INternational School on modern PhYsics and REsearch
Glimpses into the Universe’s Hidden Realms
INSPYRE 2025 participants will sign up for two experimental working groups (one per day) which will take place on Tuesday April 8, and Thursday April 10. The Wednesday experiment will be common to all students.
Experiments - Tuesday, April 8
1 – Plasma sources for particle accelerator (Angelo Biagioni, Gemma Costa, Lucio Crincoli, Martina Del Giorno, Romain Demitra, Federica Stocchi, Martina Carillo, INFN-LNF)
What is a plasma, the state of matter that composes the 99% of the universe? How can it be investigated? Let’s find it out together with this interactive activity that will allow us to study it and detect it! In this way we will discover, with some basic physics principles, how spectroscopy works and how to measure the plasma.
Angelo Biagioni
Angelo Biagioni has graduated from University of Rome La Sapienza in electronic engineering, where he also earned a doctorate degree in electromagnetism. He made teaching activities at the University of Rome La Sapienza for courses in classical mechanics, electromagnetism and thermodynamics. He is supervisor for the PhD in accelerator Physics. Since 2014, he has conducted research activity at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics – section of National Laboratory of Frascati. He has currently a permanent position at INFN LNF – Accelerator Division. He collaborates to the SPARC_LAB project to implement the plasma module for the plasma-based acceleration. In particular, his research activity is devoted to the design of specific devices for producing and confining plasmas for acceleration. He has gained experience in the field of plasma physics and, in particular, have acquired capabilities to design plasma diagnostic systems for plasma sources characterization. He has contributed to establish the Plasma laboratory at the LNF, of which he is currently the responsible.
Gemma Costa
Gemma Costa is a young technologist in the accelerator division of the Frascati National Laboratories of INFN. She has a degree in physics from the Sapienza University of Rome, and got a Sapienza PhD in Accelerator Physics in 2021, with a project on laser-plasma acceleration carried out in the SPARC_LAB facility at LNF. She is currently part of the laser service and works on plasma acceleration and laser-matter interaction.
Lucio Crincoli
Lucio Crincoli graduated in Nuclear Engineering at Politecnico di Milano in 2020, with a master thesis regarding the computational design of a magnetic energy selector for laser-drive proton beams, aimed at investigating the FLASH therapy. Then he started the PhD in Accelerator physics at Sapienza University of Rome and is currently conducting his PhD thesis project concerning the experimental and theoretical development of plasma sources for plasma-based particle accelerators. In this regard he is carrying on his research activity at Plasma_Lab (Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, INFN) in the framework of SPARC_LAB collaboration and EuPRAXIA project.
Martina Del Giorno
Martina Del Giorno works as a laser technician at the Accelerator Division of INFN’s Frascati National Laboratories.
She studies physics at Sapienza University of Rome.
Since 2020, she has been in charge of the operation and maintenance of the FLAME laser of the SPARC_LAB research group.
She collaborates on laser plasma interaction research activities at the FLAME laboratory of the SPARC_LAB group and participates in the outreach activities of Frascati National Laboratories.
2 – Determination of nuclides through gamma spectrometry (Roberto Bedogni, Abner Ivan Castro Campoy, Luigi Russo, Miguel Angel Caballero Pacheco, INFN-LNF)
The participants in the experience “Determination of nuclides through gamma spectrometry” will learn the basics of gamma spectrometry through Scintillation detectors. Particularly, they will learn about (1) physics of a scintillation detector (2) Analog electronics to transform the light pulses in the scintillator into measurable electrical pulses (3) Digital electronics to measure the electrical pulses and produce a pulse height distribution (4) Basics of nuclide identification though the gamma rays signature.
Roberto Bedogni
· Head of the LEMRAP laboratory (Laboratory for Environmental and Medical Radiation Physics) at INFN-Frascati
· Main fields: Dosimetry and metrology of ionising radiation, development of radiation sensors, irradiation assemblies, spectrometers and related computational tools
· University of Bologna (Italy): Degree in Physics (1998) + Post degree health physics specialization (2000)
· Universidad autonoma de Barcelona (Spain): PhD Physics (2006)
· Researcher at ENEA (national agency for research in new technology, energy and the environment, from 1999 – 2004,
. INFN National Institute for Nuclear Physics, Frascati National Labs, 2004 – present).
· Participation / management of national and international projects in the field.
