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SISSA was established in Trieste (Italy) in 1978 as a dedicated and autonomous scientific Institute when the City was living a momentous period of scientific development.

Being the first Italian School to set up post-laurea courses aimed at attaining the PhD degree (Doctor Philosophiae), which is equipollent to the national Dottorato di Ricerca, SISSA pursues three major goals:

developing top-level research in mathematics, physics, astrophysics, biology and neuroscience

providing qualified post-university expertise to Italian and foreign laureates, to train them to research and academic teaching

synthesizing among different fields and disciplines by merging various expertises

To the six primary Sectors representing the School's research core - Astrophysics, Condensed Matter Theory, Elementary Particle Theory, Functional Analysis and Applications, Mathematical Physics, Neurobiology - two additional Sectors were recently added: Cognitive Neuroscience (in 1995) and Statistical and Biological Physics (in 2001).

The SISSA logo was devised by the School founder and first Director, professor Paolo Budinich. It voices the soul inside all scientific and educational activities of the School, which point to a prominent cross-talk and integration among diverse disciplines. It depicts a sailing boat dating to pre-socratic times (circa 500 b.C.) and recalls the famous Divina Commedia verse: "...but to follow virtue and knowledge", still emblematic of the way students and professors work and investigate together.