SISSA: Trieste's elite research school seeks international director

SISSA (Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati) in Trieste, Italy, is recruiting its next director through an international call, a rare practice in Italian academia where rectors are usually chosen internally. The current director Andrea Romanino explains this brings fresh ideas. Founded in 1978, SISSA hosts over 300 PhD students, 120 postdocs, and 80 faculty. It ranks first in five of nine ANVUR sectors and has won 34 ERC grants since 2007, with funding per faculty 22 times the national average. The school focuses on physics, mathematics, and neuroscience, with no introductory courses; PhDs start research immediately. Faculty like Pasquale Calabrese (quantum many-body systems) and Roberto Trotta (AI applications in cosmology, biology, cancer) teach their own research. Principal investigators have high autonomy; 30% hold ERC grants. SISSA collaborates with industry: Fincantieri (hydrodynamics, noise reduction), Electrolux (appliances), Danieli (steel processes). Gianluigi Rozza leads technology transfer, developing surrogate models and digital twins for manufacturing, medicine, and infrastructure. Neuroscientist Domenica Bueti studies time perception via fMRI, finding it involves distributed cortical stages. PhD stipends are €1,200-1,300/month; postdocs earn €2,300-2,500.