The first signs of studies, mainly based on astronomy, took place in 1764, when the Brera Astronomical Observatory was founded within the Jesuit College of Milan with the help of La Grange and subsequently of Ruggero Boscovich.
It was then with Schiaparelli, a pupil of Quintino Sella and Luigi Menabrea, that the foundations were laid for modern astronomy that made Milan an astronomical center of world excellence.
With the means obtained by the university, he constituted the first nucleus of devices essential for the functioning of the new institution; through his relationships in the industrial field, he was able to complete these endowments with materials received as a gift.
In 1929, after the death of Aldo Pontremoli who died in the tragedy of the airship Italia who disappeared in the ice of Antarctica in May of the previous year,[3] Giovanni Polvani replaced him in the chair of Experimental Physics of the Institute which became part of the University of Milan .
In 1949, lectures were given by the Nobel laureate Enrico Fermi, collected by the assistants of the universities of Rome and Milan, and were then published in 1950 by the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei.
[7] To allow this type of activity, Beppo Occhialini also took action on the organizational level, founding various sections of various research institutes still present, and taking charge of both the theoretical and experimental direction of the department.
[9] Occhialini himself in the period between '52 and '55 supervises Riccardo Giacconi, who will then be awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 2002 for his pioneering contributions to astrophysics, which led to the discovery of the first cosmic sources in X-rays,[10] and Giovanni Bignami, then president of ASI, INAF, COSPAR and SKA.
From a scientific interest for the problems of the propagation of electromagnetic waves in weakly ionized gases began his involvement in Milan in plasma physics, also becoming president of the Euratom committee for fusion studies at the Frascati Laboratories.
In the 1980s, the group led by Occhialini made numerous progress, collaborating in the design and construction of the first European satellites for astronomy: Cos-B, Exosat, XMM and Beppo-SAX.
Here Preparata appears to be the only one who manages to bring a breath of fresh air into what is narrated as the stale world of Italian theoretical physics, giving prestige to the Milanese university.
[15] In the same period Preparata met Emilio Del Giudice in Milan, from which a fruitful friendship and collaboration was born aimed at developing a cold fusion theory, which will give him international fame in the following years.
The duo was also interested in the properties of electromagnetic fields in water, in a series of experimental works then resumed in 2009 by the Nobel Prize for Medicine Luc Montagnier.
[17] Under the activity of Ugo Amaldi, in the 2000s the first National Center for Oncological Hadrotherapy was created in Italy and fourth in the world, which houses a synchrotron of 25 meters in diameter, capable of accelerating both protons and ions of carbon.
[20] In the same period Giuseppe Bertin won a chair at the University of Milan where he focuses on studies on the growth dynamics of galaxies; earned him the "National Prize of the President of the Republic" of the Accademia dei Lincei.