIBA FVG.

The winning projects

1st place – 'PathMate'

The PathMate project proposes an app that accompanies the user, adapting to their needs and enhancing their autonomy. PathMate simplifies travel planning, offers clear, multi-channel navigation and provides useful information on path characteristics and access, such as gradient and surface type. Team: Iftekhar Anwar (Computer Science, Polytechnic University of Turin), Arsenii Prostakov (Languages, ‘Federico II’ University of Naples), Anastasija Ristova (Urban Planning, University of Ljubljana), Lucija Oštarić (Tourism Management, Rijeka), Alessia Gaia Russo (Communication Design, Polytechnic University of Milan).

2nd place – ‘APO – All Paths Open’. 

A participatory system that connects tourists with disabilities or specific needs to residents who share the same condition, with the aim of building a safe, informed, sensitive and involved community. Team: Patricia Ivančić (Social Sciences, University of Rijeka), Eleonora Lazarova (Urban Planning, University of Ljubljana), Jana Krivošić (Tourism Management, Rijeka), Alessandra Airaudo (Digital Marketing, Unicusano).

3rd place – 'TourAble'

An app designed to make tourism truly accessible thanks to its inclusive, intuitive and adaptive design. TourAble encourages citizens' awareness of accessibility issues and offers barrier-free routes, activities for families and information dedicated to people with visual and cognitive disabilities. Team: Daniyar Yegeubay (Computer Science, ‘Federico II’ University of Naples), Ester Calenda Casarin (Languages, ‘Ca' Foscari’ University of Venice), Pia Ržen (Architecture, University of Ljubljana), Korina Zorić (Tourism Management, Rijeka), Marianna Capriotti (Tourism Management, University of Perugia).

‘Participating in the Inclusive Tourism for Everyone Hackathon of the SITE – Interreg ITA CRO 2021-27 project was a valuable experience, both professionally and personally. Seeing so many young people from the world of tourism working with competence, curiosity and a sense of responsibility towards a more accessible future was deeply motivating,’ said Annalisa Novacco of Willeasy, one of the members of the jury. ‘At Willeasy, we enthusiastically accepted the invitation from the Startup Turismo association, whom I sincerely thank for highlighting the role of accessibility within the programme. On this occasion, I had the honour of representing Willeasy, as a member and delegate for accessible tourism issues, helping to bring the voice of those who work every day for a more inclusive sector. Presenting the awards to the winning teams was a symbolic but significant gesture: the dialogue between those who are working today to make the world more inclusive and those who will be able to transform this vision into new standards tomorrow is the real strength of an evolving sector. The commitment and sensitivity shown by the participants confirm that innovation and attention to people are not parallel tracks, but the same direction. This is the energy needed to build a tourism industry that is capable of welcoming, understanding and truly including everyone.

The jury also included professors Ilaria Garofolo (DIA, University of Trieste) and Jelena Durkin Badurina (FTHM, University of Rijeka); Roberta Gigli, representative of the Forum of Adriatic and Ionian Cities; and Erika Kosic, representative of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region in its quality of joint secretariat of the Italy-Slovenia programme.

The other projects

The other projects presented offered diverse solutions but were united by a single inclusive vision: from the creation of universally accessible, comfortable, free, temporary modules equipped with information screens (the ‘Your Pod Stop’ project) to the development of a certification protocol for diversity-conscious services (the ‘Inclusive Tourism’ project). An app designed to connect tourists and residents with similar needs (the ‘Help’ project) and an inclusive travel platform that generates personalised maps using content verified by artificial intelligence and real data from social media (the ‘AllWays’ project) were also presented.

In addition to cash prizes for the three best projects (€ 4,000 for first place, € 2,000 for second place and € 1,000 for third place), funded by the Start-Up Turismo association, the winners will have access to mentoring sessions with the association and SITE project partners, and will be invited to the project's final international conference, to be held in Opatija (Croatia).

The Hackathon ended with a shared understanding that designing more inclusive tourism means contributing to the development of more open, welcoming and sustainable communities.

