Friuli Venezia Giulia now has its first specialists in Pharmacology and Clinical Toxicology. Today (Friday 21st November), the final exams of the first course of the School of Specialisation in Pharmacology and Clinical Toxicology at the University of Trieste, promoted in collaboration with the Research Hospital Burlo Garofolo, in partnership with the Pharmacology departments of the Research Hospital and Oncological Reference Centre (CRO) of Aviano, and the local health authorities AsuFc and AsuGi.

This is one of the most prestigious training courses in contemporary pharmacology, at the crossroads between clinical research, drug governance, therapy safety and therapeutic innovation. The specialisation in Pharmacology and Clinical Toxicology qualifies graduates to carry out professional activities in areas crucial to modern healthcare: therapeutic drug monitoring, pharmacogenetics, pharmacovigilance, pharmacoeconomics, clinical trials, appropriate prescriptions, therapeutic innovation management and related clinical and care activities.

The course is open to graduates in Medicine, but also in Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology, Biology and other scientific degrees; it is also equivalent to the specialisation in Hospital Pharmacy.

At the end of the exams, the Examination Board – composed of Professors Marianna Lucafò and Raffaella Franca of the University of Trieste, Dr Erika Cecchin of the Oncological Reference Centre in Aviano, Professor Massimo Baraldo of the University of Udine and AsuFc, and chaired by Professor Gabriele Stocco of the University of Trieste and Burlo, who is also the director of the specialisation school – announced the first four specialists trained in our region.

The creation of this specialisation school, strongly supported by Professor Giuliana Decorti and Dr Anna Arbo, who heads the Pharmacy Department at Burlo, represents a significant step forward at a time when the role of the clinical pharmacologist is increasingly central to drug policy and the sustainability of regional and national health systems.

'This is an important milestone for the Department of Medicine, Surgery and Health Sciences (DSM) at the University of Trieste, the result of the University's policy of investing in the growth of the number of specialisation schools, in order to provide the regional healthcare system with key professionals trained in our region,' said Luigi Murena, head of the DSM Department

On the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, observed on 25 November, the Comitato Unico di Garanzia (CUG) of the University of Trieste is promoting a Focus Week aimed at engaging both the university community and the general public. The initiative seeks to explore the phenomenon from different perspectives and to offer tools to understand it, provide training, and raise awareness.

According to data from the Department of Public Security of the Italian Ministry of the Interior, in the first half of 2025 there was an increase in murders committed by a partner or former partner: compared with the same period in 2024, cases rose from 33 to 40 (+21%). The number of female victims also increased from 28 to 34 (+21%).

This means that, among all murders occurring within family or intimate relationships, 67% of victims are women, and of these, 85% are killed by a partner or former partner. The figures therefore highlight how women are most at risk of violence precisely in contexts where they should feel safest and most protected.

“The Focus Week ‘Knowing, training and informing to end violence against women’,” explains Prof. Maria Dolores Ferrara, Chair of the University’s CUG, “is designed first and foremost for young people such as university students. Through a series of seminars, professors from the University of Trieste’s departments will address issues related to violence against women, gender stereotypes and inequalities.”

As in previous years, several university classrooms will host the Posto Occupato initiative. By symbolically reserving empty seats, the project commemorates all women who were victims of violence—women who, before being killed by a husband, former partner or lover, once occupied a seat in a theatre, on a tram, at school, at university and, more broadly, in society.

In cooperation with other local organisations and institutions, the University’s CUG is also promoting a calendar of awareness‑raising events open to the public, including the following:

Ending violence against women and domestic violence: legislation and field work
Meeting organised by Soroptimist Trieste
25 November 2025, 6.00 pm, Stazione Rogers, Riva Grumula 14

Gender‑based violence between law and lived reality
Natalina Folla and Patrizia Romito, former UniTS professors, interview Paola Di Nicola Travaglini, Justice at the Court of Cassation
16 December 2025, 3.00 pm, Aula Magna, Building A, Piazzale Europa Campus

Notes of light: women’s memories
Concert in memory of femicide victims by the University of Trieste Choir and the Student Council
16 December 2025, 6.00 pm, Aula Magna, Building A, Piazzale Europa Campus

The programme also includes a listening point run by the GOAP Anti‑Violence Centre, which will be available on Thursday 27 November from 4.30 pm to 6.30 pm in Building B of the Piazzale Europa Campus.

