The polymath
Giovanni Bruno’s research focuses on neutrons, synchrotron radiation and temperature
Even after decades in research, Giovanni Bruno has never lost his sense of wonder. Take heat-resistant glass, for example, a material he describes as “remarkable”. According to the laws of physics, glass expands when heated and can crack if cooled too quickly. This can be easily avoided by cooling the molten glass slowly enough during manufacturing so that ceramic crystals are able to form within it. A fascinating feat, says Giovanni Bruno: “Science is always an art as well.”
The combination of glass and ceramics was a defining theme in his career around two decades ago, when the southern Italian native was leading a materials research group at the US specialty glass manufacturer Corning.
By then, he had already completed degrees in nuclear engineering at the University of Bologna, Europe's oldest university, and in physics. Materials science had become his passion. One of just ten doctoral positions was awarded to him from a field of 400 applicants, prompting the start of an international career that took him wherever the large-scale research facilities he needed could be found. Zurich, Saclay, Manchester and, around the turn of the millennium, Berlin all became stops along the way. His daughter was born in France, his son in the United States. In 2012, Bruno returned to Berlin with his family. He first became head of a research group at the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM). Since the end of 2025, he has headed the Department of Temperature and Synchrotron Radiation at the National Metrology Institute of Germany (PTB), which operates sites in Charlottenburg and Adlershof.
“We define the temperature scales. We essentially make temperature,” Bruno says, describing the work of his department. PTB is Germany's highest authority for measurement science and is responsible for establishing the legally binding standards for all units of measurement. Precision is paramount. For temperature measurement, Bruno explains, this means “finding definitions that are not linked to physical states”, such as the boiling or freezing point, “but to fundamental physical constants”.
One constant throughout Bruno's own career has been large-scale research infrastructures. He has worked at many major scientific facilities, including the BESSY II electron storage ring in Adlershof. Their scale, technical capabilities and ability to bring together an international scientific community continue to fascinate him.
Physics and materials science, however, are only part of the story. “I love languages. I love talking. Communication is very important to me.” In addition to his native Italian, Bruno speaks eight other languages. Not all of them, he admits, as fluently as German. His Persian has faded, which he learned while dating an Iranian girlfriend. “This happened to me more than once,” he admits. “I had an Argentinian girlfriend, so I spoke Spanish. My wife is Russian, so I speak Russian.”
Another lifelong passion is table football, although not in the version most familiar in Germany, where figures attached to rods are moved forwards, backwards or sideways. Bruno plays Subbuteo, where miniature footballers are flicked across the pitch by hand and matches follow the rules of real football. While the game occupies only a niche in Germany, it remains hugely popular in Italy and England: “Every child my age played Subbuteo. It’s the game of my life.”
Bruno was born 60 years ago in Potenza, roughly halfway between Amalfi and Taranto. He spent the first 15 years of his life there, before his parents moved to a less earthquake-prone part of northern Italy following a devastating earthquake. Perched 830 metres above sea level on a steep ridge, Potenza could hardly be more different from Brandenburg. “It's too flat here,” says Bruno. He also misses the bright southern light during Berlin's dark winter afternoons. The mountains and light of Southern Italy—that’s all he misses in Berlin.
Dr. Winfried Dolderer for Adlershof Journal