The foundation
The Ettore Majorana Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture ETS is named after an extraordinary Italian physicist, born in Sicily in 1906. The Centre is located in the ancient pre-medieval town of Erice, where three restored monasteries provide a suitable environment for high intellectual engagement.
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Professor Antonino Zichichi
Antonino Zichichi, Emeritus Professor of Higher Physics at the University of Bologna, is the author of over 1,100 scientific papers, including 7 discoveries, 5 inventions, 3 original ideas that have opened new avenues in high-energy subnuclear physics, and 5 high-precision measurements of fundamental physical quantities.
Professor Antonino ZichichiThe Erice Manifesto
The Erice Manifesto, drafted in 1982 during the Cold War, was an international appeal promoted by Antonino Zichichi together with Nobel Prize winners Paul Dirac and Pyotr Kapitza. Signed by tens of thousands of scientists, it affirmed the responsibility of the scientific community to promote ethical science in the service of humanity and to counter the risk of nuclear conflict, calling for freedom of research, international cooperation, and arms reduction. In 2023, 40 years later, an Addendum to the Erice Manifesto was published, updating that commitment in light of new global challenges—from the proliferation of conventional weapons and dual-use technologies to climate crises and pandemics—strongly reaffirming the need for dialogue and scientific collaboration between peoples and nations as a tool for peace and progress.
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Organizational structure of the Ettore Majorana Foundation and Center for Scientific Culture
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
ASSISTANT TO THE CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE
ADMINISTRATIVE BODY
BOARD OF AUDITORS
The history
This institution is neither an academy nor a university as we know them. Bell, Blackett, Rabi, Weisskopf and Zichichi signed the constitution that gave new meaning to science and its culture in 1963.