The auditorium of the Italian Cultural Institute in Beijing hosted an event to celebrate science and knowledge by presenting the Chinese edition of the book “In a flight of starlings. The Wonders of Complex Systems” by Prof. Giorgio Parisi, Nobel Laureate for Physics and Vice President of the Accademia dei Lincei.
The book, an educational and autobiographical work aimed at understanding Parisi’s discoveries on the interaction between disorder and fluctuations in complex physical systems, was translated by Prof. Federico Wen Zheng, Director of the Italian Department at the Beijing Foreign Studies University.
The event, organised by the Italian Embassy and the Italian Cultural Institute in Beijing with the support of the Association of Italian Scholars in China, was attended by Prof. Parisi himself (via video conference) and by Prof. Wen, in addition to several members of the Italian and Chinese academic world and especially by Prof. Wu Yongshi, a physicist at Fudan University and at Utah University, with whom the Italian Nobel Laureate collaborated at the beginning of the ‘80s in an important scientific research project.
In their remarks, Italian Ambassador to China, Luca Ferrari, and the Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Beijing, Federico Roberto Antonelli, emphasized the importance of Prof. Parisi’s work and the great relevance of its translation into Chinese in the context of the cultural exchanges between Italy and China.
“We are happy to have Prof. Parisi with us – said Ambassador Ferrari – a present-day point of excellence that confirms Italy’s great tradition in physics which, ever since the time of Enrico Fermi and of the “Via Panisperna Boys”, has always been at the forefront in the field of research. He stands as an example of professionalism for young researchers and students, both Italian and Chinese.”
