The 10th Symposium of the International Association for Lichenology – IAL10, the world’s leading scientific meeting devoted to lichenology, opened today, Monday 27 July, at the University of Trieste. Organised every four years by the International Association for Lichenology, the symposium is being held in Italy for the first time and is bringing researchers from around the world to the University’s Piazzale Europa campus.

Lichenology is the scientific study of lichens, complex organisms that develop through a stable association between a fungus and one or more partners capable of photosynthesis. Found in a wide variety of environments, including some of the most extreme regions on Earth, lichens provide an important model for understanding the mechanisms of symbiosis, adaptation and evolution. Their sensitivity to environmental conditions also makes them valuable tools for monitoring air quality and ecosystems, while their interaction with rocks, buildings and monuments is studied in the field of cultural heritage conservation.

The scientific proceedings, which began today in Building H3, will continue until Friday 31 July. The programme includes five plenary lectures, more than twenty thematic sessions, four workshops, oral presentations and poster sessions. Contributions explore the latest developments in genomics and other “omics” sciences, taxonomy and systematics, symbiosis biology, ecophysiology and biodiversity. Considerable attention is also being devoted to the effects of climate change, ecosystem conservation, the monitoring of urban and natural environments, and the relationship between lichens and historical monuments and buildings.

The plenary lectures are being delivered by Nina Gunde-Cimerman of the University of Ljubljana, Pavel Škaloud of Charles University in Prague, Theo Llewellyn of Imperial College London, Daniel Stanton of the University of Minnesota and Gulnara Tagirdzhanova of Stockholm University. Their presentations address topics including symbioses capable of developing in extreme environments, ecological and evolutionary parallels between lichens and corals, the genetic mechanisms underlying the production of protective substances, lichen responses to climate change and the molecular interactions between the different organisms involved in lichen symbiosis.

The local organisation is coordinated by academics from the Department of Life Sciences at the University of Trieste. The symposium president is Lucia Muggia, Professor of Systematic Botany, while Mauro Tretiach, Professor of General Botany, serves as vice-president. The scientific and organisational secretariat also includes Stefano Martellos, Professor of Systematic Botany, and Fabio Candotto Carniel, Professor of General Botany. The Trieste team is working alongside a national organising committee and an international scientific committee composed of experts from Europe, Asia, Australia and the United States.

Trieste’s bid was selected in 2021 during the previous edition of the symposium, which was held online. The decision recognised the long-standing contribution of the University’s research group to Italian and international lichenology, as well as the city’s geographical position, multicultural character and particularly extensive network of scientific institutions.

The programme is complemented by scientific field trips devoted to observing lichens in their natural environments. Two itineraries took place before the symposium, crossing the south-eastern Alps and central Italy. A further excursion is scheduled from 1 to 3 August in the Italian and Slovenian Classical Karst, with stops including the Val Rosandra Nature Reserve, the Škocjan Caves area, the Trnovo Plateau and the Duino area.

The full programme and further information are available on the official IAL10 website.

EUT – Edizioni Università di Trieste has joined Fondazione LIA as a member. This decision reflects a clear commitment: ensuring that its publications can be accessed by all readers is not merely a legal obligation, but a matter of cultural and social responsibility.

For more than ten years, Fondazione LIA has worked to support publishers in creating accessible digital publications. It collaborates with all stakeholders across the publishing supply chain—including publishers, distributors, aggregators, booksellers and digital libraries—to make the entire reading experience accessible. EUT’s membership strengthens this network and brings a valuable perspective: that of an organisation which produces and disseminates scientific and academic knowledge and is committed to doing so without excluding anyone.

EUT – Edizioni Università di Trieste was established to promote and disseminate the results of the University’s teaching and research activities across all academic disciplines. Its decision to join Fondazione LIA demonstrates how the academic world is developing a more concrete awareness of the importance of accessibility.

