SEMINAR      Thursday, 8 July 2004 - h. 15:00  Auditorium B. Touschek     Ikaros Bigi (Notre Dame Univ.) The CKM Paradigm From an Ansatz to a Tested Theory Abstract After briefly reviewing the CP studies performed in the period 1964 -- 1998 I describe the 'triple phase transition' of 1999 -- 2001 with the discovery of direct CP violation in K_L decays, CP violation in B decays and neutrino oscillations.    I then emphasize the need for precision studies in heavy flavour transitions as a quest for New Physics and place such studies into the overall context of high energy physics.