From under our feet to above our heads. The research carried out by the Rome1 Section of the INGV covers a wide range of subjects, from the study of the interior of the Earth to research on atmospheric gases.
A section oriented towards multidisciplinarity, which opens the doors of its numerous scientific laboratories to all research groups who want to deepen an intuition or develop an idea, with a view to constant progress that is only real if it is the result of collaboration and work synergistic.
We interviewed the Director of the Roma1 Section of INGV, Salvatore Barba, to learn more about the activities that take place within his Section and retrace the years leading his team with him.
Salvatore, how long have you been Director of the Roma1 Section of INGV?
I have been Director of the Roma1 Section since September 2016, in the midst of the seismic emergency in Central Italy, with the seismic sequence that began on August 24 with the earthquake recorded in Accumoli, in the province of Rieti.
What are the main activities your Section deals with?
Our activities can be divided into two macro-categories: those related to research and those related to infrastructure. Both involve all three Departments of the Institute, Environment, Earthquakes and Volcanoes. We deal with studies that affect all aspects of our planet, from the interior of the Earth to the gases emitted into the atmosphere.
How many colleagues are part of Roma1?
160 colleagues formally employed by the Institute, to which are added another 60 including research fellows, scholarship holders and associates.
What does being Director mean to you?
For me it represents an opportunity to influence change, accompanying the transition from a more - so to speak - "familiar" management of the Organization to a more international and competitive management. As Director, I have always tried to set up my work according to a perspective of inclusiveness between all the INGV offices and all the research groups that are part of it and of internationalization, to always keep an eye as open as possible 'to the world' .
The Roma1 Section also deals with the management of numerous scientific laboratories of INGV: what are they and how is the research that your colleagues carry out within them important for the development and growth of the Institute?
As you said, we have numerous laboratories. Among these, there are some that are in a certain sense more "characteristic" for our Section, such as, for example, the High Pressure and High Temperature Laboratory (HP-HT) which, thanks to the experiments conducted within it, allows to simulate the mechanisms that occur inside the Earth, both in terms of seismology and the dynamics of volcanoes. Then we have the various Geochemistry Laboratories, including that of Radionuclides where terrestrial radioactivity is studied (and it is the only one to deal with this matter within the INGV); the New Technologies and Instruments Laboratory, which is responsible for developing prototype measurement equipment and finding new solutions to the measurement problems we already have; the Seismic Reflection Laboratory (also a unicum in the panorama of the Body), for the study of data coming from the interior of the Earth; and the Supercomputing Laboratory, with a new cluster just installed.
All our Labs are organized in such a way as to be able to carry out a large number of analyzes and calculations and are placed in support of colleagues from all over the Institute, ready to host any design idea. This means that there is always close collaboration between Roma1 staff and other INGV colleagues who want to carry forward research ideas, from cutting-edge research to studies that start from more partial aspects of a given subject and which are then integrated and expanded thanks to synergistic work.
In this way, therefore, our Laboratories make it possible to enhance research and give colleagues who also want to test new ideas the opportunity to do so freely and with all the necessary support, stimulating their creativity.
How did you and your colleagues experience the period of the Covid-19 pandemic?
In a rather "frantic" way at the beginning I would say. I mean that the weeks and days that preceded the lockdown I remember a bit like a 'race against time' to try to bring our activities into "operational continuity", especially those that link us to the Civil Protection Department. In those moments we saw the 'dematerialisation' of the activities that had always been talked about but which, in fact, we had to conclude in a hurry once the lockdown had already begun, materialize before our eyes.
Then, after those two months, I remember the slow recovery, the operational plans to continue carrying out service and research activities despite the still necessary limitations. But above all I want to mention the great solidarity and profound generosity of the colleagues from Roma1 and the Central Administration who made it possible to reorganize our work 'on the go', to allow INGV to always remain fully operational.
What was, in these years as Director, the most important professional episode that you would like to tell?
There have been several, to tell the truth. For example, a few years ago, when the then General Manager Maria Siclari was there, we Directors were required to follow a course on risk management in research from the National Anti-Corruption Authority. From that course I learned a lot about the management of a Research Institution and I still remember it today as a truly important element in my professional and personal training, with teachings that I try to apply every day in my Section.
However, I am pleased to recall also a 'trial' more than a single 'episode' that is important to me on a professional level, or rather the one which over time has led to a considerable reduction of conflict within my Section. As I said, it was a process that I have tried to carry forward by favoring inclusiveness, administrative transparency and the simplification of procedures as much as possible.
…and the funniest anecdote?
A few years ago I was participating for IBM Tech TV in a double interview, "Reservoir Dogs" style, with Hendrik Hamann, the winner of the latest American Institute of Physics award for the industrial applications of physics. After the first two or three questions they asked us, I was intrigued by an answer from my interviewed colleague and I asked him a question myself: from there a 'question and answer' began between us, a sort of cross-interview that we were doing each other while eluding the 'canonical' roles envisaged by the format, and I remember that at a certain point the interviewer intervened to tell us: "Well, you're doing so well on your own, I can go for a walk!". I still remember it as a funny and very interesting episode.
Are there any future projects regarding Roma1 that you would like to anticipate?
There are many in the pipeline, but I would like to mention the development of the IRON Network, the INGV network for radon measurement. It is a niche topic in the Institute, but it can be framed in the broader container of the study of seismic precursors, a study in which we are increasingly aiming for multidisciplinarity. Here, thanks to the measures adopted by the Government with the PNRR we have the possibility of implementing our Network with the aim of taking steps forward in the study of seismic precursors.