Antonios Varnavas, Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of Trieste, has passed away prematurely. 

After graduating in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology in 1987, during one of the first sessions of the degree programme, and later in Pharmacy in 1990, he joined the University of Trieste in 1992 as a researcher at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. His research focused on the development of ligands for receptors of the peptidergic system. Since 2006, he had been Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Professor Antonios Varnavas supervised numerous degree theses by students of the Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology and Pharmacy programmes, both experimental and theoretical.

He taught continuously in the field of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, first within the degree programmes of the Faculty of Pharmacy and later within the Department, where for many years he was lecturer of Pharmaceutical Chemistry I and II in the Pharmacy degree programme.

He always carried out his teaching activity with great passion, earning the appreciation of students, who valued the liveliness of his lectures and the clarity of his explanations. The illness that had affected him, although it had greatly weakened him, did not prevent him from continuing to teach, showing an admirable dedication to his work and remarkable strength of will.

His passing deeply affects the academic community and leaves both an educational and human void for his students, who will surely remember him for his availability and for his passion for music, which often brightened the breaks during his lectures.