“EUT – Edizioni Università di Trieste’s membership of Fondazione LIA represents an important step in strengthening our vision of academic publishing based on openness, sharing and the accessibility of knowledge. The dissemination of knowledge is one of the essential missions of the University of Trieste and its publishing house. We believe that inclusivity must be an indispensable condition, rather than merely a regulatory requirement, if research findings are to reach the widest possible audience and foster the circulation of culture. Our collaboration with Fondazione LIA will enable us to contribute actively to the development of a fairer publishing ecosystem, capable of fully recognising the social role of science communication,” said Elena Tonzar, Head of EUT – Edizioni Università di Trieste.

“We are delighted to welcome EUT as a member of Fondazione LIA. This partnership is particularly significant to us because of EUT’s role in disseminating knowledge, and we hope it will inspire other university publishers to embark on the same path,” said Cristina Mussinelli, Secretary General of Fondazione LIA.

Mapping groundwater aquifers located more than 400 metres beneath the seabed in the coastal area between Jesolo and Lignano. This was the objective of the recently completed oceanographic expedition carried out under the RESCUE project aboard the Laura Bassi research vessel of the National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics (OGS).

Coordinated by the University of Trieste, with OGS as a project partner, RESCUE aims to strengthen water security through research and innovation by identifying freshwater resources in unexplored coastal and offshore aquifers. Building on recent scientific discoveries, the project is mapping deep, low-salinity aquifers—located at depths exceeding 400 metres—both on land and beneath the seabed. At a time when freshwater resources in coastal regions are increasingly threatened by population growth, pollution and climate change, these aquifers could help supplement water supplies for drinking, agriculture and industry, while also reducing the costs associated with seawater desalination.

Researchers and students from OGS, the University of Trieste, the University of Pisa, CNR-ISMAR (Institute of Marine Sciences of the Italian National Research Council) in Bologna, the University of Malta, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI, California, USA) took part in the expedition aboard the Laura Bassi.

During the campaign, researchers carried out seismic reflection surveys to obtain high-resolution images of the subsurface beneath the seabed, together with seafloor mapping. In addition, electromagnetic surveys were conducted for the first time in the area to detect the possible presence of freshwater aquifers beneath the seabed. The investigations, which did not involve any seabed sampling, covered an area approximately 10 kilometres offshore, extending from Jesolo, in the Province of Venice, to the Tagliamento Delta off the coast of Lignano.

"The surveys were carried out under excellent environmental conditions, and all operations proceeded according to plan. The data collected are of very high quality, but several months of laboratory processing and analysis will be required before we can confirm the presence of freshwater aquifers beneath the northern Adriatic seabed," said Cristina Corradin, OGS researcher and scientific coordinator of the expedition.

"The operations required the integration of several geophysical techniques and close collaboration among the different research teams, the technical and scientific staff, and the ship's crew," explained Daniela Accettella of OGS, chief scientist aboard the Laura Bassi.

"After two years of scientific work, the RESCUE team has successfully applied innovative integrated geophysical methods for investigating deep offshore aquifers in one of the most promising study areas: the seabed of the northern Adriatic, particularly off the coast of Friuli Venezia Giulia. The new data will improve our understanding of regional groundwater resources and contribute to addressing water shortages linked to climate change and extreme events, such as the heatwave and drought currently affecting Europe," said Professor Michele Pipan of the University of Trieste, coordinator of the RESCUE project.

This oceanographic expedition has also laid the groundwork for a second research initiative funded by the European intergovernmental association JPI Oceans. Launched through a joint initiative by Malta and Italy, the new project will seek to confirm the presence of freshwater beneath the northern Adriatic seabed by drilling an offshore scientific borehole—the first of its kind in Europe. The project is coordinated by the University of Malta and involves OGS, the University of Trieste, the Alto Adriatico Technology Hub, as well as research institutions from Germany and Greece. It is funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR) and the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia.

RESCUE – Resources in Coastal Groundwater Under Hydroclimatic Extremes is a project co-funded by the Water4All Partnership and the European Union. It addresses water scarcity in coastal regions by investigating deep groundwater resources located both onshore and beneath the seabed. The project focuses on mapping these resources, assessing their long-term sustainability, and developing policy recommendations for their sustainable use.

The project is coordinated by the University of Trieste, with OGS as a partner. Other partners include the University of Derby (United Kingdom), Ruden AS (Norway), and the University of Malta.