· Convenor of ISO TC85/SC2/WG2/ Reference radiation fields/ Neutron subgroup
· Author of 130+scientific papers, h-index 19
· Teacher at Ph.D schools & professional courses
· IAEA expert for in-country missions and regional training courses in the field of dosimetry and calibration
Miguel Angel Caballero Pacheco
Miguel is a Spanish postdoctoral researcher working at LEMRAP group. He did his bachelor’s in physics at the Universitat de Barcelona, followed by a master’s degree in physics at the Universidad de Granada. Then, recently, he got his PhD in physics from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. During his PhD he has been working on the topics of neutron spectrometry and neutron dosimetry. While doing his PhD he was also appointed as lecturer on subjects related to radiation physics.
Abner Ivan Castro Campoy
Abner Iván Castro Campoy obtained his PhD in Materials Science at University of Sonora on 2021, same year he started his Post-doc studies at INFN-LNF in LEMRAP. His areas of expertise are in radiation detection and dosimetry, mainly thermoluminescence dosimetry and neutron detection. His role in the laboratory is the manufacture of new sensors by different coating methods, electronics, CAD design and 3D printing.
Luigi Russo
Luigi Russo, post-graduate student at INFN-LNF starting from September 2022. I currently work in LEMRAP (Laboratory for Environmental and Medical RAdiation Physics) on dosimetry, neutron spectrometry, radiation protection and medical physics. I obtained a Bachelor Degree in Physics in 2021 and a Master Degree in Nuclear and Sub-Nuclear Physics in 2023 from University of Salento (Lecce, Italy). I am attending a post-master course on Radiation Protection in Tor Vergata University (Rome,Italy)
3 – Cosmic rays: falling from the stars to the ground (Giulietto Felici, Matteo Beretta, Alessandro Paoloni, Paolo Ciambrone, INFN-LNF)
Primary cosmic rays, produced by galatic and extra-galactic sources, are continuosly hitting the atmosphere.
At ground level, muons, the most penetrating component, can be detected at the rate of about 1 particle per second per square cm.
In the past cosmic rays were used to discover new particles before the use of particle accelerators.
Nowadays, muons are mainly used to test detectors performances.
The aim of the experience is to make students get acquainted with detector technologies like scintillators and silicon photomultipliers.
The study of the muon rate as a function of the angle can be exploited to infer its properties, such as the lifetime.
Matteo Mario Beretta
Degree and PhD in Electronic Engineering and Telecommunications from the Politecnico di Milano.
He has been a technologist in the Electronics Service of the Research Division of the INFN Frascati National Laboratory since 2001 and is currently in charge of the Electronics and Automation Section of the Research Division. He is involved in the design and implementation of acquisition systems for high energy physics experiments. He is an expert in digital electronics, digital signal processing and neural networks. The main experiment he has worked on since he started working at INFN is ATLAS, for which he participated in the construction of the muon spectrometer, while he is now participating in the construction of part of the apex detector upgrade (ITK) of ATLAS. During his woek he has also collaborated with several other experiments including Kloe, OPERA, LHCb.
Giulietto Felici
Senior technologist with pas experience as a high school teacher. Since 1988 held a permanent position at INFN. He contributed to the design of the readout electronics of may experiments at CERN as well as at LNF and LNGS laboratories.
Alessandro Paoloni
Born in Rome in 1971. Currently senior researcher at the INFN Frascati laboratories.
In the last 20 years active in neutrino and cosmic ray physics as well as in research and development of muon detectors.
4 – Superconductive adventures (Jorge Andres Villa Velez, CERN)
Work with liquid nitrogen to explore the properties of superconductors and learn how superconducting cables are used, for example, at CERN or in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
Superconductors are essential to create strong magnetic fields. For example, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) uses superconducting cables for its electromagnets to generate magnetic fields strong enough to bend the particles. Superconducting cables are also commonly used to create the magnetic fields in MRI scanners.
In this workshop, you will explore the quantum phenomenon of superconductivity. Below a certain temperature, certain materials become superconducting, that is, they lose their electrical resistance. This allows them to conduct extremely high electric currents, and hence, to generate extremely strong magnetic fields. To gain a deeper understanding about superconductivity, participants will first study the effect of electromagnetic induction in different materials before exploring the interaction between magnets and high-temperature superconductors. This workshop was developed by the education team at CERN.
