Washington, November 15, 2019. The Embassy of Italy in Washington hosted the annual meeting of the Italian Scientist and Scholars in the North America Foundation (ISSNAF). The meeting, held under the High Patronage of the President of the Republic, was opened by the Italian Ambassador Armando Varricchio and by the President of the Foundation Vito Campese, who was awarded the Order of the Star of Italy in the rank of Grand Officer. The meeting allowed to review the important discoveries and innovative projects carried out by Italian researchers and scientists in North America and to plan the activities of the Foundation for 2020.
Mauro Ferrari, nanotechnology luminary, President and CEO of the Houston Methodist Research Institute in Texas and, as of January 1, 2020, President of the European Research Council, attended the meeting. ISSNAF awarded Ferrari with the Life Achievement Award by as a recognition of his career
The conference ended with the awarding of five young Italian researchers: Francesco Restuccia won the Mario Gerla Award for Young Investigators in Computer Science, Andrea Idili the IBM-Bio4Dreams Award for Research in Medicine, Biosciences and Cognitive Science, Giada Bianchi the Paola Campese Award for Research on Leukemia, Elisa Franco the Franco Strazzabosco Award for Young Engineers, and Pietro Milillo the Annamaria Molteni Award for Mathematics and Physics. Their work and their projects are a living testimony of how the professionalism, preparation, passion and determination of Italian scientists and researchers are recognized and appreciated in the USA.
“The annual meeting of the ISSNAF, which takes place this year on Leonardo’s 500th anniversary, offers us the opportunity to celebrate Italian creativity and ingenuity,” Ambassador Varricchio said. “Heirs of the genius of the Renaissance and “homo universalis” par excellence, the many Italian researchers and scientists in North America, represent an ideal bridge between Italy and the USA. Their dedication, their commitment and their successes, built in a constant dialogue with American and non-American colleagues, are the pillars of the future of our countries. “
Founded in 2008, the ISSNAF brings together over 4,000 Italian researchers and scientists and is a landmark in the American and Italian scientific landscape.
Participants in the meeting also had the opportunity to admire the exhibition “Leonardo e Pop Microscopy. Combining art and science towards the future “, organized in collaboration with the One Health Center of Excellence of the University of Florida in Gainesville and the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Genoa, Italy.
