Antonino Zichichi, one of Italy’s most recognisable scientific voices and a respected figure in international physics, died on 9 February 2026 in Lausanne. He was ninety‑six. Born in Trapani in 1929, Zichichi devoted his long life to the exploration of the subnuclear world and to the conviction – scientific as much as philosophical – that the universe is marked by an intrinsic rationality.
After early studies in Palermo, he rose to prominence through his work in subnuclear physics, contributing to major experiments at CERN and teaching for decades at the University of Bologna. His founding of the Ettore Majorana Centre for Scientific Culture in Erice in 1963 created a unique meeting place for scientists from across the world, and remains one of his most enduring institutional legacies. Zichichi believed that scientific research flourishes when it is shared, debated, and placed within a broader cultural horizon.
Beyond the laboratory, he became a familiar public figure in Italy, known for his ability to communicate complex ideas with clarity and for his insistence that scientific inquiry and Christian faith need not be adversaries. In Perché io credo in Colui che ha fatto il mondo (Why I Believe in the One Who Made the World) he wrote: ‘There is no scientific discovery that can be used to cast doubt on or to deny the existence of God.’ For him, this was not a theological slogan but a scientific intuition: the very possibility of physics presupposes a universe that is not chaotic. He often stressed that mathematics is not a human invention but the grammar in which creation is written.
In Il vero e il falso (The True and the False) Zichichi drew a sharp distinction between the genuine achievements of science and the false certainties promoted by what he called pseudo‑scientific popularisation. For him, authentic science was powerful precisely because it recognised its own limits, whereas ideology disguised as science risked misleading both culture and society.
Zichichi often invoked Galileo Galilei as a foundational figure for modern scientific method. He admired Galileo not only for his experimental genius but for his conviction that the universe is written in a mathematical language accessible to human reason. For Zichichi, Galileo embodied the unity of scientific inquiry and a worldview open to transcendence. He frequently argued that the so‑called ‘Galileo affair’ was too often misrepresented, and that Galileo’s legacy should be understood as a celebration of rationality rather than as a symbol of conflict between science and faith. In this sense, Zichichi saw himself as working within the same intellectual lineage: a tradition that seeks to read the book of nature with both rigour and wonder.
He was also known for positions that diverged from mainstream scientific consensus, particularly regarding evolutionism and certain interpretations of climate science. His reservations were not theological in origin but stemmed from his reading of the data and from his insistence on methodological rigour. With respect to biological evolution, he did not deny the reality of evolutionary change. His scepticism was directed instead at evolutionism – the claim that neo‑Darwinian mechanisms, acting alone, can fully account for the emergence of biological complexity. He often argued that the explanatory gap between micro‑variation and macro‑complexity remained significant.
On climate change, Zichichi distinguished carefully between the physics of the climate system and what he regarded as ideological extrapolations. He questioned the reliability of certain predictive models, arguing that the system’s non‑linear dynamics made long‑term projections inherently uncertain. His stance was not a denial of climatic shifts but a call for caution in interpreting them and in attributing them to single dominant causes.
In L’infinito (The Infinite) Zichichi explored the concept of infinity through multiple lenses – mathematical, religious, artistic, and existential. Drawing on Aristotle and on Archimedes – who famously calculated how many grains of sand could fill the world as it was then known – he argued that the human capacity to reflect on infinity reveals both the power and the limits of reason. For him, this sense of infinity was inseparable from wonder, which permeated his scientific, philosophical, and spiritual outlook.
Antonino Zichichi leaves behind a body of scientific work, a generation of students, and a distinctive voice in the dialogue between science and faith. His life was marked by a confidence that the universe is not an accident but a gift, intelligible and inviting. In an age often tempted by polarisation, his example suggests a more generous way of seeking truth – one in which curiosity and reverence walk side by side.