Jorge Andres Villa Velez
Jorge Andres Villa Velez is a French-Colombian astrophysicist. Although he spent most of his career in research, studying galaxies across multiple wavelengths and shock waves in the interstellar medium, he eventually decided to shift my focus to science education.
He has been involved in various educational initiatives throughout his life, including a meaningful program for astronomy students in Colombia. Currently, he is the School and Student Programmes Manager at CERN, where he oversees the Beamline for Schools competition for high school students.
He is passionate about science, but even more so about making it accessible to others, showing that science is fun, engaging, and something everyone can enjoy.
5 – Key experiments of quantum mechanics (S. Bertelli, INFN-LNF)
The unit is structured into an introductory part in which the key concepts underlying the development of quantum mechanics are presented and an experimental interactive session. In this second part, the properties of electrons and the related phenomena like, the linear propagation of an electron beam, the deflection of electrons in a magnetic field, electron diffraction, will be investigated. The atomic spectra of some inert gases will be analyzed and the measurement of Planck’s constant using different LEDs will be carried out.
Susanna Bertelli
Susanna Bertelli is Head of Education and Public Outreach Service at INFN Frascati National Laboratory (INFN-LNF). She obtained her PhD in Physics at the University of Ferrara and a Master in Science Communication at the University of Padua. Her activity is focused on designing and coordinating physics education and communication programs dedicated to students, teachers and broad public at INFN-LNF. Curator of science exhibitions and festivals, she is co-responsible for INFN-kids, science popularization project addressed to kids and member of the editorial board of ScienzaPerTutti, INFN physics dissemination website.
Experiments - Wednesday, April 9
A – Virtual reality for particle physics (A. Budano, C. Martellini, D. Tagnani, INFN-Roma3)
In this activity we will go inside one of the most important particle detectors currently in operation through virtual reality. One way to investigate and understand our Universe, in fact, is to “break it down” into fundamental building blocks. We can do this by studying particles, produced in large accelerators, which we now reveal thanks to immense “cameras.” One of these is precisely Belle II, the particle detector built around the point where collisions between electrons and positrons occur at the SuperKEKB accelerator in Japan. Using software based on Virtual Reality technologies in the Belle II experiment, it is possible to enter the experiment and follow the particles produced, while also observing some of their characteristics.
Antonio Budano
Antonio BudanoAntonio Budano is technology researcher for the Italian Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) Roma Tre Section. His main activities focus on GRID computing (he is the administrator of the local computing site), and parallelization techniques like MPI, GPUs and high bandwidth technology. He is also involved in developing and maintaining the data acquisition and trigger system of several particle physics experiments. In recent years he started to study and analyze new technologies for scientific dissemination of nuclear physics.
B – Event selection of Higgs boson with the ATLAS detector at LHC (Chiara Arcangeletti, INFN-LNF)
The students will have the opportunity to perform an event selection of the Higgs boson. The selection will be implemented using an event display based analysis with data from the ATLAS experiment at LHC.
Chiara Arcangeletti
Chiara Arcangeletti works as a researcher at the National Laboratories of Frascati, where she has been a member of the ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS) experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider since 2017. Her research work has primarily focused on the measurement of Higgs boson properties, specifically in the H->ZZ*->4l decay channel, while also contributing to the construction of the MicroMegas detectors for the ATLAS upgrade, which were installed in 2020
Experiments - Thursday, April 10
6 – Plasma sources for particle accelerator (Angelo Biagioni, Gemma Costa, Lucio Crincoli, Martina Del Giorno, Romain Demitra, Federica Stocchi, Martina Carillo, INFN-LNF)
What is a plasma, the state of matter that composes the 99% of the universe? How can it be investigated? Let’s find it out together with this interactive activity that will allow us to study it and detect it! In this way we will discover, with some basic physics principles, how spectroscopy works and how to measure the plasma.
Angelo Biagioni
Angelo Biagioni has graduated from University of Rome La Sapienza in electronic engineering, where he also earned a doctorate degree in electromagnetism. He made teaching activities at the University of Rome La Sapienza for courses in classical mechanics, electromagnetism and thermodynamics. He is supervisor for the PhD in accelerator Physics. Since 2014, he has conducted research activity at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics – section of National Laboratory of Frascati. He has currently a permanent position at INFN LNF – Accelerator Division. He collaborates to the SPARC_LAB project to implement the plasma module for the plasma-based acceleration. In particular, his research activity is devoted to the design of specific devices for producing and confining plasmas for acceleration. He has gained experience in the field of plasma physics and, in particular, have acquired capabilities to design plasma diagnostic systems for plasma sources characterization. He has contributed to establish the Plasma laboratory at the LNF, of which he is currently the responsible.