From 24 to 28 November, the entrance hall of the right wing of Building A will host the exhibition “What Were You Wearing? Toward a Positive Manifesto,” promoted by the Trieste Women’s Council. The display presents clothing worn and excerpts from court statements given by women who have experienced violence. It offers a reflection on misguided interpretations that, in public debate or in investigative settings, may place undue emphasis on clothing and generate forms of secondary victimisation. The exhibition is complemented by QR codes for further information and by a notebook open to visitors’ contributions, inviting them to leave thoughts or proposals for shared action to counter violence. The collected materials will feed into a forward‑looking manifesto, to be presented in March 2026.

To express solidarity with women who are victims of violence and to reaffirm its commitment to raising awareness among young people and the wider community, on Tuesday 25 November the University of Trieste will light the façade of Building A in red.

For information on how to take part in the scheduled activities, please write to: presidenza.comitato.garanzia@units.it

FULL PROGRAMME OF INITIATIVES 

The Silver Plaque for the ‘Chini Memorial Lecture 2025’ was awarded to Paolo Fornasiero, professor in the Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Vice-Rector for Research at UniTS, for his ‘fundamental contribution to the study of the relationships between the structure and properties of inorganic materials and their impact on energy and heterogeneous catalysis’.

The award was presented in Pisa during the 23rd National Congress of the Industrial Chemistry Division of the Italian Chemical Society.

Previous award winners include Nobel Prize winners Jean-Marie Lehn (Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France), Ernst Otto Fischer (Technische Universität München, Garching, Germany) and Geoffrey Wilkinson (Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, UK).

At the congress, Paolo Fornasiero presented a plenary lecture entitled “The criticality of metal particle size speciation in sustainable catalysis”.

The Precious Papers exhibition promoted by the University Museum Services of the University of Trieste (SmaTS) will start on Thursday 13th November at Stazione Rogers at 18:00.  The initiative, carried out as part of the agreement between Stazione Rogers and the University of Trieste, will propose five weekly meetings until11th December to discover treasures from the libraries of the University Library Services and works of art from the collection of the University Museum Services.

The exhibition will start with a speech by Cristina Cocever and Elisa Zilli, librarians of the University of Trieste, who will present the book Keika Zuan, by Keika Hasegawa, an important Japanese artist of the nineteenth century, belonging to the Library of the Institute for the Promotion of Small Enterprises in Trieste.

The second event will be held by Maria Rosa Mezzi, a librarian at the University of Trieste, and Zeno Saracino, a historian and journalist, who will talk about the Library of the German Gymnasium in Trieste, using Michelangelo Rustia’s 1864 Schiarimenti sull’arte della ginnastica con un avviamento agli esercizi elementari (handbook on the physical education as an art starting from basic exercises).

The following week it will be the turn of Rossella Fabiani, art historian, who, together with Cristina Cocever, will illustrate the drawing book by Sant’Antonio Nuovo di Pietro Nobile kept by the Writers’ Archive of the University of Trieste.

Walter Gerbino, professor at the University of Trieste, will focus on the graphic and pictorial works of Gaetano Kanizsa in the collections of the University Museum Services.

At the end of the exhibition, Massimo De Grassi, a professor at the University of Trieste, and Serena Paganini, an art historian, will present the fund of the artist Dino Predonzani, donated by his heirs to the University of Trieste.

Free entry

PROGRAMME

Thursday 13 November, 6 p.m.

‘The library of the Institute for the Promotion of Small Enterprises and its treasures’

Cristina Cocever and Elisa Zilli  

Thursday 20 November, 6 p.m.

‘Ding physical education in 19th-century Trieste: between SGT and German Gymnasium’

Maria Rosa Mezzi, Zeno Saracino

Thursday 27 November, 6 p.m.

