Italian Research Day in

Thursday the 7th of June 2018 at 18,00 hours Italian Embassy Berlin, Tiergartenstr. 22, 10785 Berlin

PROGRAM

18,00 Doors open

18,30 Introductory words H. E. Ambassador Pietro Benassi

18,35 Students and researchers mobility between and Germany Dr. Matteo Pardo, Science Attaché, Italian Embassy in Berlin

18,50 Dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases, a challenge for European biomedical research Prof. Pierluigi Nicotera, Scientific Director and Chairman of the Executive Board, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) within the Helmholtz Association

19,20 Humans and intelligent machines: from robotics to novel healthcare Prof. Roberto Cingolani, Scientific Director, Italian Institute of Technology

19,50 Q&A

20,00 Reception

22,00 End of the event

Roberto Cingolani (, 1961) graduated in Physics and got the PhD in Physics at Scuola Normale Superiore in . Founder and Director of the National Nanotechnology Laboratory (NNL) in Lecce, he is the Scientific Director of the Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, , since 2005. He was staff member at the Max Planck Institut für Festkörperforschung in (Germany) and Visiting Professor at the Institute of Industrial Sciences at Tokyo University (Japan) and at Virginia Commonwealth University (USA). Author and co-author of about 1.100 papers in international journals (H-index = 85, citations >28000. Source: Google Scholar, Feb 2018), he holds 48 patent families. Among Prof. Cingolani’s awards and honors are: two Prizes of the Italian Physical Society for young researchers, the Prize “Ugo Campisano” in Semiconductor Physics, the “ST- Microelectronics” Prize by the Italian Physical Society, the “Grande Ippocrate” award for science dissemination by Unamsi and Novartis, the “Guido Dorso” award by the Italian Republic Senate for his Research Activity, the title of “Commendatore della Repubblica” by the President of the Italian Republic.

Pierluigi Nicotera was trained in General Medicine and Cardiology at the University of Pavia, Italy and obtained his Ph.D. at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, where he worked subsequently as associate professor. From 1995 to 2000 Nicotera headed the division of Molecular Toxicology at the University of Konstanz and was then appointed Director of the UK Medical Research Council Toxicology Unit. His research has been centred on the molecular mechanisms that lead to neuronal demise following chronic and acute insults. Loss of neuronal synaptic connections and apoptosis play central roles in neurodegenerative diseases. He was appointed Scientific Director of DZNE in April 2009. Prof. Nicotera published 230 papers (H-index = 92, citations 25535); he is a member of the German National Academy of Sciences, Leopoldina, the Academy of Medical Sciences, UK, the Academia Europaea and the World Dementia Council. Among the prizes he received during the past years are The Cardano Prize (University of Pavia), The Chancellor’s Award in Neuroscience (LSU Neuroscience Center of Excellence, New Orleans) and the Ottorino Rossi Award (IRCCS C. Mondino Instituto Neurologico Nazionale a Carattere Scientifico, Pavia).