Elena Aprile Named Director of the Italian Academy

[From Provost Angela V. Olinto]

Dear members of the Columbia community, 

I am very pleased to announce that Elena Aprile, the Centennial Professor of Physics, will serve as the next Director of the Italian Academy as of July 1. Professor Aprile will provide intellectual leadership in exploring new frontiers while maintaining the highly distinguished local, national, and international profile of the Italian Academy in academic and cultural spheres across the globe. Professor Aprile’s leadership brings a compelling vision to the Academy and the community with her intellectual powers and infectious enthusiasm. 

An Italian-American experimental particle physicist, Professor Aprile has been at Columbia University since 1986 and is the founder and spokesperson of the XENON Dark Matter Experiment, a world-leading project to discover the origin of the elusive dark matter in the universe. She received the “Laurea” in Physics from the University of Naples, Italy and the PhD in Physics from the University of Geneva, Switzerland. She was a postdoctoral scholar at Harvard University before joining the faculty of the Columbia Physics Department. She also received a Doctorate of Philosophy “honoris causa” from Stockholm University. Professor Aprile is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and is the 2019 recipient of the Lancelot Berkeley Prize of the American Astronomical Society. 

Professor Aprile plans to continue the outstanding interdisciplinary Fellows program at the Academy, support current initiatives and projects including those that focus on heritage and those that link neuroscience and the arts, as well as oversee the exciting programming that the Academy offers. She has ambitions to develop new directions for the Academy, especially in the interdisciplinary scholarship with the sciences. She will also continue to support the ongoing relationship between Columbia and the Italian government and foster intellectual exchange between Columbia and the academic community in Italy and beyond. 

This new appointment succeeds Professor David Freedberg, who has so ably served at the helm of the Italian Academy for 25 years. David has left a profound legacy, turning the Academy into the vibrant and highly interdisciplinary scholarly community that it is today. 

Please join me in congratulating Professor Aprile and in thanking Professor Freedberg.  

I look forward to many years of great impact from the Academy.

Sincerely,

Angela V. Olinto
Provost
Professor of Astronomy and of Physics