‘The drawing book by Sant’Antonio Nuovo di Pietro Nobile in the Fonda Savio Archive’

Rossella Fabiani, Cristina Cocever

Thursday 4 December, 6 p.m.

‘Gaetano Kanizsa and the practice of self-organisation’

Walter Gerbino

Thursday 11 December, 6 p.m.

‘The Predonzani donation to the University of Trieste’

Massimo Degrassi, Serena Paganini

The number of newly enrolled students in bachelor’s and integrated master’s degrees at the University of Trieste has grown by more than 13%, with 4,441 students enrolling this year, compared to 3,920 last year. These numbers confirm that the University is attracting more students than ever. 

Moreover, the figures do not include students who have enrolled in the so-called ‘filter semester’ for access to medicine and dentistry courses. Any students who are not awarded one of the 240 places available will still be able to register for related degree courses on offer at UniTS. Degree courses leading to health professions have also had a high number of enrolments, filling almost all the places on offer. 

‘In addition to the excellent work carried out in Italy and abroad by our Prospective Student Support Office, this fantastic result also comes down to the excellence and innovation of our course catalogue and the extraordinary employment rate of our master’s graduates, which also naturally has an effect on the bachelor’s degree courses, as master’s degree courses are their natural completion,’ points out Rector Donata Vianelli, recalling the recent UniTS success in the Talents Venture Observatory analysis of 2024/2025 AlmaLaurea data.

Here are some of this academic year’s macro trends. 

The bachelor’s or integrated master’s degree courses with the most enrolments are: Physics, Industrial Engineering, Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics, Law, International Relations and Diplomatic Sciences, Political and Administrative Sciences, Psychology, History and Philosophy, International Economics and Financial Markets and Education. The Business Administration and Management course has been exceptionally popular with 583 students and a high growth rate compared to last year. 

The university maintains its predominance of women students. The courses which had more female than male enrolments are: Architecture, Mathematics, Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology, Medical and Diagnostic Biotechnologies, Neuroscience, Business Administration and Management, Marketing and Management, Interlinguistic Communication, Law, International Relations and Diplomatic Sciences, Political and Administrative Sciences, Psychology and Education. Female enrolments are also growing in STEM degrees (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), thanks in part to the outreach initiatives organised with the science-degrees project (Progetto Lauree Scientifiche – PLS).

The University of Trieste is also attracting more students from abroad, with 875 international students enrolling to bachelor’s degree courses, compared to 700 last year. The most represented communities are Iran, Turkey, Pakistan and Tunisia.

The most represented Italian regions outside FVG are Veneto, Puglia, Lombardy and Sicily.

Enrolments for bachelor’s degrees are now closed, but there is still time to enrol to a master’s degree course. There are various registration deadlines between December 2025 and March 2026. https://portale.units.it/en/study/degree-courses/masters-degrees

The seismological station on Everest installed by the National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics (OGS), together with the EvK2CNR association and the Nepalese Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), has been upgraded with new instruments. 

Located at an altitude of 5,050 metres, the IO.EVN station is located at the Italian Piramide Observatory/Laboratory of EvK2CNR, 5 km from Mount Everest base camp. 

‘A new accelerometer has been added, to be paired with the existing seismometer for measuring local and global earthquakes, and an infrasound sensor to record environmental noise, including rock and ice falls and noises associated with glacier movements,’ explains Franco Pettenati, geophysicist at the OGS CRS and representative of the EvK2CNR Seismological Station. He adds: ‘This upgrade will allow us to further our ongoing research into “icequakes”, i.e. earthquakes caused by seismic waves generated by ice movements; these investigations are particularly useful for studies on climate change.’ 

Other work has been carried out on the GPS station: ‘We replaced the Master GPS station's data acquisition device, i.e. the device that acquires and determines the geographical position,’ continues Pettenati. ‘A commercially available device was installed, alongside a low-cost device designed by David Zuliani, an engineer at the OGS Seismological Research Centre (Receiver GNSS LZER0 NET S/N #1013)’. 