The two-day ELECTRIC SHIP SUPER STORAGE EVENT that was part of the V-ACCESS project concluded in Trieste on 3rd December. The event focused on shipboard electrification through the use of innovative technologies, such as superconductors and supercapacitors for energy storage and was attended by all the companies and university research units involved in the project.

The V-ACCESS project, coordinated by the University of Trieste, is dedicated to the development of a new generation of hybrid energy storage system (HESS), combining superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) technology based on magnesium diboride (MgB2) with supercapacitors.

Combining these two technologies to support batteries constitutes a major innovation in terms of both performance and reliability across energy storage and the release of strong energy impulses.

The strength of this technology lies in its uniqueness, and the solution proposed by the project will be applied not only in shipping and ship electrification but also in energy-intensive industrial sectors. In addition, innovation in storage systems will play a key role in power systems and will also be essential to balance energy production and consumption in electricity grids in response to the increasing integration of renewable sources and the needs of the green deal.

The V-Access project has been financed with European funds for a value of € 5,000,000 and is optimised to integrate with battery systems on board vessels. The advantage of the solution designed as part of the project lies in the hybrid management of a superconducting SMES accumulator and supercapacitors. The SMES accumulator is made of MgB2 and was designed and built by ASG Superconductors, while the supercapacitors were designed and built by Skeleton as part of a project that also involves Fincantieri, VARD, RINA, RSE, SINTEF, the universities of Trieste, Genoa and Birmingham and Politecnico di Milano.

SMES superconductor technology is ideal for short-term, high-power energy storage, perfect for power modulation and instantaneous voltage stabilisation. Supercapacitors, on the other hand, are electrostatic storage devices that offer very fast power delivery and absorption (high power density) and have an extremely long service life (millions of cycles). The hybrid interaction of these technologies with traditional batteries, in addition to extending their use cycle, allows for innovative load management and therefore the reduction of CO2 emissions.

Tests on the SMES superconducting system created by ASG Superconductors and the Skeleton supercapacitors were carried out at the Electric TEst Facility (ETEF), the testing laboratory for applications of electrical energy systems in marine environments, born from the partnership between the University of Trieste, Wärtsilä and Fincantieri as part of the Italian General Secretariat of Defence’s national scientific and technological research programmes.

Giorgio Sulligoi, a full professor at UniTS, stated that ‘ETEF is the flagship project at Trieste’s experimental facilities, a hub where academic and industrial researchers work together to define the future of electric vessels.’ He went on to conclude that ‘the synergy between companies and the academic world behind the V-Access project has already made tangible steps towards hybrid electrification technology that will be useful and necessary not only in the shipping sector but in all applications that require large and rapid energy pulses.’

Pietro Tricoli of the University of Birmingham and technological coordinator of the project, added ‘the supercapacitor and superconducting SMES prototype has been tested in a highly realistic operational environment, aiming for a technological readiness level (TRL) of 5, a step ahead of future developments linked to projects for the development and installation of this technology on board the ship. ‘

Gianluca Bertossi, Managing Director of Wärtsilä Italia said: ‘The ETEF prototype is an important research and technological de-risking infrastructure for the on-board electrical systems of future vessels. It makes the pursuit of similar objectives equally possible for land-based applications that share similar requirements for power quality, quality of service and reliability. There is no system in Europe with comparable performance in terms of installed power, technological characteristics, performance and testing capabilities.’

Marco Nassi, CEO of ASG concluded: ‘the V-ACCESS project presented all of us with a challenge and we thank all the partners for the work that has led to the successful testing of our SMES at the invaluable ETEF. We believe that superconducting storage is a high-tech solution that is ideal for meeting the innovation and resilience needs of networks.’

161 PhD students enrolled in the 41st cycle of UniTS doctoral schools, a growing trend also thanks to foreign students, who reach 20% of the total. The proportion of women/men is almost even, with the constant increase in the number of female students choosing this path.

