The “Claudio Villi' Prize” for the best PhD thesis in nuclear physics defended between June 1, 2023, and May 31, 2024, was awarded to the following theses:

• Dr. Marta Urioni: “Measurement of Earth's gravitational acceleration on anti-hydrogen with the ALPHA experiment at CERN.” (Univ. of Brescia)
• Dr. Francesca Ercolessi: “The interplay of multiplicity and effective energy for (multi) strange hadron production in pp collisions at the LHC” (Univ. of Bologna)

The award ceremony took place on February 5, 2026, during the CSN3 meeting held at the Sala della Carità within the Scuola della Carità di San Francesco in Padua. The ceremony was chaired by Dr. D. Bettoni, member of the INFN Executive Board and by the President of CSN3, Dr. P. Giubellino.

A Special Mention was also awarded to the following thesis:

• Dr. Jakub Skowroński: “Complete Study of Proton Capture on Carbon Isotopes at Astrophysical Energies” (Univ. of Padua)