The roots of the Degree Programme in Physiotherapy at UniTS date back to 1976, when Flavia Ruzzier established the School for Rehabilitation Therapists. The initiative grew out of the experience of the Centre for Motor and Functional Rehabilitation, founded ten years earlier by Professor Vincenzo Zuccon, and led to the creation of what remains one of the most distinctive features of physiotherapy education at the University of Trieste: the Palestra Didattica, its clinical teaching facility.

For almost half a century, this facility has provided a unique environment within the Italian higher education system, where clinical care, teaching and research have always coexisted. Each year, second- and third-year students take an active role in the care of patients referred by specialist services, under the supervision of clinical tutors, physiotherapists and university lecturers. Rather than merely observing clinical practice, they participate in the entire rehabilitation pathway: from medical history-taking and physiotherapy assessment to the definition of therapeutic goals, treatment planning and final reassessment, gradually developing greater professional autonomy.

Clinical activity is supported by a comprehensive educational ecosystem that combines peer learning, cooperative learning, clinical simulation, role-playing, multidisciplinary case discussions, journal clubs and advanced technologies, including a virtual anatomy table and motion analysis systems. This approach places particular emphasis on the development of clinical reasoning and decision-making skills, which are now essential competencies for physiotherapists.

“The fiftieth anniversary of the Degree Programme in Physiotherapy offers an opportunity to highlight a history built on expertise, innovation and vision,” says Luigi Murena, Director of the Department of Medicine, Surgery and Health Sciences at the University of Trieste. “The Palestra Didattica demonstrates how our University succeeded, well ahead of the models now recognised internationally, in developing an environment where teaching, research and clinical care are effectively integrated. It is a legacy that continues to educate highly qualified professionals capable of combining clinical expertise, critical thinking, technological innovation and person-centred care.”

Indeed, it is only in recent years that international scientific literature has begun to describe comparable models under the term Student-Led Physiotherapy Clinic, recognising their educational and clinical value. Many of the features that now define these experiences have been part of the University of Trieste’s Palestra Didattica since 1976: real patients, students actively involved in patient care, continuous supervision by experienced professionals, progressively increasing autonomy, collaborative learning and the integration of care, education and research.

Il professor Roberto Scarciglia, già ordinario di Diritto pubblico comparato, è stato nominato Professore Onorario dell'Università di Trieste.

Il prestigioso riconoscimento, conferito a docenti che si sono distinti per l'eccellenza dell'attività scientifica e accademica, assume un significato particolare per l'Ateneo: Scarciglia è infatti il primo docente del Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche e Sociali (DiSPeS) a esserne insignito.

La sua carriera all'Università di Trieste è iniziata nel 1996 come ricercatore ed è proseguita fino al ruolo di professore ordinario, ricoperto dal 2001 al 2021. Nel corso di oltre venticinque anni di attività ha contribuito in maniera significativa allo sviluppo del diritto pubblico comparato e alla crescita del Dipartimento, assumendo importanti responsabilità accademiche, tra cui quelle di Preside della Facoltà di Scienze Politiche, Direttore del Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche e, successivamente, del Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche e Sociali.

Studioso di riconosciuta autorevolezza nel panorama del diritto comparato, è Associate Member dell'International Academy of Comparative Law di Parigi e membro di numerose associazioni scientifiche nazionali e internazionali. Ha coordinato progetti di ricerca italiani ed europei, promosso collaborazioni accademiche con numerosi atenei stranieri e svolto attività di insegnamento e ricerca come visiting professor in prestigiose università europee, tra cui Cambridge, Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Barcellona e Francoforte.

La sua attività scientifica, testimoniata da un'ampia produzione di monografie, volumi e saggi pubblicati anche da editori internazionali, ha contribuito allo sviluppo degli studi sul diritto pubblico comparato, sulla metodologia della comparazione giuridica, sul pluralismo giuridico e, negli ultimi anni, sulle implicazioni dell'intelligenza artificiale e delle nuove tecnologie per gli ordinamenti pubblici.

