For his crucial role in the rebuilding of Italian and European physics following the devastating of World War II, for his leadership in the establishment and operation of CERN as a great international laboratory, and for his many other contributions to international physics.
One of Amaldi’s most important international roles was the one he played in the founding of CERN, where he subsequently served as Vice-Director in 1954 and 1955 and later as Chairman and member of CERN’s Scientific Policy Committee. He has also been an officer of a number of European research organizations most notably the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, serving as Vice-President form 1948-1954 and President from 1957-1960, and has participated in various committees for EURATOM, the CERN, INFN, and the European Committee for Future Accelerators (ECFA).
After World War II, Amaldi turned his attention to cosmic rays and elementary particle physics, investigating the properties of cosmic ray muons, pions, K-mesons, and hyperons in studies that prefigured later work with high-energy accelerators, and led to the first systematic investigation of the annihilation of Bevatron-produced antiprotons.