The National Institute of Nuclear Physics intends to remember with this Award the figure of Claudio Villi (1922-1996), a distinguished physicist, called to fill the first Italian chair of Nuclear Physics in Padua in 1961. He was, together with Rostagni, creator and promoter the creation of the National Laboratories of Legnaro, promoting their international competitiveness with the installation of the Tandem accelerator, the first heavy ion machine made in Italy; among the many scientific contributions, we recall the "Clementel and Villi model", at the end of a series of works on the electromagnetic interaction of high-energy electrons with protons; he was President of the INFN from 1970 to 1975; during his presidency, the Institute's structural and organizational model was established, which still characterizes it in its particular lines.