Participants in the first ISODARCO course on disarmament and arms control, directed by  Edoardo Amaldi, Rome, 13 – 25 June, 1966. Photo: courtesy ISODARCO.
Participants in the first ISODARCO course on disarmament and arms control, directed by Edoardo Amaldi, Rome, 13 – 25 June, 1966. Photo: courtesy ISODARCO.

The virtual seminar will be held from 12:30 to 2:00 p.m. (E.T.)

A distinguished Italian physicist, Edoardo Amaldi (1908–89) made significant contributions to particle and nuclear physics, helped found the CERN particle physics center in Geneva, and was active in the anti-nuclear peace movement at the national and international level during the Cold War. Amaldi joined the Pugwash movement following the Russell–Einstein Manifesto call for action by scientists to counter the risks of nuclear war and went on to play a leading role for many years. Drawing on the article “Italian Physicists and the Bomb: Edoardo Amaldi’s Network for Arms Control and Peace during the Cold War”, this talk investigates Amaldi’s contributions to nuclear disarmament and peace during the Cold War in Italy including founding of the International School on Disarmament and Research on Conflicts (ISODARCO) and leading the efforts for Italy to be an early member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

About the speaker: Lodovica Clavarino is a postdoctoral fellow of International History at the Department of Political Science at Roma Tre University, where she taught a course about International History after the Cold War. Her research focuses on transnational antinuclear movements, in particular those involving scientists. She is a member of the Nuclear Proliferation International History Project, and has been contributing to the organization of the annual Nuclear History Boot Camp, aimed at building a new generation of experts on the international history of nuclear weapons.