Gemma Costa
Gemma Costa is a young technologist in the accelerator division of the Frascati National Laboratories of INFN. She has a degree in physics from the Sapienza University of Rome, and got a Sapienza PhD in Accelerator Physics in 2021, with a project on laser-plasma acceleration carried out in the SPARC_LAB facility at LNF. She is currently part of the laser service and works on plasma acceleration and laser-matter interaction.
Lucio Crincoli
Lucio Crincoli graduated in Nuclear Engineering at Politecnico di Milano in 2020, with a master thesis regarding the computational design of a magnetic energy selector for laser-drive proton beams, aimed at investigating the FLASH therapy. Then he started the PhD in Accelerator physics at Sapienza University of Rome and is currently conducting his PhD thesis project concerning the experimental and theoretical development of plasma sources for plasma-based particle accelerators. In this regard he is carrying on his research activity at Plasma_Lab (Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, INFN) in the framework of SPARC_LAB collaboration and EuPRAXIA project.
Martina Del Giorno
Martina Del Giorno works as a laser technician at the Accelerator Division of INFN’s Frascati National Laboratories.
She studies physics at Sapienza University of Rome.
Since 2020, she has been in charge of the operation and maintenance of the FLAME laser of the SPARC_LAB research group.
She collaborates on laser plasma interaction research activities at the FLAME laboratory of the SPARC_LAB group and participates in the outreach activities of Frascati National Laboratories.
7 – Introduction to simulation techniques for medical applications (Alessandra Filippi, INFN-To)
Plan of the working group activity
The simulation of the interaction of particles and radiation with materials is fundamental for the design of particle physics experiments and the study of their expected performances, but it can also be exploited for more everyday life applications, for instance related to medicine.
In particular, in medical field it is important to resort to simulations to estimate the energy released in biological tissues following the treatment with particle beams or radiation, its effect and the possible damage.
To this perspective, simulations provide fundamental information to prepare radiotherapic plans with beams or radiopharmaceuticals, for radiodiagnostic and radioprotection purposes, and also for the design of shielding for radiospatial applications in extraterrestrial environments.
Complete simulation tools are based on very complicated software packages, of course beyond the scope of this class.
Nonetheless, in this working group the students will approach a user-friendly interface based on the GEANT4 simulation package that will allow them to learn how to setup a system with a particle beam of desired shape,energy and intensity, interacting on simplified (but realistic) phantoms of some body organs, as well as on simple solid shapes invented by themselves.
The output from the simulation at the microscopical level will be analyzed and discussed in term of the possibile reactions that the particles will undergo in the materials of the experimental setup.
The students will visualize the interaction of particles or radiation with the materials, that will disclose the fundamental mechanisms at the basis of the medical investigation techniques, in particular those based on X-rays and radioactive beams or sources.
Graduated in theoretical physics in 1991, PhD in nuclear physics in 1996, Alessandra is currently Senior Scientist at INFN Torino (Italy).
Her field of interest covers the experimental nuclear and hadronic physics at intermediate and low energies, with activity focus on data analysis, interpretation of the obtained results and the development of codes for the simulation of physical processes and detector setups as well as event pattern recognition and reconstruction.
She’s been working in International Collaborations at several Laboratories (CERN, LNF, Julich, SLAC) also covering leading roles. She’s presently involved in experiments at the Jefferson Laboratory (USA), where her activity is mostly dedicated to hadron spectroscopy and light dark matter searches.
She’s author of more than 400 scientific papers on International Physics Journals.
Since 2019 she’s been holding classes for the Speciality School of Medical Physics at the Torino University, on Information Technology and Montecarlo Methods for Dose Evaluation.
8 – Cosmic rays: falling from the stars to the ground (Giulietto Felici, Matteo Beretta, Alessandro Paoloni, Paolo Ciambrone, INFN-LNF)
Primary cosmic rays, produced by galatic and extra-galactic sources, are continuosly hitting the atmosphere.
At ground level, muons, the most penetrating component, can be detected at the rate of about 1 particle per second per square cm.
