The president of the DIPC, Pedro Miguel Echenique, has been appointed a member of the prestigious Lombardo Institute

The Lombard Institute, Academy of Sciences and Letters of Milan, is one of the oldest and most prestigious scientific and cultural institutions in Europe

The president of the Donostia International Physics Center and professor emeritus at the University of the Basque Country (EHU), Pedro Miguel Echenique, was today named a member of the prestigious Lombard Institute, Academy of Sciences and Letters of Milan. As part of the ceremony, the renowned Navarran physicist and winner of the Prince of Asturias Award for Scientific and Technical Research gave a lecture entitled “Science, Future, and Beauty.”

The Lombard Institute is one of the oldest and most prestigious scientific and cultural institutions in Europe. Founded in 1797 by decree of Napoleon, it brings together leading figures from the fields of science, technology, the humanities, and the arts. Throughout its history, its members have included internationally renowned figures such as physicist Alessandro Volta, Vincenzo Monti, Alessandro Manzoni, Carlo Cattaneo, Achille Ratti (future Pope Pius XI), and physician Luigi Mangiagalli. Four Nobel Prize-winning scientists have also been members: Camillo Golgi, Giosuè Carducci, Giulio Natta, and Eugenio Montale, reflecting the institution’s high academic and intellectual standards.

“It is a great honor for me. Belonging to an academy with such a long history, which has been home to great figures in science such as physicist Alessandro Volta and Nobel Prize winner Giulio Natta, makes me feel small. I am sincerely moved by this recognition,” were his words of gratitude at the beginning of his lecture.

This appointment adds to a long list of awards and distinctions that the scientist from Isaba has earned throughout his career. He holds a degree in Physical Sciences from the University of Navarra, a PhD from the universities of Cambridge (1976) and Barcelona (1977), and a postdoctorate from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Nordita fellow in Lund and Copenhagen. He is honorary president of Jakiunde, president of the BERC Materials Physics Center (MPC), and founding president of the Nanogune Cooperative Research Center (CIC). He has received, among others, the Euskadi Prize, the Max Planck Prize, and the Prince of Viana Prize for Culture, and is a full member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Sciences and Letters of Milan, and the Académie Royale de Belgique.