Dirac Conversations: Luciano Maiani

ICTP is a hub for international science, attracting thousands of scientists each year, including some of the most prestigious physicists and mathematicians in the world. Hundreds of Nobel laureates, Fields medallists, and ICTP Dirac medallists have visited ICTP over the years, sharing their insights and perspectives with ICTP's international science community. ICTP is capturing some of these insights in its video series of "ICTP Conversations" and "Dirac Conversations". All were conducted by ICTP Director Atish Dabholkar, sometimes accompanied by members of the Centre's faculty.

In this episode of the video series, ICTP Director Atish Dabholkar interviews 2007 Dirac medallist Luciano Maiani, former Director General of CERN, former president of the Italian National Research Council (CNR) and of the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), and former chairman of ICTP’s scientific council.

The interview took place in May 2022, when Maiani was at ICTP to attend the yearly meeting of the Centre’s scientific council. In this conversation, they discuss the GIM (Glashow-Iliopoulos-Maiani) mechanism, for which he is best known. They also discuss Maiani’s work as head of CERN, his long relationship with ICTP, as well as the importance of basic science.

Maiani shared the 2007 Dirac Medal with John Iliopoulos “for their work on the physics of the charm quark, a major contribution to the birth of the Standard Model, the modern theory of Elementary Particles."