Luigi Ambrosio (2019-2025)

An SNS undergraduate and PhD student of mathematics, Ambrosio studied under Ennio De Giorgi, and in his turn became a teacher of such internationally renowned mathematicians as the Fields Medal winner Alessio Figalli. In May 2019 he was elected Director of the SNS, the 23rd since its foundation; he was quick to set his own style of governance featuring dialogue and sharing, a policy he applied to managing the years of the Covid pandemic.

Thanks partly to the renewed collaboration with local and regional institutions, under his mandate important initiatives were concluded in order to address the problem of shortage of space. In Pisa, a portion of Palazzo della Canonica, in Piazza dei Cavalieri, was acquired; the opening of a palazzina in Via Roma went ahead; in the San Silvestro Complex, funds were procured to enlarge the site of the Science laboratories; in Florence, the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences gained new spaces on the second floor of Palazzo Vegni.

His directorship saw the strengthening of the academic partnerships for orientation, research, technology transfer and third mission. The university federation with S.Anna and IUSS of Pavia was dissolved and the opportunity was seized to modify the Statute, which – rewritten for the first time using a language geared towards gender equality – underwent an increase in the representativeness of the authorities.

Under Ambrosio's directorship, the Scuola Normale won numerous PNRR (NRRP) grants and joined various national and international academic groups linked to advanced research sectors, such as those of quantum physics and molecular biology. 
The teaching body was renewed and new profiles and subject areas were introduced; for the first time the chair of Information Technology was set up in the Faculty of Sciences.
During that time Ambrosio was awarded numerous scientific and institutional honours: the Balzan Prize 2019, the Riemann Prize 2022 and the Frederic Esser Nemmers Prize 2024. During his mandate, furthermore, the Minister of Universities and Research nominated him co-ordinator of a technical committee for a national strategy in favour of basic research. 
He leaves behind him a fully functioning Scuola relaunched abroad, thus attaining one of the goals of his directorship.