The Puglia Region in Vienna: today the award ceremony of Prof. Torsi with the Wilhelm Exner Medaille
BARI – Puglia is working to be increasingly recognized nationally and internationally as a reference region in the conception, experimentation and development of new technologies. With its measures, the Region supports businesses and the university and research system in the process of internationalization. The institutional mission in Vienna, from 17 to 19 May, is part of the strategy of promoting technology transfer, of improving the attractiveness of research, through the exchange of knowledge and a system of collaboration also with countries at the forefront in the scientific field. Austria.
The Apulian delegation, with the president of the Puglia Region, the director of the Regional Economic Development Department, Gianna Elisa Berlingerio and the director of the Research and International Relations Section and the Digital Transformation Section, Vito Bavaro, was welcomed yesterday in the Italian Embassy in Vienna , at Palazzo Metternich, by Ambassador Stefano Beltrame. An opportunity to consolidate relations between Puglia and Austria and imagine new forms of collaboration in the economic, scientific, research, energy, cultural and tourism fields.
Today is open with a visit to the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) together with the group of researchers from the University of Bari and the University of Brescia, signatories, together with the Puglia Region, of the agreement that will give life to the first Apulian Center innovation in single-molecule digital assay, for early single-molecule diagnostics.
The AIT is one of the most important research and technology organizations in Austria and, among the European research institutes, specializes in the demands of the infrastructures of the future in the fields of energy, low-emission transport, health and resources. biologicals, digital security, and technologies for automation and control. These technological research areas are complemented by the expertise in the area of support for innovation policies.
The delegation of the Puglia Region, led by the president, met Wolfgang Knoll, scientific director of the AIT, Stéphane Compant, scientist of the Health and Bioresorse center, Andreas Vrabl, head of the Laboratory Center for artificial vision, Angelos Chronis, scientist of the intelligence laboratory urban; also present was the delegation of Italian researchers made up of Luisa Torsi, Eleonora Macchia, Francesco Giordano, Paolo Bollella and Gaetano Scamarcio for the University of Bari, and Fabrizio Torricelli for the University of Brescia.
“We are here to imagine doing something concrete together between Puglia and Austria – declared the president of the Puglia Region – we talked about it yesterday with the Ambassador at an institutional level and today with the leaders of the AIT, the reference institution national and international to interface science and industry. The first steps for important collaborations are already taking place with Professor Torsi and the whole study group. AIT enables innovation through its scientific-technological expertise, market experience, close customer relationships and high-quality research infrastructure. We truly hope to have laid the foundations for new and profitable growth paths for our region ”.
“It all started with an academic project that we were trying to develop with Prof. Luisa Torsi of the University of Bari – declared Wolfgang Knoll, CEO of AIT -. Good things often start with personal communication and personal friendships and so you can develop something good together. When I heard that the president of the Puglia Region was coming to visit, I thought it was a great opportunity, because our two regions actually have a lot in common. Both Lower Austria, where we started, and Puglia, are territories with a strong agricultural vocation. But now they are opening up to the future and want to develop in the direction of technology. Therefore, we want to collaborate to better open ourselves to the future with new technologies. And this can be done better together, rather than by each walking their own way “.
The delegation then moved on to visit the headquarters of Austria’s largest regional energy supplier and branch of the Wiener Stadtwerke municipal company, Wien Energie. It is Austria’s most important waste-to-energy plant with zero environmental impact, producing energy, heat and cooling from renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and hydroelectricity, as well as biomass, waste incineration and disposal. cogeneration technology.
“The visit to the Spittelau plant – explained Gianna Elisa Berlingerio – allowed the Apulian delegation to deepen the issues related to energy supply. Puglia is investing in the energy transition, so much so that it has a Regional Hydrogen Observatory, provided for by the regional law approved to promote and more recently the experimentation of the hydrogen vector as a further enhancement of the plants for the production of electricity from wind and solar sources. and as a system to avoid energy dispersion, for the clean supply of industrial plants and for sustainable mobility “.
The main appointment of the mission will be in the afternoon, at 6.30 pm: the ceremony for the awarding of the prestigious Wilhelm Exner Medal to Luisa Torsi, full professor of Chemistry at the University of Bari and vice president of the National Scientific Council of the CNR, international certification which is awarded to companies that have had a direct impact on and on the industry due to their scientific achievements. The award ceremony, two days after the signing of the agreement between the Puglia Region, the University of Bari and the University of Brescia, is the result of the intense and extraordinary research work that Professor Torsi has carried out in the field of early diagnosis of a considerable number of both human and plant diseases through the analysis of samples taken with non-invasive methods (eg saliva) for the identification of even a single molecule. Therefore, with a mass screening it will be possible to identify the subjects who are surely affected by a pathology long before the symptoms appear. Hence the will of the Puglia Region to invest in the project in order to develop enabling technologies and very high performance for the control of infectious diseases and the prevention of other serious diseases.
“Italian researchers and men are honored in the world, confirming Italy’s role as a cultural superpower – said the Italian Ambassador in Vienna Stefano Beltrame – Today Prof.ssa Torsi of the University of Bari is awarded by the prestigious institution Austrian “Wilhelm Exner Medal Foundation” in the presence of the President of the Puglia Region visiting here in Vienna ”.