Professor Paolo Fornasiero, Full Professor of General and Inorganic Chemistry at the Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of Trieste and Vice Rector for Research, has been appointed Fellow of the Italian Academy of Engineering and Technology (ITATEC) in recognition of his outstanding scientific achievements and his contributions to research in materials chemistry, catalysis and sustainable technologies.

Established in 2022 on the initiative and with the support of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, ITATEC brings together leading experts in engineering, technology and applied sciences to promote scientific and technological excellence and strengthen the links between research, innovation and society.

The Academy fosters the exchange of knowledge among universities, research organisations and industry, develops evidence-based recommendations on strategic technological issues, provides independent scientific advice to public institutions and private stakeholders, and promotes the international visibility of Italian engineering and technological research.

At the European level, ITATEC serves as the Italian reference academy within the European Council of Academies of Applied Sciences, Technologies and Engineering (Euro-CASE), the network of national academies from 23 European countries that provides independent scientific and technological advice to European institutions and other international bodies.

Professor Fornasiero's appointment represents an important recognition of both his scientific leadership and the excellence of research carried out at the University of Trieste, reaffirming the University's commitment to advancing scientific knowledge, technological innovation and knowledge transfer at the national and international levels.

The University of Trieste Graduation Day returned to the heart of the city to celebrate research, knowledge and new generations.

On Thursday 16 July, Piazza Verdi hosted the proclamation ceremony for the PhD graduates of the 38th cycle, which concluded with the distinctive and traditional mortarboard toss. Included in the Trieste Estate programme, the event transformed one of the most significant rituals of academic life into a public occasion for bringing the University and the city community together.

Following its debut last year, Graduation Day in the city has confirmed itself as an event through which UniTS shares with the local community the value of doctoral education and the contribution of research to the cultural, scientific, social and economic development of society.

Rector Donata Vianelli’s first Graduation Day

For Rector Donata Vianelli, this was the first Graduation Day since taking office.

“This year’s ceremony was the first I experienced as Rector of the University of Trieste and represented the consolidation of a new tradition for the University and the city. PhD graduates stand at the highest level of university education and mark the entry of new generations into the research community. Celebrating this milestone in Piazza Verdi means bringing knowledge beyond the places where it is produced and sharing it with society, because science is not only the advancement of knowledge: it is responsibility, confidence in the future and the ability to contribute to the common good.”

Graduation Day 2026 in numbers

The 2026 edition confirmed the growth of the University of Trieste’s PhD programmes. The 187 new PhD graduates proclaimed in Piazza Verdi represent a new record number for the University.

As Francesco Longo, UniTS professor and Rector’s Delegate for PhD Programmes, pointed out, “this figure is also linked to the impact of scholarships funded by the PNRR, Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan: the 38th cycle is in fact the first to reach proclamation after fully including the scholarships launched in the 2022/2023 academic year, alongside the University of Trieste’s decision to continue investing its own resources in doctoral education.”

The 2026 class of new PhD graduates is made up of 89 women, accounting for 47.6%, and 98 men, accounting for 52.4%. The international component represents 14.4% of the total, with PhD graduates from 14 countries: Austria, Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Ethiopia, the Philippines, France, India, Iran, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Rwanda and Tunisia. Overall, including Italy, 15 nationalities are represented, confirming a doctoral community open to Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.

The 13 programmes: cross-disciplinary research

The 187 new PhD graduates come from 13 PhD programmes, reflecting the cross-disciplinary nature of research developed at the University of Trieste: from life sciences to physics, from chemistry to engineering, from artificial intelligence to nanotechnology, from sustainability to cognitive sciences, as well as history, architecture and territorial studies.

The programmes involved are: Environment and Life; Applied Data Science and Artificial Intelligence; Molecular Biomedicine; Chemistry; Circular Economy; Physics; Civil-Environmental Engineering and Architecture; Industrial and Information Engineering; Nanotechnology; Neuroscience and Cognitive Science; Reproduction and Developmental Sciences; Earth Science and Fluid Mechanics; History of Societies, Institutions and Thought. From the Middle Ages to the Contemporary Age.

Guests, institutions and partners

The special guest of the evening was Alberto Di Minin, Professor of Innovation Management at the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa, researcher and science communicator, who delivered the keynote lecture “The Future Needs Teachers and Mentors. Reflections on Research, Open Innovation and Human Responsibility”.

