A major recognition has been awarded to Giovanni Modugno, Professor of Experimental Physics of Matter at the University of Florence and associate researcher at CNR-INO, who received the National Prize of the President of the Republic for the year 2025 during a ceremony in Rome, attended by President Sergio Mattarella.

The prize, awarded by the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, is given to scientists who have made significant scientific contributions in the field of Physical, Mathematical and Natural Sciences. Modugno was recognized “for his achievements in the experimental study of fundamental phenomena of matter using ultracold quantum gases”.

Over the course of his scientific career, Modugno has obtained outstanding results, including the first observation of Anderson localization and the realization of a Bose glass. More recently, together with his research group, he was the first to create a supersolid — a system with properties that lie between those of crystals and superfluids — using a quantum gas of strongly magnetic atoms.

A supersolid is a remarkable state of matter: it can rotate without inertia and form a regular crystal structure while maintaining superfluid properties. Thanks to quantum mechanics, it is able to deform without friction, unlike ordinary matter.

To carry out his research on supersolids, Modugno was awarded an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC), worth over 2 million euros. The project involves the Department of Physics and Astronomy, CNR-INO, the European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy, and the University of the Basque Country.