Claudio Bonanno, who graduated in Physics in 2017 from the University of Pisa and received a PhD from the same University in 2021, has been awarded the prestigious 2025 Wilson Award. The award, established in 2011, is named after Kenneth G. Wilson (1936–2013), Nobel Laureate in Physics and a pioneer of Lattice Gauge Theory, the study of the theory of fundamental interactions, particularly Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD, the theory of strong interactions), through numerical simulations on supercomputers. The prize is awarded annually by an international committee to physicists who, within seven years of completing their PhD, have made recent and outstanding contributions to the field.
Claudio Bonanno is the first Italian to receive this award, which was announced and awarded during the International Conference “Lattice 2025,” held at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai, India, from November 2 to 8, 2025. During the Conference, Claudio presented the work that earned him the award, which concerns the study of the topological properties of QCD, the development of innovative algorithms, and the study of the properties of axions, particles that are candidates for being part of the so-called dark matter.
This research has its roots in Claudio’s PhD at the Department of Physics of the University of Pisa, and has been brought to excellence in his subsequent research career, during which he established himself internationally, first at the Florence Section of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics and currently at the Institute of Theoretical Physics of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.
