In the framework of the 2024 Week of Women and Girls in Science the Embassy of Italy hosts the First Edition of the Premio Internazionale Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia Award Ceremony, to continue promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in science.
The “Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia International Award”, named after the first woman to receive a doctoral degree in Padua and in the modern world (1678), intends to celebrate the contribution of women scientists and scholars to research, innovation, and the development and dissemination of an increasingly equal scientific culture.
Today Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia is portrayed as an extraordinary example of intellectual power and as an early symbol of a society’s recognition of a woman’s capacity to think and to know, in disciplines traditionally precluded to the female sex, such as theology, philosophy and mathematics. We hope that the achievements of a Venetian gentlewoman in the XVII century – soon forgotten and rediscovered thanks to the transatlantic work of scholars from the US and Padua – will inspire and support women and girls in science for a long time.
The award, established by IIC New York, ISSNAF and the Elena Cornaro Center is intended for women scientists of Italian citizenship who work in the US and have distinguished themselves for excellence in research, for continuity of commitment, for vision and leadership, for the impact of their findings on the international community.
In its inaugural edition two outstanding scientists are recognized for award, Prof. Paola Arlotta for pioneering contributions to understanding the human brain development and a notable commitment to increase diversity through teaching and outreach, and Prof. Elisa Bertino for sustained excellence in many research areas in the discipline of computer science, including information security and database systems, and a commitment to correct its gender imbalance.
Prof. Paola Arlotta is Chair of Harvard Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Golub Family Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University, and Associate Member, Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute.
Prof. Elisa Bertino is the Samuel D. Conte Professor of Computer Science at Purdue University and research director at its Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security.