Theoretical physicist Giorgio Parisi, a researcher at the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), professor at Sapienza University of Rome and president of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, has been awarded the prestigious Wolf Prize for Physics 2021 "for his pioneering discoveries in quantum field theory, statistical mechanics and complex systems".

"I am extremely pleased and honoured to have received this prestigious award," says Giorgio Parisi, "not only for being included in a very illustrious party, in which I find many friends but also for being associated with the name of Riccardo Wolf, a person I greatly admire for his scientific skills and great civic commitment". "The merit of this award also goes to the many collaborators I have had, with whom we have had fun trying to unravel what used to be called the 'mysteries of nature'", concludes Parisi.

The prize awarded to Giorgio Parisi is a source of pride for the entire Sapienza community," says Rectress Antonella Polimeni, "and I am delighted to express my warmest congratulations on this prestigious additional step in the path of excellence in Italian research.

The Wolf Foundation of Israel established the Wolf Prize in 1978 to recognise scientists and artists who have produced "achievements in the interest of humanity and friendly relations between people, regardless of nationality, race, colour, religion, sex or political opinion". Among those who have won the Wolf Prize in physics are Giuseppe Occhialini, Bruno Rossi, Riccardo Giacconi, Leon Lederman, Roger Penrose, Stephen Hawking, and Peter Higgs to name but a few of the best-known scientists.

Giorgio Parisi is full professor of Theoretical Physics at Sapienza University of Rome, a research associate at INFN, the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics and since 2018 president of the Accademia dei lincei. Born in Rome in 1948, Parisi completed his studies at Sapienza University of Rome where he graduated in physics in 1970 under Nicola Cabibbo's guidance. He began his scientific career at INFN's Frascati National Laboratories, first as a member of CNR-National Research Council of Italy( 1971-1973) and then as a researcher at INFN (1973-1981). During this period he spent long periods abroad, first at Columbia University in New York (1973-1974), then at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques in Bures-sur-Yvettes (1976-1977), and at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris (1977-1978). In his scientific career, Giorgio Parisi has made many decisive and widely recognised contributions in different physics areas: in particle physics, statistical mechanics, fluid dynamics, condensed matter, supercomputers. He has also written articles on neural networks, the immune system and group movement in animals. He has been the winner of two advanced grants from the Erc European Research Council, in 2010 and 2016, and is the author of over six hundred articles and contributions to scientific conferences and four books. His works are well known. In 1992 he was awarded the Boltzmann Medal (awarded every three years by the IUPAP International Union of Pure and Applied Physics for new achievements in thermodynamics and statistical mechanics) for his contributions to the theory of disordered systems, and the Max Planck Medal in 2011, by the German physics society Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. He received the Feltrinelli Prize for Physics in 1987, Italgas in 1993, the Dirac Medal for Theoretical Physics in 1999, the Italian Prime Minister's Award in 2002, Enrico Fermi in 2003, Dannie Heineman in 2005, Nonino in 2005, Galileo in 2006, Microsoft in 2007, Lagrange in 2009, Vittorio De Sica in 2011, Prix des Trois Physiciens in 2012, the Nature Award Mentoring in Science in 2013, High Energy and Particle Physics from the Eps European Physical Society in 2015, Lars Onsager from the APS American Physical Society in 2016. He is a member of the Academy of the Forty, the Académie des Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, the European Academy and the American Philosophical Society.