These are the numbers published during the welcome event for the new UniTS PhD students.

After the welcome speeches of the Rector (Donata Vianelli), the FVG Regional Councilor for Employment, Training, Education, Research, Universities and Family (Alessia Rosolen) and the FVG Central Director for Higher Education (Ketty Segatti), the second edition of the PHD Innovation Award took place. Thanks to funding from the CRTrieste Foundation, the five PhDs who produced the best thesis in 2025 were awarded a prize of € 3000 each.

Designed to celebrate the merit, innovation and creativity of young researchers, this year the award went to 5 young people evaluated among 70 candidates by a committee of experts from the three major sectors of the European Research Council (ERC): Physical Sciences and Engineering, Life Sciences, and Social Sciences and Humanities.

The winners describe their thesis as follows:

Alice Biasin (Doctorate in Chemistry): ‘Incorporating experimental pharmacology to chemical and material engineering, I investigated the effectiveness of innovative drugs against liver fibrosis, a disease still untreated. A further distinctive element of the research lies in the development of advanced hydrogel-based in vitro models with viscoelastic properties that reproduce those of the healthy and fibrotic liver. The results obtained show that ubiquitinase inhibitors significantly reduce fibrosis in vitro.’

Giorgia Nadizar (Doctorate in Applied Data Science and Artificial Intelligence): ‘I have studied how processes typical of natural organisms (e.g. neural plasticity and morphological development) can result in new mechanisms to increase the flexibility and performance of robots. In parallel, I designed transparent and easily understandable controllers that could match the performance of the most complex models. Finally, I have integrated these two directions for the first time, showing that it is possible to obtain robots that are both biologically plausible, adaptable and interpretable.’

Francesco Piazza (Doctorate in Nanotechnology): ‘My thesis introduces agarose biomaterials with controllable mechanical properties to study how cells respond to mechanical signals. The most innovative result is the identification of viscoplasticity as a new key parameter regulating cell adhesion. This approach proposes a new paradigm in the field of mechanobiology and opens up new directions for the design of biomaterials and in vitro models.’

Mattia Pozzebon (Doctorate in History of Societies, Institutions and Thought. From the Middle Ages to Today): ‘Through the study of scenarios ranging from the present to the farthest future and through the combination of ethical analysis, philosophical imagination and comparison with other disciplines, the aim of the thesis was to ethically assess whether the use of genetic modification techniques on animals can contribute to reducing their suffering and improving their quality of life.’

Loris Luciano Viteritti (Doctorate in Physics): ‘My thesis explores new methods for understanding particularly complex quantum materials, in which interactions between particles give rise to “exotic” states of matter, such as quantum spin liquids. To overcome the limitations of traditional methods, an innovative approach has been developed that uses artificial neural networks to represent and study these systems. Thanks to a new optimisation technique, the research allows to analyse extremely difficult models, obtaining more accurate results than conventional methodologies.’

The ceremony was chaired by Francesco Longo, Rector’s Delegate for Doctorates. Among the guests there were Francesco Peroni (Vice President of the Board of Directors of Fondazione CRTrieste), Maria Pia Abbracchio (University of Milan), Gianfranco Pacchioni (University of Milan-Bicocca) and Bernardo Balboni (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia).

Paolo Fornasiero, professor of General and Inorganic Chemistry at the Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Vice-Rector for Research at the University of Trieste, has been elected member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, in the Technical and Environmental Sciences class.

The election of Prof. Fornasiero recognises his pioneering contribution in the field of nanomaterials for environmental catalysis and energy, as well as his international leadership in research, innovation and the education of young people.

This recognition by the European Academy of Sciences and Arts further highlights Prof. Fornasiero's achievements as a world-renowned scientist.

The European Academy of Sciences and Arts is a European non-governmental association committed to promoting scientific and social progress. The Academy brings together 1,900 eminent scholars and professionals from across Europe, including 38 Nobel Prize winners. They are divided into seven classes: Humanities, Medicine, Arts, Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, Law and Economics, Technical and Environmental Sciences, and World Religions. Academy members are elected for their outstanding achievements in the fields of science, the arts and governance. 

