Genoa Science Festival 2011

Since 2003, 13 days crossing the fascinating

winding paths of science

2003: “BEYOND” / 2004: “EXPLORATION”/

2005: “FRONTIERS”/ 2006: “DISCOVERY”/

2007: “CURIOSITY” /2008: “DIVERSITY” /

2009: “FUTURE” / 2010: “HORIZONS” /

2011: “150 and beyond”

2011: “150 and beyond”

Genoa, October 21st – November 2nd

Celebration of 150 years of Italian Unification

Guest Country : United States

Genoa, one of Italy’s more fascinating coastal cities, transformed into the stage of a thrilling journey into

the world of scientific research.

High-quality contents and interdisciplinary languages, with the aim to overcome the traditional opposition

between scientific and humanistic culture.

Festival program combines hundreds of diverse initiatives and events, designed to fulfil and stimulate the

interest of visitors of all ages and all levels of knowledge.

Events include scientific exhibitions, art and science exhibitions, workshops, interactive educational

experiences, photography and art exhibitions, conferences, round tables, performances, music and films.

The array of international events is particularly rich and consists of exchanges with other top scientific

popularisation events worldwide.

Festival della Scienza

The Festival's formula

Not only hard sciences, but also soft sciences

Great attention to innovation & technology themes : energy, computer science, environment, health,

economics, nano-technologies, etc.

Public and private companies and national research institutions play a key role in the Festival, by bringing

their contributions in terms of events

Special events are organized to present research and products from innovative start-up companies



Since 2003 the Genoa Science Festival has become

a main international event of science dissemination, proposing events inspired by the most

contemporary and burning questions

a benchmark for science communication, introducing a “hands on” approach to science and research

and becoming a boost for researchers involved in a new way of communicating science

a chance of meeting for researchers, people keen on science, schools and families, hosting scientist

from all over the world and offering events for all age groups

an added value for all the city, increasing the number of people using accomodation facilities during the

days of the Festival

a creator of positive outcome on science and research, helping to increase applications to scientific

faculty in University



“In 2005 I was asked to speak at the science festival in Genoa (…) and the atmosphere in the city was amazing – the excitement at the lectures and in the streets was palpable.”Brian Greene

“Never seen something like this in my life”Gehrard Ertl

“Scientific exploration deserves a celebration, and in Genoa, they’re doing so with great style”J. Bohannon

“The Genoa Science Festival is so impressive. I couldn’t think of anything better”Simon Gage

“I was recommended to come! Never seen something like that, a city totally involved in science!”Freeman Dyson

“In Genoa… how I want the world to see science: as an integral part of culture, accessible to anyone interested”Lisa Randall

“We need that everyone could understand science, and the Festival helps filling this need”Luca Cavalli Sforza


About the festival


Numbers from 2003 to 2010

9 editions – 8 in Genoa, 1 in Palermo > 2.541 scientists >

106 days>

581 location >

events >2.8304.146 Scientific explainers>

343.961 tickets > 1.687.152 visits >

2.732 journalists > 10.246 press&media items>


Budget, events e scientists from 2003 to 2010

eventsevents scientistsbudget

Each year the Science Festival opens with a big event representing the meeting point between art and

science.

This year opening event will be a concert by Beppe Gambetta (an Italian musician born in Genoa in 1955,

an acoustic guitar flatpicker and singer, called a “virtual United Nations of influences”: Italian, Ukrainian,

Appalachian, Sardinisn, Celtic) and Mike Marshall (one of the most innovative players of new instrumental

music) which will be held in the Sala del Maggior Consiglio of Palazzo Ducale, the most prestigious hall of

the city.

The organization of a reception event promoted by SVIEC is still in progress.

Festival della Scienzaoctober, 21 – november, 2

150 years of science

A project promoted by the CNR National Research Council and the Science Festival Association. Milan,

Pisa, Florence, Bologna, Naples, Bari, Rome: six cities celebrate Italian scientific excellence, marking 2011

with a series of appointments dedicated to science, technology, tradition and innovation, meeting finally in

Genoa for a big final event.

L'Italia dove è

A project in collaboration with the MIT SENSEable city laboratory and carlorattiassociati. A series of talks,

video interviews, and an artistic installation celebrate the vivacity of Italian science and technology and show

that the excellence of Italian science is able to cross any geographical frontier.

150 years of Italian genius

An exhibition promoted by the Italian Institute for Culture in New York “Italian genius” through the

protagonists of development and worldwide - and American- technological innovation, with the aid of 150 of

the most important Italian patents registered from Italian Unity until today. A show that will cross from Genoa

to New York and then to the Italian Institutes for Culture throughout the world.


Highlights to celebrate 150th anniversary of Italian Unification

MIT150 Symposia: Brains, Minds and Machines

In collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

A second meeting of the symposium organized in Boston in May 2011 as part of MIT150 (MIT's

150th anniversary). The event runs over two days, October 22nd and 23rd, with panel talks involving

personalities from academia and industry.

Two symposia to understand the role of intelligent computer systems and of R&D and Technology

institutes in future society, organized in collaboration with Tomaso Poggio, Professor at McGovern

Institute, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, Brain Sciences Department of

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduated in Physics at Genoa University.

