€2.4 million: that’s the amount awarded to Professor Pasquale Calabrese of SISSA through a European Research Council (ERC) grant to investigate some of the deepest mysteries of matter and quantum physics in his new project, “MOSE – Monitoring Symmetries with Entanglement.” The project will explore a highly sophisticated topic in quantum science: the interplay between symmetries and entanglement — with wide-reaching implications from black hole research to future quantum computers and condensed matter physics.
This is Professor Calabrese’s third ERC grant in less than 15 years, a rare achievement given the high level of competition. The ERC is the most prestigious and selective research funding body in Europe. With this latest award, Professor Calabrese has received over €5 million in total from the ERC — an exceptional milestone not only in theoretical physics, but in science more broadly.
SISSA thus confirms itself as a competitive and excellent institution. The Trieste-based school ranks first in Italy for ERC funding, with a total of 33 grants, in relation to the number of scientists. The number of ERCs obtained so far, relative to the size of the faculty, is by far the highest among Italian universities, with approximately one ERC for every three faculty members—a success rate 25 times higher than the national academic average.