In the past cosmic rays were used to discover new particles before the use of particle accelerators.
Nowadays, muons are mainly used to test detectors performances.
The aim of the experience is to make students get acquainted with detector technologies like scintillators and silicon photomultipliers.
The study of the muon rate as a function of the angle can be exploited to infer its properties, such as the lifetime.
Matteo Mario Beretta
Degree and PhD in Electronic Engineering and Telecommunications from the Politecnico di Milano.
He has been a technologist in the Electronics Service of the Research Division of the INFN Frascati National Laboratory since 2001 and is currently in charge of the Electronics and Automation Section of the Research Division. He is involved in the design and implementation of acquisition systems for high energy physics experiments. He is an expert in digital electronics, digital signal processing and neural networks. The main experiment he has worked on since he started working at INFN is ATLAS, for which he participated in the construction of the muon spectrometer, while he is now participating in the construction of part of the apex detector upgrade (ITK) of ATLAS. During his woek he has also collaborated with several other experiments including Kloe, OPERA, LHCb.
Giulietto Felici
Senior technologist with pas experience as a high school teacher. Since 1988 held a permanent position at INFN. He contributed to the design of the readout electronics of may experiments at CERN as well as at LNF and LNGS laboratories.
Alessandro Paoloni
Born in Rome in 1971. Currently senior researcher at the INFN Frascati laboratories.
In the last 20 years active in neutrino and cosmic ray physics as well as in research and development of muon detectors.
9 – Superconductive adventures (Jorge Andres Villa Velez, CERN)
Work with liquid nitrogen to explore the properties of superconductors and learn how superconducting cables are used, for example, at CERN or in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
Superconductors are essential to create strong magnetic fields. For example, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) uses superconducting cables for its electromagnets to generate magnetic fields strong enough to bend the particles. Superconducting cables are also commonly used to create the magnetic fields in MRI scanners.
In this workshop, you will explore the quantum phenomenon of superconductivity. Below a certain temperature, certain materials become superconducting, that is, they lose their electrical resistance. This allows them to conduct extremely high electric currents, and hence, to generate extremely strong magnetic fields. To gain a deeper understanding about superconductivity, participants will first study the effect of electromagnetic induction in different materials before exploring the interaction between magnets and high-temperature superconductors. This workshop was developed by the education team at CERN.
Jorge Andres Villa Velez
Jorge Andres Villa Velez is a French-Colombian astrophysicist. Although he spent most of his career in research, studying galaxies across multiple wavelengths and shock waves in the interstellar medium, he eventually decided to shift my focus to science education.
He has been involved in various educational initiatives throughout his life, including a meaningful program for astronomy students in Colombia. Currently, he is the School and Student Programmes Manager at CERN, where he oversees the Beamline for Schools competition for high school students.
He is passionate about science, but even more so about making it accessible to others, showing that science is fun, engaging, and something everyone can enjoy.
10 – Atoms, X-rays and Synchrotron Radiation (Antonella Balerna, INFN-LNF)
Matter is made up of atoms, everything around us is made up of atoms: what is surprising is that this great variety of different things is, in its complexity, composed of a relatively small number of atoms. Atoms, with their size in the nanometer scale (one-tenth of a billionth of a meter) are invisible even to the best light microscopes. To “see” atoms and explore the world beyond their macroscopic properties, you cannot use visible light. X-rays, have a wavelength much shorter than that of visible light and are therefore suitable for studying small elements such as atoms. Particle accelerators, created to study fundamental physics, have, over time, also become excellent sources of light known as synchrotron radiation, that includes in its emission spectrum also X-rays. It is interesting to learn about the evolution of synchrotron light sources, their characteristics, and the new research perspectives they opened in different fields ranging from medicine, biology, cultural heritage, chemistry, and material science in general. It is also important to understand how X-rays interact with matter and learn how to identify atoms using X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy.
Antonella Balerna
Antonella Balerna is a Senior Scientist of the INFN-Frascati National Laboratories, and she covers the position of Responsible of the DAFNE-Light INFN synchrotron radiation facility.
Her primary scientific interests are the relations between the local atomic structures and physical properties of advanced materials like nanomaterials, studied using X-ray absorption spectroscopy, the development of detectors and experimental systems. For her studies she uses X-rays produced by synchrotron radiation and conventional sources.
With the support of
With the cooperation of
Under the patronage of