The Isidor I. Rabi Institute (Istituto RabiâÂÂSan Rocco) is an administrative and teaching complex of the Ettore Majorana Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture (EMFCSC) in Erice, Sicily, housed in the former monastery of the Poor Clares adjoining San Pietro. It contains the "Richard P. Feynman" lecture hall and accommodates the FoundationâÂÂs Directorate and Secretariat.
The complex originated as the monastery of the Clarisse (the Poor Clares), facing San Pietro and linked to the church by a 16th-century overpass arch across Via Gian Filippo Guarnotti; the buildings retain their early character despite later alterations. After the suppression of religious orders in 1866 the monastery passed to civic use and became an orphanage under the title Opera Pia San Rocco; in the later twentieth century it was assigned to the EMFCSC and restored as the Isidor I. Rabi Institute. The institute is named after the American physicist Isidor Rabi.
The site hosts the CentreâÂÂs Polo Sismico â the Alberto Gabriele Seismic Network â founded in 1981 and described by the Foundation as "the first worldwide network of seismological detectors"; the Erice station receives signals from sites across Italy (22 inputs).
As the FoundationâÂÂs administrative hub, the institute also contains the "Richard P. Feynman" lecture hall and the Directorate and main Secretariat, with on-site living quarters for course participants.
Within the Isidor I. Rabi Institute complex, the historic Piersanti Mattarella Tower of Thought â a tower where visiting scientists have worked and reflected â was officially inaugurated as an EPS Historic Site by the European Physical Society in 2016 in recognition of its role in the scientific life of the Centre; it is named for Piersanti Mattarella, a regional political supporter of the institution.