Prof. Fornasiero is one of the few scientists to have been elected to the Academia Europaea, the European Academy of Sciences and the European Academy of Sciences and Arts.

Three UniTS projects have received funding of over 5 million euros from the Italian Science Fund (Fondo Italiano per la Scienza – FIS). This is an excellent achievement that consolidates the University’s role in innovative and quality research. 

Two projects were presented as Advanced Grants by the Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, respectively by Paolo Fornasiero, full professor of General and Inorganic Chemistry and Vice-Rector for Research and by Federico Rosei, full professor of Industrial Chemistry. The third project, funded by the Starting Grant line, was presented by Matteo Marinelli of the Department of Physics. 

Rector Donata Vianelli pointed out: ‘These results confirm the quality of recruitment at our university and the commitment of researchers to attract funds that will bring innovation to our research facilities and enable quality research to be conducted internationally.’

The FIS finances research projects of high scientific value conducted by junior researchers (Starting Grant), senior researchers (Consolidator Grant) and established researchers (Advanced Grant) within the ERC (European Research Council) sectors. 

The main objective is to promote the development of fundamental research as established at European level along the lines of the European Research Council (ERC).

The third edition of this programme had a budget of 475 million euros and has allocated significant funding, between 1 and 2.4 million euros, to projects presented by Italian public and private universities and academic institutions, by special-law advanced schools, public research bodies, research hospitals (IRCCS) and legal entities with research purposes. Approximately 325 projects have been funded. 

Here are the winning UniTS projects:

Prof. Paolo Fornasiero’s project (PhotoElectrocatalytic smart Systems for CHEmicals and FUels production) will receive funding of € 2.3 million to tackle an innovative study aimed at developing a  tandem catalytic system in which the photocatalytic conversion of biomass derivatives into industrially useful products is coupled with an electrocatalytic process that can be tuned to the evolution of H2 or the hydrogenation of unsaturated organic molecules.

Prof. Federico Rosei’s project (Study of model photocatalysts to optimize water splitting) will receive € 1.9 million in funding to study model systems that make it possible to understand the mechanisms of photocatalytic water splitting.

Prof. Marinelli Matteo’s project (Tweezer-based quantum Repeater InterConnection) will receive € 1.1 million to develop a new experimental platform dedicated to next generation quantum networks. The project aims to create a modular architecture based on ytterbium atoms trapped in optical tweezers interfaced with an optical resonator for the creation of entanglement states between atoms and photons, a key element for the future quantum internet. 

Photo: prof. Fornasiero, Marinelli and Rosei

Researchers from the ArQuS Laboratory at the University of Trieste managed to trap and photograph individual ytterbium atoms for the first time in Italy. They extended imaging techniques to new regimens: by observing the light emitted with a microscope, the researchers were able to clearly distinguish each individual atom and accurately count the number contained in a single trap, a capability lacking in existing techniques, where measurements were so far limited to distinguishing only between zero and an atom.  

The results, published in the two prestigious international journals Quantum Science Technology and Physical Review Letters, offer important perspectives for the development of sciences and technologies based on quantum bits (or qubits), such as computers and quantum clocks: The ability to observe every single atom with great precision is, in fact, a fundamental element for the realisation of a system of atomic qubits.  

Francesco Scazza, associate professor of Physics of Matter at the University of Trieste and head of the ArQuS Laboratory, explains: ‘To photograph very dim light sources, such as celestial bodies or, indeed, individual atoms, long exposures are usually used in order to collect a fairly large signal (i.e. a large number of photons) and to be able to distinguish the objects photographed from the background. In our work we have used an alternative approach, similar to using a camera flash: by illuminating the atoms with a lot of light for a very short period of time, it is possible to obtain a signal sufficient to distinguish each atom very clearly, reducing the duration of the detection without compromising its performance.’ 

