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

Festival della Scienza
The Festival's formula

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.


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

About the festival

“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

Numbers from 2003 to 2010

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

106 days> 4.146 Scientific explainers> 2.830 events >

581 location > 2.732 journalists > 10.246 press&media items>
343.961 tickets > 1.687.152 visits >

Budget, events e scientists from 2003 to 2010

budget events scientists

october, 21 – november, 2

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.

Highlights to celebrate 150th anniversary of Italian Unification

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.

Special events to celebrate MIT's 150th anniversary

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.


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.

USA: 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.


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


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
th
In its 100 anniversary, 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.

Genoa Science Festival 2011

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