The Italian Cultural Institute in Lisbon will resume its scientific conferences on Wednesday May 11 at the Institute’s headquarters with a meeting entitled “Italy and Portugal at the Poles”. The conference will be attended by Prof. Roberto Azzolini, coordinator of the Italian Polar Programme who will deliver a presentation on “Italian Science at the Poles: history, sites, reasons and challenges”. It will also be attended by Prof. Gonçalo Vieira, coordinator of the Portuguese Polar Programme, who will give a lecture on “Cooperação luso-italiana nas Ciências polares”.
After earning his degree in Physics at Rome’s University “La Sapienza”, Roberto Azzolini became an executive technologist of the National Research Council where he was in charge of polar research activities for more than 20 years. He was president of the Polar Commission of the National Research Council and a member of the National Scientific Commission for the Antarctica Programme from 1992 to 2009. He was a member of the European Polar Board and the International Arctic Science Committee until 2009. Prof. Azzolini took part in many expeditions to Antarctica and the Arctic, he directed the Polar Research Network of the National Research Council’s Polarnet and coordinated the development of an information system on European polar capabilities. From 2009 to 2012 he worked at the European Science Foundation within the framework of European projects and from 2012 to 2015 he was executive secretary of the European Polar Board based in Strasbourg. He is working on the realisation of European projects at the National Research Council’s Institute for the Dynamics of Environmental Processes. Gonçalo Vieira is an associate professor at the University of Lisbon’s Institute of Geography and Regional Planning, and a senior researcher and member of the Board of Directors of the Centre for Geographical Studies.
