The Ceremony for the Inauguration of the 219th Anniversary of the Academy was held on March 27, 2001 in Naples at the Royal Mineralogical Museum of the Naples University “Federico II”” (photo 1).

The Chancellor of the “Federico II” University, Prof. Fulvio Tessitore opened the ceremony with a short welcoming address. It was followed by a presentation from the president of the National Academy of Sciences Prof. Gian Tommaso Scarascia Mugnozza, outlining the various activities and initiatives carried out during the academic year and also mentioned prospective programs for the future (photo 2). Certificates were presented to the new members: Giorgio Parisi, Pietro Calissano, Marc Van Montagu and Yves Coppens.

During the ceremony the various prizes were awarded for the year 2000. The XL Medal in Mathematics was awarded to Prof. Carlo Sbordone, professor of Mathematical Analysis at the University of Naples “Federico II”, the XL Medal in Physical and Natural Sciences was warded to Prof. Augusto Biancotti, professor of Physical Geography at the University of Torino; the “Domenico Marotta” Prize was awarded to Barbara Ensoli, director of the “Infezioni da retrovirus” department of the Virology Laboratory at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità.

The 2000 Degree Thesis Award in the History of Physics was presented to Alberto De Gregorio for his thesis on “Fermi e la nascita della fisica teorica delle particelle elementari: la teoria del decadimento beta” and to Federica Pozzi for his thesis on “Heisenberg e il problema storico della meccanica delle matrici”.

For the occasion Academy member Giorgio Parisi presented a lecture on “La complessità dal punto di vista di un Fisico” (photo 3).