The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

China rewards the physicist Roberto Battiston

2020-01-12T16:05:26.095Z


With the International Science and Technology Cooperation Award (ANSA)


Physicist Roberto Battiston has received the International Science and Technology Cooperation Award for 2019 in Beijing, the prestigious recognition that every year, since 1994, the People's Republic of China has awarded to international personalities who have distinguished themselves most in the joint scientific collaboration. It is the most important prize awarded by the Chinese government to foreign scientists: among the Italians who received it in the past include the Nobel laureate Carlo Rubbia, the geophysicist Fabio Rocca and the chemist Umberto Colombo.

China "is an extraordinary partner and the Chinese have a genuine desire to collaborate in research and in the scientific sector. It is not a political mandate," said Battiston, professor of the University of Trento and experimental physicist of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (Infn ), president of the Edoardo Amaldi Foundation and former president of the Italian Space Agency (ASI). His relations with China date back to the 90s and were further consolidated with the experiment that led to the creation of the antimatter hunter Ams (Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer), the result of the international collaboration led by Nobel Samuel Ting.

The experience continued on the Italy-China axis with the Cses-1 (China Seismo Electromagnetic Satellite) satellite project, whose launch in 2018 was greeted by the congratulatory phone call between Xi and the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, and Cses-2 (whose terms were defined during Xi's visit to Rome in March 2019), which is expected to launch in 2022. These are ambitious plans dedicated to the development of new techniques to monitor earthquakes from space, in collaboration with scientists of the Cea (China Earthquake Administration).

"It is an initiative that sees Italy as the most advanced western country in collaboration with China in space", commented Battiston, defining the acknowledgment of testimony "of the quality of Italian scientific collaboration with Chinese colleagues, of which I have always appreciated the skills and curiosity about frontier scientific problems ". Research on seismic monitoring and understanding of the geophysical mechanisms that produce earthquakes "unites Italy and China, two countries exposed to a strong seismic risk", he added.

Faced with concerns and doubts about the opportunity to collaborate with China in advanced strategic sectors, as raised by the United States, Battiston noted in an interview that "in this turbulent phase peaceful cooperation is not in the foreground, but also right now space diplomacy may reflect on other sectors. We, as scientists, must continue to collaborate. China is an extraordinary partner and the Chinese have a genuine desire to collaborate. It is not a political mandate. "

The CSES-1 and 2 satellites are "a success of the peaceful use of space, confirming how science is able to create bridges to overcome geographical distances and face common goals that can only be achieved with international collaboration". Even in the toughest periods of the Cold War, "the collaboration between the US and the USSR in space has never failed and the ISS station is the proof".

On the hypothesis that Italy works to build the modules of the Chinese space base, the last word belongs to the government and the project "is engineering rather than scientific".


Source: ansa

All tech articles on 2020-01-12

You may like

Trends 24h

Tech/Game 2024-03-27T18:05:36.686Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.