His lecture focused on the role of research in major technological and social transformations. Every age has imagined the future through the science and technology of its time, but revolutions are never produced by technologies alone. They require people capable of turning knowledge into possibility, building bridges between research, business and society, and giving innovation a human meaning.

Alongside science, music also played a central role in the evening, thanks to the performance by Pierpaolo Foti, violinist and composer.

The ceremony, hosted by journalist Marinella Chirico, was attended by Rector of the University of Trieste Donata Vianelli, Rector’s Delegate for PhD Programmes Francesco Longo, President of the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia Massimiliano Fedriga and Mayor of Trieste Roberto Dipiazza. Alberta Gervasio, Chief Executive Officer of Bluenergy Group S.P.A., and Luca Cristoforetti, General Manager of CiviBank, also took part on behalf of the partners supporting the initiative.

The mortarboard toss

The evening culminated in the proclamation of the new PhD graduates through the ritual of the mortarboard toss. The gesture, one of the most recognisable images of graduation ceremonies, is commonly traced back to the U.S. Naval Academy: in 1912, new officers threw their old cadet caps into the air. Since then, the mortarboard toss has become an immediate symbol of transition and collective celebration.

The event was also made possible thanks to the support of CiviBank and Bluenergy Group S.P.A., local partners of the initiative.

Trieste Estate is organised and promoted by the Municipality of Trieste, with the support of PromoTurismoFVG and in collaboration with the Trieste Convention & Visitors Bureau.

A research team involving the European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy (LENS), the CNR National Institute of Optics in Sesto Fiorentino, and the Universities of Florence, Trieste and Trento has developed an innovative technique based on the propagation of sound waves to study matter under extreme conditions. The results have been published in Nature Physics.

The researchers developed an innovative technique to investigate the behaviour of quantum matter by exploiting a familiar phenomenon: the Doppler effect. When an ambulance passes us, its siren sounds higher-pitched as it approaches and lower-pitched as it moves away.

“In the same way, sound travelling through a rotating superfluid changes depending on whether it moves in the same direction as the superfluid or in the opposite direction. By detecting these minute variations, the team was able to reveal the internal structure of superfluid Fermi gases, systems made up of atoms cooled to temperatures close to absolute zero. Under these conditions, Fermi particles pair up, giving rise to superfluidity, a state of matter in which friction disappears,” explain Marcia Fròmeta Fernandez and Diego Hernandez-Rajkov, CNR-INO researchers and lead authors of the study.

“We created a ring-shaped Fermi superfluid in which sound waves travel simultaneously in opposite directions. When the superfluid is set in rotation, the two sound waves are affected differently by the flow and accumulate a tiny difference in frequency: the Doppler effect.”

By measuring this effect with extreme precision, “we demonstrated that the circulation of the superfluid around the ring cannot take arbitrary values, but only quantised, or discrete, values, determined by the ratio between Planck’s constant and the mass of the particles. In this case, these values are half those expected for individual particles,” explains Francesco Scazza, Professor of Condensed Matter Physics at the University of Trieste.

“Our observation shows that the superfluid consists of fermions that pair up, forming composite quantum units with twice the mass, known as Cooper pairs, similarly to what occurs in superconductors. The result confirms that, even in these ultracold gaseous systems, superfluidity originates from the formation of fermion pairs,” concludes Giacomo Roati, Research Director at CNR-INO and head of the experimental group.

The study confirms the potential of atom interferometry, a technique that exploits the wave-like properties of atoms to perform extremely precise measurements. In this study, the technique was implemented using sound waves in the superfluid, proving to be an effective tool for investigating strongly correlated quantum systems.

One of the first results obtained was the observation that superfluidity progressively decreases as temperature rises. The work opens up a new avenue for studying the collective behaviour of particles and gaining a deeper understanding of the mechanisms underlying superfluidity and superconductivity, as well as other still-mysterious dynamics of quantum matter that are of fundamental importance for modern quantum technologies,” conclude Massimo Inguscio of LENS and Sandro Stringari of the Pitaevskii BEC Center at the University of Trento.

