Exhibit 'De que são feitas as coisas?' in the '110 Histórias, 110 Objectos' Podcast
"The exhibition "De que são feitas as coisas" (1981) was a founding moment for the dissemination of particle physics in Portugal and for the creation of LIP, by the hand of José Mariano Gago. The poster is featured today in the "110 Stories, 110 Objects" podcast by Técnico."
In 1981, the International Conference on High Energy Physics of the European Physical Society was held in Lisbon. It was attended by two Nobel Prize winners, Richard Feynman and Abdus Salam (in addition to some future Nobel Prize winners) and the Director-General of CERN, Herwig Schopper.
At the same time, the exhibition "What are things made of?" was held at Técnico, presenting CERN and particle physics to the general public for the first time in Portugal. It was a defining moment for Portugal's accession to CERN and the establishment of LIP five years later.
José Mariano Gago was at the origin of these events and of the gathering of the then small national particle physics community around their organization. Mariano Gago would found in 1995 the Ciência Viva Agency for the promotion of scientific and technological culture.
The poster of the exhibition is on display at LIP's premises in Lisbon. The story is told in much more detail by Mário Pimenta, current president of LIP, in the episode number 85 of the Técnico podcast "110 Stories, 110 Objects":
You can find the podcast and much more information here: https://110.tecnico.ulisboa.pt/arquivos/episodio-85-o-cartaz-do-que-sao-feitas-as-coisas
And also here: www.lip.pt/timeline