ICTP Distinguished Conversation: Luciano Maiani

Dirac Medalist Luciano Maiani, former Director General of CERN, former president of the Italian National Research Council (CNR) and of the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), and former chairman of ICTP’s scientific council, is interviewed by ICTP Director Atish Dabholkar.

They discuss the GIM (Glashow-Iliopoulos-Maiani) mechanism, for which he is best known. They also discuss Maiani’s work as head of CERN, his long relationship with ICTP, as well as the important of basic science.

Luciano Maiani was awarded the Dirac Medal in 2007 alongside John Iliopoulos “for their work on the physics of the charm quark, a major contribution to the birth of the Standard Model, the modern theory of Elementary Particles."

The interview took place in May 2022, when Maiani was at ICTP to attend the yearly meeting of the Centre’s scientific council, which he was chairing at the time.





00:00 Introduction.

01:18 The GIM mechanism.

04:26 Moving to the USA.

16:51 Friendship with Professor John Iliopoulos.

19:16 Interaction between theory and experiment.

22:22 Becoming director general of CERN.

26:17 ICTP and CERN.

28:23 Discussion in the European Research Council about Blue Sky research.

32:21 Work on nuclear security.