Their contributions to the development of atomic physics and their scientific collaboration laid the foundations for the work carried out at the LENS laboratory. The study comes in the year marking the centenary of the statistics formulated by Enrico Fermi in 1926 on the Arcetri hills, at the University of Florence, to describe the behaviour of particles such as electrons, protons and neutrons.

The University of Trieste has confirmed its position among Italy’s most competitive universities. According to the new Censis Ranking of Italian Universities, UniTS ranks fourth among medium-sized state universities, with between 10,000 and 20,000 enrolled students. The result recognises the overall quality of the University’s academic offering and services.

The ranking is based on six indicators: scholarships, communication and digital services, internationalisation, student services, facilities and graduate employability.

More specifically, UniTS ranks second for communication and digital services, jointly with the University of Sassari and with an increase of 13 points compared with the previous edition. It ranks fifth for student services, together with Sassari and Udine, and for graduate employability, jointly with Bergamo; sixth for facilities; and seventh for scholarships, up seven points, and for internationalisation, which gained two points.

“Almost all the indicators have improved compared with the previous edition,” said Rector Donata Vianelli. “We have made particularly strong progress in scholarships and communication, while also achieving an excellent fifth place nationally for student services and employability. According to the latest AlmaLaurea Report, 86.5% of our graduates from two-year and single-cycle Master’s degree programmes are employed one year after graduation, almost six percentage points above the national average. This result recognises the quality of our education and the work carried out to build increasingly effective links with the local community and the business sector.”

The degree programme rankings, based on students’ academic progress and international relations, also highlight consistently strong performance across a range of disciplinary areas.

Among Bachelor’s degree programmes, the University of Trieste ranks first nationally among state universities in the language group, which includes the degree classes in Modern Languages and Cultures and Language Mediation, and second in Computer Science and ICT Technologies. UniTS also achieved strong results in the scientific group, where it ranks fourth, and in the political, social and communication group, where it ranks fifth. The economics group, in seventh place, psychology, in eighth, and literature and humanities, in tenth, also rank among the national top ten.

Among two-year Master’s degree programmes, the education and training group entered the national top ten with a score of 92.5. In the rankings for single-cycle Master’s degree programmes, UniTS ranks third in Pharmacy and Industrial Pharmacy, while Law and Medicine and Surgery both place among the national top ten.

Now in its twenty-sixth edition, the Censis Ranking of Italian Universities is based on more than 960 variables and includes 70 separate rankings. The overall assessment divides universities into comparable categories according to size, while the degree programme rankings compare the different groupings of degree classes at national level.

Maria Carolina Foi, Full Professor of German Literature at the Department of Humanities of the University of Trieste, has been elected a member of the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung (German Academy for Language and Literature).

Founded in 1949 and based in Darmstadt, the Academy brings together writers, scholars, and intellectuals who have made outstanding contributions to German-language culture. Its membership also includes jurists and scientists distinguished by their literary sensitivity. Among its members have been figures such as Hannah Arendt, Jürgen Habermas, Ingeborg Bachmann, and Elias Canetti. The Academy also awards the Georg Büchner Prize, the most prestigious lifetime literary award for authors writing in German.

After beginning her academic studies in Law at the University of Padua, Maria Carolina Foi graduated in German Literature from the University of Trieste under the supervision of Claudio Magris.

She subsequently received prestigious research fellowships from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts and Culture, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. She also served as an External Senior Fellow at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies. Since 2008, she has been Full Professor of German Literature at the University of Trieste. Her main research interests include the relationship between literature and law, Viennese Modernism, and Italian-German cultural transfer. She has translated and edited Italian editions of classics by authors including Heinrich Heine and Friedrich Schiller.

From 2020 to 2024, she served as Distinguished Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Berlin, appointed by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. In 2025, she joined the jury of the Deutscher Buchpreis, Germany's most prestigious annual award for the best German-language novel.

Her election to the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung confirms Professor Foi's international standing and represents a source of particular pride for the University of Trieste, whose excellence in research has been recognised by one of Europe's most prestigious cultural institutions.