Enjoying the work but finding Princeton a little tame.
By: Jeff Milgram
Buried in a tunnel under a mountain in the Abruzzi region of Italy, northeast of Rome, is the Gran Sasso National Laboratory where Princeton University physicists are conducting experiments on atomic particles known as neutrinos.
"The region is poor and they don’t see much of the advantage of the lab," said Princeton physics Professor Chiara Nappi.
The Abruzzi may be poor, but the people there are rich in their love of learning, Professor Nappi said. While high school students in Teramo and L’Aquila provinces rarely take advantage of the laboratory that lies under their mountain, 20 of them are attending a new month-long summer physics camp at Princeton University, said Professor Nappi, one of four faculty members who are taking part in the program. Professor Nappi is the only one who has not, at some time, done work at Gran Sasso.
The camp started on July 24 and will end on Aug. 20. In all 120 students applied for the program and 20 10 girls and 10 boys were selected in a very competitive process, said assistant physics Professor Cristiano Galbiati.
"They’re supposed to be the brightest of the pool of applicants," he said.
Many are leaning toward postcollege careers in science, Professor Nappi said.
Those accepted received air fare, dorm rooms, food and a stipend for expenses.
The activities in Princeton will include college-level demonstration lectures on mechanics, electromagnetism, thermodynamics and special relativity, special lectures in the areas of physics and astrophysics that the Gran Sasso Laboratory is involved with.
The students also receive courses to brush up their English.
Every year three or four Princeton physics students go to Gran Sasso to work in the lab. Out of this grew the idea of bringing Italian high school students to Princeton, said Princeton Professor Frank Calaprice, who leads Princeton’s involvement in the Gran Sasso experiment.
The visiting students are taking short courses given in Italian. They also spend one afternoon a week conducting laboratory experiments that are much the same as those done by Princeton freshmen.
The students also will have visited the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, the Institute for Advanced Study, Pettoranello Gardens, Albert Einstein’s home and the Princeton Battlefield State Park by the time the program ends. They also met Princeton High School students, Professor Nappi said. And they will go on trips to New York, Philadelphia and Washington
One of the goals of the program is to give the Italian students the experience of another culture, another political and social system, Professor Nappi said.
The students are free during the evenings and there is no curfew, said Antonino DiGiorgio, one of two chaperones who are riding herd on the students.
So far, he said, there have been no romances between any of the Italian and Princeton teens.
"I’m going back with 20 students, not 21 or 22," Mr. DiGiorgio said.
The students are enjoying the work, but summer in Princeton is a little tame.
"I really like America," said Elisa Nardis, 18, who demurred when asked how she liked Princeton.
"There’s not enough social life in the summer," said Marco Iovenitti, 19.
While they just want to have fun sometimes, the students are serious about their futures. Alessio Ferrari, 18, wants to be a genetic engineer. "So I’m going to study biology," he said.
Marco plans to study physics.
"I’d like to study engineering," Elisa said. "But I’m not sure."
The student visits are supported by the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics as well as the Italian Embassy in Washington and three local groups: the Princeton-Pettoranello Foundation, Dorothea’s House and the Princeton Italian-American Sportsmen Club.