Towards the New Seat

In 1961 the Institute of Physical Sciences started the classes of the reformed degree course in Physics in the new seat of their own, while the buildings and facilities for research, offices and administration had not been completed yet, with the exception of Occhialini’s shed for researches in space physics. An important building in the back yard of the Institute of Physical Sciences was planned to host the synchrocyclotron (the project was modified in order to build a relativistic cyclotron), an accelerating machine which stimulated collaborations and applications of the research groups of the Institute of Physical Sciences. This was the last project which saw Polvani as a fundamental scientific policy maker. As a trait d’union from the old and the new seat, in this chapter we shall show the planning and construction of the cyclotron and the activities of Occhialini’s group in space physics.