People

Luisa Bonolis

Visiting Scholar (Aug 2019-Dez 2025)

Dr.

 

Luisa has an MA in physics from Sapienza University of Rome and a PhD in history of science from Bari University, Italy. Her research interests lie in the history of twentieth-century physics, focusing in particular on the evolution of cosmic-ray research and neutrino astrophysics, nuclear and elementary particle physics, high-energy astrophysics, early developments of colliders in Europe, early research on thermonuclear fusion, and oral history.

From 2015–2016 Luisa was part of the project “Renaissance of General Relativity” at the MPIWG, undertaking research on the emergence of relativistic astrophysics during the 1950s and early 1960s.

Since joining the Max Planck Research Program on the History of the Max Planck Society (GMPG) in 2016, she has been working on the history of research undertaken in astrophysics, astronomy, cosmology, and space sciences at the Max Planck Society after World War 2 and, together with Juan-Andres Leon, is currently completing a book resulting from this research, which is scheduled to be published by Brill in 2022.

Her current project, “Astro-particle Physics 1970s - Early 1980s: Investigating the Patterns and Dynamics of the Emergence Process,” focuses in particular on the emergence of astroparticle physics.

Selected Publications

Bonolis, Luisa and Juan Andres León Gómez (2021). “Thinking Big: How Large-scale Detectors Set the Stage for the Emergence of Astro-particle Physics. A Short Survey.” In Atti del XL Convegno annuale: Proceedings of the 40th Annual Conference, 8-10 September 2020, Società Italiana degli Storici della Fisica e dell’Astronomia (SISFA), ed. F. Bevilacqua and I. Gambaro, 171–177. Pisa: Pisa University Press. https://doi.org/10.12871/978883339517320.

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Bonolis, Luisa and Juan Andres León Gómez (2020). “Gravitational-Wave Research as an Emerging Field in the Max Planck Society: The Long Roots of GEO600 and of the Albert Einstein Institute.” In The Renaissance of General Relativity in Context, ed. A. S. Blum, R. Lalli, and J. Renn, 285–361. Basel: Birkhäuser. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50754-1_9.

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Bonolis, Luisa (2020). “How Relativistic Astrophysics Bubbled up from Post-WWII Science: A Preliminary Survey.” In Atti del XXXIX Convegno annuale: Proceedings of the 39th Annual Conference, Pisa, 9–12 Settembre 2019, Società Italiana degli Storici della Fisica e dell’Astronomia (SISFA), ed. A. La Rana and P. Rossi, 159–170. Pisa: Pisa University Press. https://doi.org/10.12871/978883339402225.

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Maiani, Luciano and Luisa Bonolis (2017). “The Charm of Theoretical Physics (1958–1993).” The European Physical Journal H 42 (4–5): 611–661. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjh/e2017-80040-9.

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Bonolis, Luisa (2017). “Stellar Structure and Compact Objects before 1940: Towards Relativistic Astrophysics.” The European Physical Journal. H 42 (2): 311–393. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjh/e2017-80014-4.

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La Rana, Adele and Luisa Bonolis (2017). “The Beginning of Edoardo Amaldi’s Interest in Gravitation Experiments and in Gravitational Wave Detection.” In The Fourteenth Marcel Grossmann Meeting: On Recent Developments in Theoretical and Experimental General Relativity, Astrophysics, and Relativistic Field Theories. Part D, ed. M. Bianchi and R. T. Jantzen, 3378–3383. Singapore: World Scientific. https://doi.org/10.1142/9789813226609_0434 .

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Bonolis, Luisa, Adele La Rana, and Roberto Lalli (2017). “The Renaissance of General Relativity in Rome: Main Actors, Research Programs and Institutional Structures.” In The Fourteenth Marcel Grossmann Meeting: On Recent Developments in Theoretical and Experimental General Relativity, Astrophysics, and Relativistic Field Theories. Part D, ed. M. Bianchi and R. T. Jantzen, 3372–3377. Singapore: World Scientific. https://doi.org/10.1142/9789813226609_0433.

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Bonolis, Luisa (2014). “From cosmic ray physics to cosmic ray astronomy : Bruno Rossi and the opening of new windows on the universe.” Astroparticle Physics 53: 67–85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.astropartphys.2013.05.008.

