On the edge of matter, the Lens of the University of Florence turns 30
He turns 30 on lens – European laboratory of non-linear spectroscopy -, research Center of global significance in the field of investigation of the structure of matter with laser techniques: it was established at the University of Florence thanks to a 1991 law that gave way to an initiative by interdisciplinary research and international, projected towards frontier issues. The anniversary will be celebrated on November 22 with a day, organized by University of Florence with Cnr, Inrim and Cr Firenze Foundation: the director of Lens was among the participants Elisabetta Cerbai, the Vice Rector Giovanni Tarli Barbieri, the mayor of Sesto Fiorentino Lorenzo Falchi, the president of the Cnr Maria Chiara Carrozza.
The history of the Lens will be retraced by a lectio magistralis by Massimo Inguscio (Campus BioMedico University of Rome and Lens). Initially active on the hill of Arcetri, in the early 2000s Lens moved in the scientific center of Sesto Fiorentino, where he hosted hundreds of researchers from all over the world, from young PhD students to Nobel laureates. The Laboratory constitutes, in fact, a research infrastructure where to work staff and young scientists and various academic institutions, first of all the University of Florence, the National Institute of Optics of the CNR and the National Institute of Metrological Research.
The LENS non-linear spectroscopy laboratory with researcher Chiara D’Errico and Marco Fattori – © Marco Mori / New Press Photo
“The interdisciplinary imprint, between physics, chemistry, biology and medicine, and the interinstitutional and international profile still characterize Lens today, born as a research infrastructure thanks to the pioneering initiative of some great professors of the Florentine University – explains Cerbai -. The large participation of European research institutions, which I also develop the one on the scientific governing council and the quality assurance of European research, committed to exploiting the properties of quantum mechanics for new technologies, to study the interaction between technologies and light and materials and to realize innovative optical technologies for the understanding of complex biological systems“.