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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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.
In his account of the open discussions at the 2025 Balzan Prizewinners Interdisciplinary Forum, Francesco Ranci reflects on the comments of two Prizewinners, Carl H. June and Christophe Salomon, on AI and the role of serendipity in breakthrough discoveries.
Rosalind E. Krauss
In presenting her life’s work, Rosalind Krauss reflects on the intellectual figures central to the development of her ambitions as a writer on art, notably the art historian/critic Leo Steinberg and the literary theorist/semiotician Roland Barthes.
June’s “Odyssey” in cellular immunotherapy and CAR T cell research took him from the US Naval Academy and an MD at Baylor College to research posts in Switzerland and the US before setting up his own lab at the University of Pennsylvania, a hub of major breakthroughs. [Video]
Andrea Pronti and Roberto Zoboli
In the current geopolitical and technological landscape, we are at a crossroads: can the “climate change paradigm“ prevail over the “fossil paradigm” and enable a shift beyond the current “tragedy of the commons” toward a model of collective stewardship?