In the technique devised by the ArQuS Laboratory, the atoms, cooled to almost absolute zero (-273 °C) by a laser light and then captured in ‘optical tweezers’ are illuminated with a second laser, of which they absorb and re-emit part of the light thanks to the fluorescence phenomenon.  

Omar Abdel Karim, a researcher at the ArQuS Laboratory, explains: ‘One of the main challenges in observing individual atoms is not losing atoms during image acquisition. Because of the absorption and re-emission of light, atoms acquire energy and can escape the trap. We were able to compensate for this effect by using an additional laser to cool the atoms during the image’. 
 
This solution is based on a delicate balance between the fluorescence light and the cooling light to ensure that the atoms remain trapped, allowing them to clearly distinguish their presence and reuse them for subsequent experiments. Another important element of the measurements conducted is the speed of execution.  

Alessandro Muzi Falconi, researcher at the ArQuS Laboratory, comments: ‘In recent years, one of the industry’s goals has been to develop imaging techniques that can observe atoms faster and faster, and possibly without losing them during imaging. Thanks to a technique based on short and intense fluorescence pulses, we were able to observe the atoms, without inducing losses, in a few millionths of a second, about a thousand times faster than the typical acquisition times. Our technique is based on the fact that atoms acquire energy during the image, but not enough to escape from optical traps. In addition, by means of fast cooling pulses we can remove the excess energy after the image, and repeat the observation of the same atoms for dozens of images in succession’. 

Another important result of the research group is the first observation of individual atoms of the element ytterbium-173, a particular isotope (atom of an element that has different mass numbers and therefore different atomic mass) charactersed by six internal states at its fundamental level, which would allow the development of quantum circuits based on qudits and no longer just qubits, storing and exchanging information more efficiently.  

The ArQuS Laboratory was born in 2022 from a collaboration between the University of Trieste and the Italian National Research Council (CNR) and thanks to an ERC Starting Grant of €1.4 million granted by the European Commission. 

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Comprehensive study published in Quantum Science Technology 

Single-atom imaging of 173Yb in optical tweezers loaded by a five-beam magneto-optical trap 

O. Abdel Karim1,2,4, A. Muzi Falconi3,4, R. Panza3,1, W. Liu1,5 and F. Scazza3,1,∗ 

1. National Institute of Optics of the National Research Council (CNR-INO), 34149 Trieste, Italy 
2. Department of Physics, University of Naples Federico II, 80138 Naples, Italy 
3. Department of Physics, University of Trieste, 34127 Trieste, Italy 
4. These authors contributed equally to this work. 
5. Present address: Institute of Laser Spectroscopy, Shanxi University, Taiyuan 030006, People’s Republic of China. 

∗ Author to whom any correspondence should be addressed. 

Comprehensive study published in Physical Review Letters 

Microsecond-Scale High-Survival and Number-Resolved Detection of Ytterbium Atom Arrays 

A. Muzi Falconi1, R. Panza1,2, S. Sbernardori1,2, R. Forti1,3, R. Klemt4, O. Abdel Karim2, M. Marinelli1,5, and F. Scazza1,2,* 

1. Department of Physics, University of Trieste, 34127 Trieste, Italy 
2. National Institute of Optics of the National Research Council (CNR-INO), 34149 Trieste, Italy 
3. Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A., 34149 Trieste, Italy 
4. Physikalisches Institut and Center for Integrated Quantum Science and Technology, Universität Stuttgart, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany 
5. Institute of materials of the National Research Council (CNR-IOM), 34149 Trieste, Italy 

*Contact author: francesco.scazza@units.it 

A delegation of representatives from the six of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) – TWAS Centres of Excellence https://twas.org/cas-twas-centres-excellence visited UniTS, where they were welcomed by Rector Donata Vianelli, her Delegate for International, Elisabetta De Giorgi, Vice-Rector for Research Paolo Fornasiero, Head of the MIGE Department and Prof. Stefano Di Bella of the Department of Medicine. The delegation was accompanied by Prof. Knobel, Executive Director of TWAS.

