Salvatore Settis (1999-2010)

An archaeologist and art historian, and an undergraduate and postgraduate student at the beginning of the 1960s, Settis was the director of the Scuola Normale for three successive terms.
He promoted a policy of further expansion of the Scuola Normale, thanks to the acquisition of buildings and the establishment of new research centres and laboratories.
In 2001, thanks to a specific agreement with the State, he obtained the perpetual and free use by the Scuola Normale of the San Silvestro Complex, which had been the first site of the Scuola Normale, between 1811 and 1815.
In 2006 Salvatore Settis inaugurated the Faedo College, jointly owned with the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna.
Under his directorship, important research centres and laboratories were created: for Sciences, in the sectors of nanotechnology (NEST), mathematics (Centro De Giorgi), biology and neurobiology (BIO); for Letters, in the fields of the history of images in literature (CTL), of the history of art (LARTTE), and of philosophy (Signum).
On October 18, 2010, the Bicentenary of the birth of the Scuola Normale was celebrated, in the presence of the then President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano.