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Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati | |
 | |
| Motto | ... ma per seguir virtute e canoscenza (... to follow virtue and knowledge) |
|---|---|
| Type | State-supported graduate institute |
| Established | 1978; 47 years ago (1978) |
| Director | Andrea Romanino |
Administrative staff | 88 |
| Location | , |
| Website | www |
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TheInternational School for Advanced Studies (Italian:Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati;SISSA) is an international, state-supported, post-graduate-education andresearch institute inTrieste,Italy.
SISSA is active in the fields ofmathematics,physics andneuroscience, offering bothundergraduate andpost-graduate courses.Each year, about 70PhD students are admitted to SISSA based on their scientific qualifications. SISSA also runs master's programs in the same areas, in collaboration with both Italian and other European universities.
SISSA was founded in 1978, as a part of the reconstruction following theFriuli earthquake of 1976. Although the city of Trieste itself did not suffer any damage, physicistPaolo Budinich asked and obtained from theItalian government to include in the interventions the institution of a new, post-graduate teaching and research institute, modeled on theScuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. The school became operative with a PhD course intheoretical physics, and Budinich himself was appointed as general director.
In 1986, Budinich left his position to Daniele Amati, who at the time was at the head of the theoretical division atCERN. Under his leadership, SISSA expanded its teaching and research activity towards the field of neuroscience, and instituted a new interdisciplinary laboratory aiming at connecting humanities and scientific studies.
From 2001 to 2004, the director was the Italian geneticistEdoardo Boncinelli, who fostered the development of the existing research areas. From 2004 to 2010, the director was the Italian physicistStefano Fantoni. His period as director has been characterized by the design and construction of the new SISSA location. Other directors were appointed in the following years, which saw the strengthening of SISSA collaboration with other Italian and European universities in offering master's degree programs in the three areas of the School (mathematics, physics and neuroscience).Physicist Stefano Ruffo served as the director from 2015 until 2021, when he was succeeded by Andrea Romanino.
Until July 2010, the school was located near theMiramare Park and marine reserve, about 10 kilometres from the city centre. The Miramare campus still hosts theICTP (International Center for Theoretical Physics) and the Department of Theoretical Physics[1] of theUniversity of Trieste.
The campus is located in the borough ofOpicina; it is accessible by bus 38 of Trieste Trasporti (TPL FVG). The campus is also equipped with a canteen, a kindergarten, a gym, as well as anopen air theatre, which is used for shows, conferences and activities for the wider public.
SISSA houses the following research groups in the field of Astroparticle Physics,[2] Astrophysics,[3] Condensed Matter,[4] Molecular and Statistical Biophysics,[5] Statistical Physics,[6] Theoretical Particle Physics,[7] Data Science,[8] Cognitive Neuroscience[9] Neurobiology,[10] Molecular Biology,[11] Applied Mathematics, Geometry[12] Mathematical Analysis, and[13] Mathematical Physics[12]
In addition, there is theInterdisciplinary Laboratory for Natural and Humanistic Sciences (ILAS - Laboratorio Interdisciplinare Scienze Naturali e Umanistiche), which is endowed with the task of making connections between science, humanities, and the public. Since 1992 it also organizes a course inScience Communication andScientific journalism.[14]
SISSA also enjoys special teaching and scientific links with theInternational Centre for Theoretical Physics, theInternational Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology and theElettra Synchrotron Light Laboratory.[15] Ruffo signed a partnership with theInternational Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology to set up a new PhD program inMolecular Biology, with teaching activity organized by both institutions.[citation needed]
SISSA operates a 100teraFLOPSsupercomputer in partnership with the neighboringInternational Centre for Theoretical Physics. Moreover, it hosts a specialized library, a parallel Calculus Centre, several cellular-neurobiology laboratories,confocal microscopy andelectronic microscopy facilities and multiple cognitive-neuroscience laboratories, which are also available to faculty and students of other scientific institutions in theTrieste area.
According to the last aggregate data issued byANVUR - the Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of the University and Research Systems - SISSA ranks:
SISSA publishes or sponsors severalscientific journals[16] andconference proceedings:[17]
