The Balzan Foundation collects scientific contributions, and dissertations from its prizewinners for periodic publications. The Balzan Papers journal has been digital since 2024, and here, some updates on the research projects of the Balzan prizewinners are also gathered.
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recent papers
Bina Agarwal
Agarwal’s project has pursued four linked research trajectories on institutional innovation, gender, and the economy, supporting early-career scholars, building research capacity, and sharing findings with policymakers and civil society to improve well-being.
Salomon (2025 Balzan Prize) devised an experiment to place atomic clocks aboard the International Space Station and measure how time in orbit flows differently from time on Earth, testing Einstein’s prediction that our planet’s gravity slows the passage of time.
Christophe Salomon
Salomon’s research project will investigate the performances of a cold atom primary caesium clock in space and ultra-precise measurements of time differences between space and ground clocks, with a variety of applications in fundamental physics and metrology.
Luca Sciortino
Do literary works articulate visions of the world? How do new contexts of reception reshape these visions? For Damrosch, works of world literature are continually reshaped across different historical and cultural contexts, generating new meanings and functions.
Marco Ferrari
Evolution is facilitated variation: genomes reuse past solutions to generate new traits more efficiently. Convergence and physics may impose regular patterns, but (re)writing the genetic heritage of life remains a unique, never fully predictable task.
The project explores how citizen self-government is defended during crises or restored after collapse. Research on ancient Greek democracy (Athens) and republics (Rome) links classical history with modern history, political theory, and empirical political science.
