Tuesday, 23 August 2022

The University mourns the loss of Lev Petrovich Pitaevskii

A world-renowned theoretical physicist, he joined UniTrento in 1998

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The University of Trento is saddened by the passing of Lev Pitaevskii, the Russian-born physicist who had been a member of the Department of Physics of University of Trento since 1998.

Lev Pitaevskii came from the Russian school founded by Lev Landau around the middle of the last century, and was one of the most prominent theoretical physicists in the world in the field of statistical physics and the physics of matter.

He co-authored several books of the prestigious Landau-Lifshitz series and made a fundamental contribution to the development of Bose-Einstein condensation theory, which is now the subject of studies and experiments in hundreds of laboratories around the world.

He was professor at the Faculty of Mathematical, Physical and Natural Sciences of the University of Trento from 1998 to 2008 and, after his retirement, collaborated with the Department of Physics and in particular with the BEC (Bose-Einstein Condensation) group, a leading research centre that involves the National Research Centre - CNR and UniTrento.

He received numerous awards during his lifetime including, to name a few, the Fermi Prize 2018, the Pomeranchuk Prize, the senior BEC Prize, the Lars Onsager Prize 2021.

On 6 July 2013, the University of Trento celebrated Lev Pitaevskii's 80th birthday with a ceremony attended by three Nobel Laureates and about a hundred researchers from all over the world.

Rector Flavio Deflorian, on behalf of the University, expresses his condolences to his family.