The Foreign Ministry expresses great satisfaction for the re-election of Professor Fabiola Gianotti as Director General of the CERN for the 2021-2025 five-year period at the Organisation’s extraordinary Board meeting today. It is the first time that an outgoing Director General is confirmed for a second term in office in this organisation that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Prof. Giannotti, the first woman to hold the topmost executive office at the CERN, obtained an amount of votes that exceeded the two-thirds majority necessary to win the election at the first ballot, thus confirming the appreciation for her achievements and her internationally renowned scientific reputation. The result is fruit of an intense awareness-raising campaign supporting the confirmation of Prof. Giannotti that was led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, thanks to the action of the Embassies involved, of the Permanent Mission to the International Organisations in Geneva and of the National Institute for Nuclear Physics.
In addition to Professor Gianotti, the CERN has and continues to host numerous Italians of distinction: the predecessors of Prof. Gianotti include the Nobel Prize Laureate Carlo Rubbia and Luciano Maiani, while Edoardo Amaldi was one of the Organisation’s founders as well as its Secretary General. Today, the Italian personnel permanently employed at the CERN account for 311 people out of 2667, of whom 105 out of 563 hold executive positions, which means about 20% of the total.
