On the occasion of the 2025 Italian Research Day in the World, the Permanent Delegation of Italy to UNESCO joined the celebrations for the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ) – proclaimed in 2024 by the United Nations – by hosting a conference-show at the headquarters of the international organization in Paris.
Italy thus aligned itself with UNESCO’s global commitment to Science, Education and Culture, bringing together these three dimensions through a poetic narration of the history of the universe, from the Big Bang to the present day, guided by quantum phenomena.
The main figure of the event was Gian Francesco Giudice, Director of the Department of Theoretical Physics at CERN in Geneva, professor at the University of Padua, and member of the Accademia dei Lincei. He was joined by American soprano Fé Avouglan and French actress Valérie Dashwood.
The scientific storytelling was interwoven with the performance of evocative musical pieces, ranging from Mozart to Mina and Nina Simone, as well as with literary interludes inspired by The Periodic Table by Primo Levi, evoked in his role as a man of science, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the publication of the Einaudi edition of this iconic work.
The event was opened by Ambassador Liborio Stellino, Permanent Delegate of Italy to UNESCO, who emphasized that “now more than ever, along with an education capable of uniting Culture and Art, future generations of world leaders must master basic physics, which—due to its close ties with energy sustainability, quantum computing and climate change—is destined to increasingly influence political decisions and, consequently, everyone’s lives.”
In line with this vision, remarks were also delivered by Lidia Brito, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Science, and Professor Rosario Fazio, head of the Condensed Matter and Statistical Physics Section at ICTP Trieste and director of the Institute for Quantum Technologies. The conference-show was accompanied by a series of exhibition panels created by the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), as part of the exhibition Quanto. The revolution in a leap. The event, open to the public, was particularly aimed at delegates from the 194 Member States, as well as schools and universities from the Paris region.