Physicist Alessandra Buonanno's landmark Dirac medal award confirms Italy as a reference point for scientific research," foreign minister Luigi Di Maio tweeted on Monday.
"Congratulations to Alessandra Buonanno, the first Italian woman and the second in the world to win the prestigious Dirac medal for her work on gravitational waves."
"This confirms Italy's position as a reference point for international scientific research," Di Maio's tweet added.
Buonanno was among four physicists who received the Dirac medal "for key work" in gravitational waves detection," tweeted the Trieste-based International Centre for Theoretical Physics, which made the awards on Monday.
Buonanno, a theoretical physicist, is a director of the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam, Germany.