The CAS-TWAS CoEs represent an important opportunity for researchers to develop their activity in the laboratories of excellence located in Beijing.

In addition to discussing future goals and possible extensions of their ongoing projects, the delegation was able to learn about the reality and opportunities offered by the University of Trieste and the SiS FVG network.

These are the 16 members of the delegation visiting Trieste:

Dongyao WANG, Deputy Director Division of International Organization Programs, Bureau of International Cooperation, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Zhaohui LIN, Professor & Director CAS-TWAS Centre of Excellence for Climate and Environmental Sciences (ICCES), Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Xiaodong ZENG, Professor & Deputy Director, TWAS Young Affiliate Alumni, CAS-TWAS Centre of Excellence for Climate and Environmental Sciences (ICCES), Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Chenglai WU, Professor TWAS Young Affiliate, CAS-TWAS Centre of Excellence for Climate and Environmental Sciences (ICCES), Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Bo HAO, Program Officer for International Cooperation, CAS-TWAS Centre of Excellence for Climate and Environmental Sciences (ICCES), Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Chunshan LI, Professor & Director, TWAS Young Affiliate Alumni, The CAS-TWAS Centre of Excellence for Green Technology (CEGT), Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Yang ZHOU, Program Officer for International Cooperation, The CAS-TWAS Centre of Excellence for Green Technology (CEGT), Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Yanping ZHANG, Professor & Director CAS-TWAS Centre of Excellence for Biotechnology (CoEBio), Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Liu HE, Program Officer for International Cooperation, CAS-TWAS Centre of Excellence for Biotechnology (CoEBio), Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Likui Wang, Associate Professor CAS-TWAS Centre of Excellence for Emerging Infectious Disease (CEEID), Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Science

Wang Liang, Associate Professor CAS-TWAS Centre of Excellence for Emerging Infectious Disease (CEEID), Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Qihui Wang, Professor CAS-TWAS Centre of Excellence for Emerging Infectious Disease (CEEID)

Deputy Director of the Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Fang CHEN, Professor & Director Co-Chair of TWAS Young Affiliates Network, CAS-TWAS Centre of Excellence for Space Technology for Disaster Mitigation (SDIM), Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Lei WANG, Professor CAS-TWAS Centre of Excellence for Space Technology for Disaster Mitigation (SDIM), Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Baiwen Ma, Professor & Director CAS-TWAS Centre of Excellence for Water and Environment (CEWE), Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Jiaoqi Huyan, Program Officer CAS-TWAS Centre of Excellence for Water and Environment (CEWE), Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences

The Silver Plaque for the ‘Chini Memorial Lecture 2025’ was awarded to Paolo Fornasiero, professor in the Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Vice-Rector for Research at UniTS, for his ‘fundamental contribution to the study of the relationships between the structure and properties of inorganic materials and their impact on energy and heterogeneous catalysis’.

The award was presented in Pisa during the 23rd National Congress of the Industrial Chemistry Division of the Italian Chemical Society.

Previous award winners include Nobel Prize winners Jean-Marie Lehn (Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France), Ernst Otto Fischer (Technische Universität München, Garching, Germany) and Geoffrey Wilkinson (Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, UK).

At the congress, Paolo Fornasiero presented a plenary lecture entitled “The criticality of metal particle size speciation in sustainable catalysis”.

The seismological station on Everest installed by the National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics (OGS), together with the EvK2CNR association and the Nepalese Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), has been upgraded with new instruments. 

Located at an altitude of 5,050 metres, the IO.EVN station is located at the Italian Piramide Observatory/Laboratory of EvK2CNR, 5 km from Mount Everest base camp. 

‘A new accelerometer has been added, to be paired with the existing seismometer for measuring local and global earthquakes, and an infrasound sensor to record environmental noise, including rock and ice falls and noises associated with glacier movements,’ explains Franco Pettenati, geophysicist at the OGS CRS and representative of the EvK2CNR Seismological Station. He adds: ‘This upgrade will allow us to further our ongoing research into “icequakes”, i.e. earthquakes caused by seismic waves generated by ice movements; these investigations are particularly useful for studies on climate change.’ 