Festival della Scienza Special events to celebrate MIT's 150th anniversary

MIT Symposium “Intelligence Science and Engineering”

Anya Hurlbert. Director of Institute of Neuroscience at University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Her main

interests are in human perception of colors and the underlying neural processes from eye to brain.

Matt Ridley. English journalist, writer, and businessman, author of The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity

Evolves.

Alessandro Verri. Professor of Computer Science at Genoa University, His scientific interests include

learning theory and computational methods for 2D and 3D computer vision problems.

Heinrich Buelthoff. Director of Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics a Tubinga, in Germany.

His group investigate psycho-physical and computational aspects of higher level visual processes in

object and face recognition, sensory-motor integration, spatial cognition

Roberto Cingolani. Scientific Director of IIT (Italian Institute of Technology)

Amnon Shashua. Holds the Sachs chair in Computer Science at the Hebrew University.


MIT Symposium “MIT role in present society and economics ”

Susan Whitehead. Has served as an active board member of numerous not for profit organizations,

spanning two general areas: social justice and higher education (with an emphasis on science and

engineering).

Rafael Reif. Provost at MIT, is presently working on three-dimensional integrated circuit technologies, and

on environmentally benign microelectronics fabrication.

Vittorio Grilli. General Director of the Treasury - Ministry of Economy and Finance of Italy, President of

IIT (Italian Institute of Technology).

Francesco Profumo. Chancellor of the Politecnico di Torino. His areas of professional interest include

power electronics and electric machine drives.


Festival della ScienzaUSA: 2011 Guest Country

The Genoa Science Festival plans to spot on Young

Excellence, giving the floor to scientists and researchers who,

either in Italy or abroad, are fully committed in developing

knowledge and research-based contents.

The partnership with the U.S.A., started in 2010, perfectly fits

in this frame, as this is the country where many and many

talents from all over the world migrate to, hosted in universities

and research labs.

Festival della ScienzaUSA: 2011 Guest Country

Lectio magistralis with American lectures

Clifford Saron. Experimental neuroscientist, Assistant Research Scientist Center for Mind and Brain and M.I.N.D. Institute at California University.

Dean Falk. Anthropologist, Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology at Florida State University, specialized in the evolution of the brain and cognition in higher primates. Author of Finding Our Tongues: Mothers, Infants & the Origins of Language, recently published in Italian.

Stephen Hsu. Professor of theoretical physics at the University of Oregon. His research interests range from quantum physics and cosmology to financial mathematics and information security. He was co-founder and CEO of SafeWeb Inc., a pioneer in the SSL-VPN security appliance market.

Evgeny Morozov. Currently a visiting scholar at Stanford University and a Schwartz fellow at the New America Foundation. Author of The Net delusion: the dark side of Internet Freedom.

Waleed Abdalati. NASA Chief Scientist, associate professor in CU-Boulder's geography department and a fellow of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences.His reseach focuses on understanding changes in Earth's ice cover and what they mean for life on our planet.

Robert D. Braun. NASA Chief Technologist. His research has focused on systems' aspects of planetary exploration, where he contributed to the design, development, test and operation of several robotic space flight systems.

To be confirmed Brian Arthur, Nick Bilton, John Brockman


USA: 2011 Guest Country

Special event : live from the San Francisco Bay Area Science Festival

On October 31th, a special night to celebrate together Halloween: live from the San Francisco Bay Area

Science Festival, organized by the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) at its fist edition from

October 29 to November 6, 2011. In collaboration with the Science Festival Alliance.

John Paul Holdren, advisor to President Barack Obama for Science and Technology, Director of the

White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, has been invited to give the Festival opening

lecture on October 21st


Other 2011 anniversaries

100th anniversary from the Antarctic exploration will be celebrated by

Race to the End of the Earth

A project by the American Museum of Natural History of New York

In its 100thanniversary, Race to the End of the Earth recounts one of the most stirring tales in the annals

of Antarctic exploration, the contest to the contest to be the first to reach the South Pole

The International Year of Chemistry 2011 (IYC 2011) will be celebrated by

Spazio alla Chimica

A huge interactive exposition with exhibits, laboratories, special events under the unifying theme

“Chemistry—our life, our future,” will offer a range of interactive, entertaining, and educational activities

for all ages.

Special events will be dedicated to celebrate The International Year of Forests 2011 (Forests 2011).


Start CUP CNR 2011 and Patents and Technologies

Transfer Workshop

START Cup CNR 2011

2011 will be the 2nd edition of this competition born to encourage the creation of new hi-tech

entrepreneurial subjects from the results of the research held by CNR and other research organizations.

This year edition is part of “Working Capital – National prize for innovation”.

The entrepreneurs to be will receive assistance and counselling to arrange the business plan, also

thanks to the many partners of the event.

Patents and Technologies Transfer Workshop

CNR, together with representatives of EPO (European Patent Office) and USPTO (United States Patent

and Trademark Office), organizes an informative and explanatory day to focus on copyrights protection

about patents, innovation and technology transfer. An overview on European and American tools on

patents protection and an open confrontation between public research representatives.

Education

Genoa Science Festival 2011