In the span of a day, two figures of cultivated Italian life passed from the scene — Antonino Zichichi in Sicily and Franco Torpino di Santasilia of Naples — leaving behind distinct yet complementary legacies of intellect and tradition.Antonino Zichichi
Professor Antonino Zichichi, nuclear physicist and founder of the Centro Ettore Majorana in Erice, died on February 9, 2026. He was 96.
Born in Trapani, Sicily, on October 15, 1929, Zichichi studied at the University of Palermo before embarking on a distinguished international career. In the 1960s, he conducted significant research at Fermilab in Chicago and at CERN in Geneva, contributing to the development of subnuclear physics during a decisive era.
In 1963, he founded the Centro Ettore Majorana in Erice, naming it for the Sicilian theoretical physicist from Catania. The center became home to the International School of Subnuclear Physics and a meeting place for scientists from around the world. Zichichi later served as president of the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, president of the European Physical Society, and president of the World Federation of Scientists. In 1973, he co-founded World Lab with the American physicist Isidor Isaac Rabi, an organization supporting scientific development in emerging nations.
In later years, Zichichi was among those physicists who publicly affirmed belief in God as Creator, writing several works addressed to a broad readership, including Scienza ed emergenze planetarie (1993), Perché io credo in Colui che ha fatto il mondo (1999), and L’irresistibile fascino del Tempo (2000).
Asteroid 3951 bears his name.
Franco Torpino di Santasilia, Neapolitan Marquess, engineer, and devoted custodian of aristocratic culinary tradition, died February 10, 2026, in Marrakesh following complications from a fall. He was 91.
Born in Naples on January 18, 1935, Torpino graduated in physics from the University of Naples in 1960 and worked as a thermal nuclear engineer at the Centrale Elettronucleare del Garigliano for ENEL and General Electric between 1964 and 1971. He later held executive positions at Gruppo Piaggio and Gruppo Giglio.
Inspired by his mother, Duchess Leopoldina Caracciolo di Castagneto, he cultivated a lifelong devotion to the aristocratic cuisine of Naples. In his homes in Naples, Rome, and Morocco, he became known for gatherings that celebrated the ceremonial depth of southern Italian hospitality. His tables welcomed figures from the Italian and international establishment, including members of the Agnelli and Marzotto families, alongside diplomats and public officials.
In 1988, he published La Cucina Aristocratica Napoletana, later republished in 2017, and I primi: 35 ricette ispirate alla Cucina Napoletana di Corte, works that framed cuisine not merely as gastronomy but as inheritance, identity, and culture. He was a member of the Accademia Italiana della Cucina, the American Institute for Food and Wine, and the International Association for Culinary Professionals, and organized numerous conferences dedicated to Neapolitan culinary history.
~ By Antonio Isernia
