In brief

Francesco Sylos Labini is a physicist, and he is a research director at the Enrico Fermi Research Center in Rome. Fro 2025 he is honorary professor at the Institute of Technology of Sumatra (Indonesia)

His research activity includes statistical physics of complex astrophysical and cosmological systems, self-gravitating systems, and galactic kinematics and dynamics. He is also interested in science policy. Results of his research have been published in leading international peer-reviewed journals and have been reported, among others, in Nature, New Scientist, and Scientific American.

He is one of the funders of the blog “Return on Academic Research and School” (Roars) which is one the most important Italian forums for discussions on research and higher education policies. He writes editorial for various Italian dailies, and he contributed to several journals and online websites with both articles on science vulgarization and science policy. Beyond his professional publications, he is author of several books about the problem of higher education and academic research in Italy and abroad

Work experience

He graduated in Physics in Rome and then obtained his PhD at the University of Bologna. He is currently a Research Director at the Enrico Fermi Research Center (CREF) in Rome, Italy. He has served as Director of the Museum ‘The Legacy of Enrico Fermi’ at CREF, and has also acted as the General Director of CREF. He has held positions at several institutions in Italy and abroad, including the Laboratoire de Physique Théorique, Université Paris XI, Orsay, France, and the Department of Theoretical Physics, University of Geneva, Switzerland.

Summary of Scientific Publications

Publications

He is the author of more than one hundred publications in peer-reviewed journals, which have been cited over 3,000 times. He is also the author of 41 other scientific papers, 24 book chapters, one monograph on Statistical Physics and Cosmology (co-authored with A. Gabrielli, M. Joyce, and L. Pietronero) entitled Statistical Physics for Cosmic Structures (Springer Verlag Inc., New York – Berlin, 2005), and one proceedings of an international conference (co-authored with A. Campa, A. Giansanti, and G. Morigi) entitled Dynamics and Thermodynamics of Systems with Long-Range Interactions: Theory and Experiments, published by the American Institute of Physics.

In addition, he has authored 8 books on science communication and research policy, including:

            •          I ricercatori non crescono sugli alberi (with S. Zapperi, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 2010)

            •          Università 3.0 (with several coauthors, Ecommons magazine, 2014)

            •          Paolo Sylos Labini: Economista e cittadino (Sapienza University Press, Roma, 2015)

            •          Science and the Economic Crisis: Impact and Lessons (Springer, Berlin, 2016)

            •          Rischio e previsione (Laterza, Roma-Bari, 2016, 2nd edition)

            •          Guida del Museo Storico della Fisica del CREF (with R. Giustozzi, CREF, 2021)

            •          Bussola per un mondo in tempesta (with M. Caravani, Futura Edizioni, 2024)”

Conflict, Climate and Inequalities: Convergence to a World Crisis (with M. Caravani, Springer-Verlag, China and Globalisation Series, 2025)

He wrote the preface to books on science diffusion and research policy including the “Discovery of Cosmic Fractals” (with L. Pietronero) by Y. Barsyhev and P. Teerikorpi, World Scientific  (Boringhieri, 2006) and  “Forecast: What Physics, Meteorology, and the Natural Sciences Can   Teach Us About Economics”  by Mark Buchanan   (Malcor D’ , 2014)

Outreach Activities

He is the President, Editor, and Co-founder of the association Roars, one of the most important Italian forums for discussions on research and higher education policies. Additionally, he serves as President, Editor, and Co-founder of the Paolo Sylos Labini Association (APSL), named in memory of his father Paolo Sylos Labini, an economist renowned for his contributions to sociological and political studies.

He regularly writes comments for the Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano, and, more sporadically, for

MicroMega,  Left,   Scienza in  Rete, Aspenia,  EuroScientist and other

He has been interviewed for the main Italian dailies and journal and for many European ones, including Nature, Science, Research Europe, etc.

He has been interviewed for national broadcasts in national televisions and radios:  Rai, La7, Sky, Radio Rai, Radio Popolare,  Radio 24

He is editor of the academic journal Roars Transaction dedicated to  science policy and research evaluation.

He is member of the Scientific Committee of the journal “Il Ponte” (from 2024)