Other work has been carried out on the GPS station: ‘We replaced the Master GPS station's data acquisition device, i.e. the device that acquires and determines the geographical position,’ continues Pettenati. ‘A commercially available device was installed, alongside a low-cost device designed by David Zuliani, an engineer at the OGS Seismological Research Centre (Receiver GNSS LZER0 NET S/N #1013)’. 

The GPS will be used in conjunction with the University of Trieste, which owns the antenna, to study the geodynamics of the region. Finally, a new Wi-Fi bridge was installed to connect the IO.EVN seismological station and the new GPS system to the server of the Piramide Observatory/Laboratory. The new Wi-Fi system will thus replace the previous underground cable connection system. 

The seismological station was inaugurated on 19th May 2014. Since then, it has been operating continuously at 100, 20 and 2 Hz sampling frequencies with 24-bit Guralp digitisers. From the Piramide server, the signals are sent via satellite to a server in Kathmandu and then to the OGS acquisition centre in Italy. On 7th January 2025, the seismological station recorded the Mw 7.1 earthquake in central Tibet, being the closest broadband station to the epicentre of the earthquake (approximately 70 kilometres away).

This shimmering view of interstellar gas and dust was captured by the European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope. The nebula is part of a so-called dark cloud, named LDN 1641. It sits at about 1300 light-years from Earth, within a sprawling complex of dusty gas clouds where stars are being formed, in the constellation of Orion.

In visible light this region of the sky appears mostly dark, with few stars dotting what seems to be a primarily empty background. But, by imaging the cloud with the infrared eyes of its NISP instrument, Euclid reveals a multitude of stars shining through a tapestry of dust and gas.
This is because dust grains block visible light from stars behind them very efficiently but are much less effective at dimming near-infrared light.

The nebula is teeming with very young stars. Some of the objects embedded in the dusty surroundings spew out material – a sign of stars being formed. The outflows appear as magenta-coloured spots and coils when zooming into the image.
In the upper left, obstruction by dust diminishes and the view opens toward the more distant Universe with many galaxies lurking beyond the stars of our own galaxy.
Euclid observed this region of the sky in September 2023 to fine-tune its pointing ability. For the guiding tests, the operations team required a field of view where only a few stars would be detectable in visible light; this portion of LDN 1641 proved to be the most suitable area of the sky accessible to Euclid at the time.

The tests were successful and helped ensure that Euclid could point reliably and very precisely in the desired direction. This ability is key to delivering extremely sharp astronomical images of large patches of sky, at a fast pace. The data for this image, which is about 0.64 square degrees in size - or more than three times the area of the full Moon on the sky - were collected in just under five hours of observations.

Euclid is surveying the sky to create the most extensive 3D map of the extragalactic Universe ever made. Its main objective is to enable scientists to pin down the mysterious nature of dark matter and dark energy.
Yet the mission will also deliver a trove of observations of interesting regions in our galaxy, like this one, as well as countless detailed images of other galaxies, offering new avenues of investigation in many different fields of astronomy.

The Euclid Consortium involves several UniTS professors from the Department of Physics (Stefano Borgani, Matteo Costanzi, Marisa Girardi, Anna Gregorio, Pierluigi Monaco, Alexandro Saro), as well as postdocs and PhD students (Lucie Baumont, Yousry Elkhashab, Roberto Ingrao, Marius Lepinzan) with responsibilities ranging from coordinating the Instrument Operation Team to participating in the Euclid Consortium Publication Group - Science, as well as significant involvement in the Science Working Groups on Galaxy Clustering and Clusters of Galaxies and in the Science Ground Segment. These activities, carried out in close collaboration with researchers from INAF-Trieste Astronomical Observatory and SISSA, make Trieste one of the focal points of the Euclid Consortium.