The International School for Advanced Studies (Italian: Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati; SISSA) is an international, state-supported, post-graduate-education and research institute in Trieste, Italy. SISSA is active in the fields of mathematics, physics and neuroscience, offering both undergraduate and post-graduate courses. Each year, about 70 PhD students are admitted to SISSA based on their scientific qualifications. SISSA also runs master's programs in the same areas, in collaboration with both Italian and other European universities. History SISSA was founded in 1978, as a part of the reconstruction following the Friuli earthquake of 1976. Although the city of Trieste itself did not suffer any damage, physicist Paolo Budinich asked and obtained from the Italian government to include in the interventions the institution of a new, post-graduate teaching and research institute, modeled on the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. The school became operative with a PhD course in theoretical physics, and Budinich himself was appointed as general director. In 1986, Budinich left his position to Daniele Amati, who at the time was at the head of the theoretical division at CERN. Under his leadership, SISSA expanded its teaching and research activity towards the field of neuroscience, and instituted a new interdisciplinary laboratory aiming at connecting humanities and scientific studies. From 2001 to 2004, the director was the Italian geneticist Edoardo Boncinelli, who fostered the development of the existing research areas. From 2004 to 2010, the director was the Italian physicist Stefano Fantoni. His period as director has been characterized by the design and construction of the new SISSA location. Other directors were appointed in the following years, which saw the strengthening of SISSA collaboration with other Italian and European universities in offering master's degree programs in the three areas of the School (mathematics, physics and neuroscience). Physicist Stefano Ruffo served as the director from 2015 until 2021, when he was succeeded by Andrea Romanino. Campus Until July 2010, the school was located near the Miramare Park and marine reserve, about 10 kilometres from the city centre. The Miramare campus still hosts the ICTP (International Center for Theoretical Physics) and the Department of Theoretical Physics of the University of Trieste. The campus is located in the borough of Opicina; it is accessible by bus 38 of Trieste transporti. The campus is also equipped with a canteen, a kindergarten, a gym, as well as an open air theatre, which is used for shows, conferences