Giuliano Preparata
Type Fonds
Date
- 1942-2000
Typology
- collection
Numbering
- Final Number
- 15
Institutional history/Biography
- Giuliano Preparata was born in Padua in 1942. He attended the "Pio Albertelli" high school in Rome and graduated in theoretical physics with honors, also in Rome, in 1964 with Prof. Raoul Gatto.
The following year he moved to Florence, where he first became CNR fellow and then professor in charge of neutron physics. From 1967 to 1972 he taught at the most prestigious American universities such as Princeton, Harvard, Rockefeller, New York University. He obtained his professorship in Theoretical Physics in 1969; he won the competition for tenure in Theoretical Physics in 1975. From 1974 to 1980 he was Staff Member of the Theory Division of CERN, Geneva.
Giuliano Preparata had devoted much of his scientific activity to high-energy physics, bringing relevant contributions to the construction of the Standard Model, the new synthesis of subnuclear interactions. In particular, he figured out the Dirac quantum field nature of Quark, a fundamental premise of electroweak unification, and suggested solutions to the crucial problem of color confinement within the framework of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD).
From 1987 on, he started turning his attention to the questions of condensed matter and nuclear physics within the framework of quantum field theory, discovering new coherent solutions of QED in dense enough and cold enough systems. This allowed him to approach old problems, such as liquid water theory, and new ones, such as cold fusion, from a completely new perspective.
He also developed, along with Cecilia Saccone, professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Bari, a Markovian model of molecular evolution that received considerable attention from the international scientific community.
He published over 400 papers in the following topics: subnuclear physics, nuclear physics, laser physics, superconductivity, superfluidity, liquid and solid water, condensed matter (glasses, colloids, electrolytes, etc.), neutron star physics, astrophysics of GRBs (gamma ray bursts), cold fusion. He was also keen on the properties of electromagnetic fields in water - a series of experimental works later taken up in 2009 by Nobel Prize for Medicine winner Luc Montagnier.
After Nobel Laureate Martin Fleischmann's announcement of Cold Fusion in 1989, he was one of the pioneers in the study of this much troubled phenomenon, sketching the first explanation. On leave from Milan State University since 2000, he moved back home in Frascati and worked on his Cold Fusion project, operating for about a year in collaboration with ENEA. At the same time, Giuliano Preparata had formed a collaboration with Prof. Remo Ruffini to study the gamma rays recorded in those exact years by the Beppo SAX satellite of the Italian-Dutch collaboration.
Giuliano Preparata, in his last year of life, though ill, refused to suspend his research, and devoted himself to the study of the Small Bang, "the burst that probably is at the origin of our solar system, of our Earth, and therefore of us all. In his last moments of life, Giuliano wanted to explain our origins" (Renzo Alzetta, April 24, 2000).
Preparata was a free spirited man; he considered physics - and science in general - a manifestation of the spirit - just like art, music, love, passion. His view of matter was "full of enchantment. To him, atoms were not the result of pure randomness, floating in a meaningless jumble, but rather existed in conditions defined by coherent criteria, arranged in fields that vibrate harmoniously and through phases, tuned like instruments during a concert" (Giuseppe Sermonti, May 23, 2000).
Archival history
- The reorganization of the papers was done maintaining the original order and was facilitated by the care Preparata himself had organized his own archive with. The documents are collected in folders, files and envelopes. The content is in most cases given by Preparata. The structure of the archive was given according to the different stages of the academic career that marked the scientist's life. Translation and archival inventory by intern Stoiean Raisa Elena, under the archival supervision of Francesca Nemore and Antonella Cotugno, and scientific supervision of Piero Rapagnani. The fond can be consulted in the library of the Physics Department of "La Sapienza" University of Rome.
Giuliano Preparata is listed as G.P.
Titles
In most cases the titles are the original ones given by G.P.
Where an original title isn't given, first note was used as title instead.
In the field "Supplement to title" coherent titles have been formulated, for the purpose of facilitating research. Example: University of Milan - Dissertation Committee.
The standard description of conferences is given next to the original title. Example: Erice 1976 (International School of Physics Ettore Majorana).
Correspondence
Correspondence is largely contained in files organized by date, but is also found in individual folders and theme-based files, if relevant to the content.
In most cases, G.P. kept the minutes of letters he had sent, which can be looked at.
Time frames are given whenever possible. Example: January 21, 1968 - May 30, 1969.
Sorting
In each series the papers were placed in chronological order. Sometimes national and international conferences are not grouped by title and date, as the papers that had been collected throughout a year have been inserted in the conferences series instead.
"Manuscript notes": these are handwritten first draft papers later published, papers at conferences, university lectures, original transparencies.
Dating
In the original titles, the dates are always in English.
Notes
- Both the collection and the inventory are available also in English, passing by the menu switch up to the right part of the webpage.