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Projekte

History of Astrophysics, Astronomy, and Space Sciences in the Max Planck Society

MEHR

The Rise of Matter-Antimatter Colliders in Europe

MEHR

Astroparticle Physics 1970s—Early 1980s: Investigating the Patterns and Dynamics of the Emergence Process

MEHR

The Emergence of Relativistic Astrophysics

MEHR

Presentations, Talks, & Teaching Activities

International Memorial Symposium–Bruno Touschek 100 years

Physics Department of Sapienza University of Rome, Frascati National Laboratories and Accademia dei Lincei

https://agenda.infn.it/event/27709/timetable/?view=standard
Bruno Touschek (1921–1978). The Path to Electron-Positron Collisions. Memorial Symposium Touschek 100

Physics Department, Sapienza University of Rome

Werner Heisenberg’s Retirement and the Renewal of General Relativity in Germany

107th National Conference of the Italian Physical Society (SIF)

Workshop: Observing, Sensing, Detecting: Towards a Multi-Layered Picture of the Universe from Historical and Epistemological Perspectives.
Round Table: Probing the Cosmos in the Time of Multiplicity. A Historical Scientific Dialogue, with Barry Barish (University of California, Riverside), Reinhard Genzel (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching), Malcolm Longair (Cambridge University), Christian Spiering (DESY), Alan Watson (University of Leeds).
http://www.sisfa.org/observing-sensing-detecting/
Thinking Big: How Large-scale Detectors Set the Stage for the Emergence of Astroparticle Physics. A Short Survey

XL National Conference of the Italian Society of Historians of Physics and Astronomy (SISFA)

Towards the Emergence of Relativistic Astrophysics.
Annual Meeting of the Italian Society for the History of Physics and Astronomy.

European Gravitational Observatory-VIRGO Cascina (Pisa)

How Relativistic Astrophysics Bubbled up from Post-WWII Science. A Preliminary Survey

XXXIX National Conference of the Italian Society of Historians of Physics and Astronomy (SISFA)

https://www.torrossa.com/en/resources/an/4988951
Between General Relativity and Group Theory: Aspects of the Birth of Italian Theoretical Physics in the 1920s–1930s.
Conference Luigi Bianchi. Between Galois & Einstein.

École Normale Supérieure (Paris), Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere e Arti, Venice.

Workshop: CERN History Days. Relaunching the CERN History Project.

CERN, Geneva.

https://indico.cern.ch/event/666086/timetable/?print=1&view=standard_numbered_inline_minutes
Organization (with Virginia Trimble and Jürgen Renn) of the Special Session Relativity at 100.

European Week of Astronomy and Space Science, Prague.

The Lead-up to First Texas Symposium and the Emergence of Relativistic Astrophysics.
Symposium Relativity at 100, European Week of Astronomy and Space Science.

Annual Meeting of the European Astronomical Society, Prague.

The Emergence of Relativistic Astrophysics in the Early 1960s

Prague. Symposium "Enduring Ideas, New Alliances: Social and Epistemic Factors in the Renaissance of General Relativity", 7th European Society for the History of Science Conference

Thermonuclear Fusion, Space Exploration and Frontier Research in Astrophysics: History and Obstacles.
The Birth of Research on Nuclear Fusion in Italy

Sapienza University, Rome. Department of Astronautical, Electrical and Energy Engineering.

From White Dwarfs to Gravitational Collapse within Einstein’s Theory: The Emergence of Relativistic Astrophysics

International Solvay Institutes, Bruxelles

From ‘Dark Stars’ to Gravitational Collapse within Einstein’s Theory: The Emergence of Relativistic Astrophysics

Harnack House, Berlin. A Century of General Relativity

The Renaissance of General Relativity in Rome: Main Actors, Research Programs and Institutional Structures

XIV Marcel Grossmann Meeting. Sapienza University, Rome

Bruno Maksimovich Pontecorvo. From Slow Neutrons with Enrico Fermi in Rome to Neutrino Oscillations in Dubna

DESY, Hamburg

Bruno Pontecorvo. Universality of Weak Interactions and Muon Decay. National Conference of the Italian Physical Society

International School for Advanced Studies, Trieste

Conference 100 Years Cosmic Rays. From Cosmic Ray Physics to Cosmic Ray Astronomy. Bruno Rossi and the Opening of New Windows on the Universe

Bad Saarow/Pieskow

Courses on History of Physics, Didactics of Physics and Laboratory

University of Basilicata, Potenza, Italy

The coming of abstract mathematics in the physics of 20th century (2003); Pauli and the mysteries of beta-decay, Fermi's theory of beta-decay (2004); Enrico Fermi and the Roman Physics School, Bruno Rossi and the electromagnetic cascade (2005); Einstein, Jordan, Dirac and the origins of QED (2006); Neutrinos. A history of puzzles and paradoxes (2007); From Mendel's laws to the discovery of the structure of DNA double helix (2008); The motion of Planets, order or chaos? The three-body problem, a challenge for celestial mechanics (2009); Physicists and Mathematicians in Goettingen. Amalie Emmy Noether and the birth of super-laws (2009); Lords of the cosmic rays: from earth laboratories to physics in space. A century of cosmic ray researches (2010); Physics and Group Theory. From Evariste Galois to Emmy Noether. From Noether's Theorems to the "Gruppenpest" in the new Quantum Mehanics (2013)

Courses at the Annual Winter School on History of Physics organized by the Italian Association for Physics Teaching (A.I.F.)