Special guests: speleologist and geologist Francesco Sauro and gravitational wave scientist Marica Branchesi.
The opening of the University of Bologna 2018-19 academic year will take place on Friday, 30 November at 4:30 pm in the Aula Magna di Santa Lucia (Via Castiglione 36, Bologna).
For the occasion, speleologist and Unibo Professor Francesco Sauro, chosen by Time as one of its ten ‘Next Generation Leaders’, and scientist Marica Branchesi, named by Nature magazine as one of the ‘Ten people who mattered this year’ in the sciences for her contribution to the study of gravitational waves, have been invited.
Born in 1984, Francesco Sauro is an Italian speleologist, geologist and Professor of Planetary Geology at the Alma Mater, chosen by Time in 2016 as one of the ten next generation leaders that could change the world.
Sauro, a member of the La Venta Geographical Exploration Association, has almost thirty expeditions under his belt, exploring caves and canyons from South America to Central Asia and leading multidisciplinary teams of researchers in some of the most remote corners of the planet. A Rolex Award for Enterprise winner for his discovery of ancient caves in the table-top mountains of Venezuela, Sauro is also dedicated to the exploration and study of Italian karst systems, from the Lessini Mountains to the Dolomites.
Marica Branchesi, an Alma Mater graduate in astronomy, was recently named by the journal Nature as one of the ‘Ten people who mattered his year’ in science for her contribution to the study of gravitational waves. She obtained her PhD from the University of Bologna, specializing in radio astronomy and investigating black holes and galaxy clusters.
After her experience at the California Institute of Technology and after winning an Italian Ministry of Education project that allowed her to build her own working group, she returned to Italy, first as a researcher at the University of Urbino and then as an Associate Professor at the Gran Sasso Science Institute. Today, she is Vice President of the International Astronomical Union's Commission for Gravitational Wave Astrophysics and a member of the International Committee for Gravitational Waves.
After the Rector's greetings, speeches will be given by a student representative, a technical-administrative staff representative and, for the first time, a representative of the Alumni USA East Coast Chapter - the first geographical chapter activated for the university project with alumni as the protagonists, a part of the Alma Mater’s Strategic Plan.
Speeches by Francesco Sauro and Marica Branchesi and a reading of Raymond Queneau’s ‘Little Portable Cosmogony’ by Simone Francia and Simone Tangolo will follow.
The opening of the academic year will also be celebrated with the traditional concert from the Collegium Musicum, which will feature the Choir and the Symphonic Orchestra of the Alma Mater, on Saturday, 1 December at 9:00 pm in the Aula Magna of Santa Lucia.