The GPS will be used in conjunction with the University of Trieste, which owns the antenna, to study the geodynamics of the region. Finally, a new Wi-Fi bridge was installed to connect the IO.EVN seismological station and the new GPS system to the server of the Piramide Observatory/Laboratory. The new Wi-Fi system will thus replace the previous underground cable connection system. 

The seismological station was inaugurated on 19th May 2014. Since then, it has been operating continuously at 100, 20 and 2 Hz sampling frequencies with 24-bit Guralp digitisers. From the Piramide server, the signals are sent via satellite to a server in Kathmandu and then to the OGS acquisition centre in Italy. On 7th January 2025, the seismological station recorded the Mw 7.1 earthquake in central Tibet, being the closest broadband station to the epicentre of the earthquake (approximately 70 kilometres away).

The University of Trieste and illycaffè S.p.A. have signed a new framework agreement that strengthens and renews their long-standing collaboration for the four-year period 2025-2029. The agreement, signed by Rector Donata Vianelli and Alessandro Benedetti, Director of Research and Innovation at illycaffè, aims to promote joint activities in applied research, training, innovation and technology transfer.

‘The future of our University must be shaped by increasingly close relations with the local area, at both a strategic and operational level: the renewal of the agreement with illycaffè is an important step for us, strengthening and developing our long-standing collaboration with one of the most important companies in our region,’ commented Rector Vianelli.

The partnership, which has been active since 2004, is based on a shared vision: to integrate academic and industrial expertise to generate excellent results, with a concrete impact on the world of work and scientific progress.

The new agreement provides for the development of projects in strategic areas such as:

• Coffee sciences: sensory, chemical, biological and biochemical aspects
• Technologies and production processes: processing, packaging, sustainability
• Artificial intelligence and machine learning: quality modelling, decision-making systems
• Cybersecurity in the food supply chain
• Coffee economics and marketing
• Language support and document translation

The multidisciplinary nature of the agreement involves the participation of numerous departments of the University, in particular those of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Life Sciences, Engineering and Architecture, Economics, Business, Mathematics and Statistics. 

There will also be numerous opportunities for students and researchers, such as traineeships, doctoral scholarships and research grants funded by illycaffè, as well as visits and internships in the company's laboratories and the Padriciano Research Area. These experiences will offer not only high-level educational opportunities but also concrete professional prospects.

The activities will be coordinated by a Scientific Committee composed of university professors and researchers from illycaffè, with the task of defining strategic guidelines, monitoring projects and promoting joint initiatives.

This shimmering view of interstellar gas and dust was captured by the European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope. The nebula is part of a so-called dark cloud, named LDN 1641. It sits at about 1300 light-years from Earth, within a sprawling complex of dusty gas clouds where stars are being formed, in the constellation of Orion.

In visible light this region of the sky appears mostly dark, with few stars dotting what seems to be a primarily empty background. But, by imaging the cloud with the infrared eyes of its NISP instrument, Euclid reveals a multitude of stars shining through a tapestry of dust and gas.
This is because dust grains block visible light from stars behind them very efficiently but are much less effective at dimming near-infrared light.

The nebula is teeming with very young stars. Some of the objects embedded in the dusty surroundings spew out material – a sign of stars being formed. The outflows appear as magenta-coloured spots and coils when zooming into the image.
In the upper left, obstruction by dust diminishes and the view opens toward the more distant Universe with many galaxies lurking beyond the stars of our own galaxy.
Euclid observed this region of the sky in September 2023 to fine-tune its pointing ability. For the guiding tests, the operations team required a field of view where only a few stars would be detectable in visible light; this portion of LDN 1641 proved to be the most suitable area of the sky accessible to Euclid at the time.

The tests were successful and helped ensure that Euclid could point reliably and very precisely in the desired direction. This ability is key to delivering extremely sharp astronomical images of large patches of sky, at a fast pace. The data for this image, which is about 0.64 square degrees in size - or more than three times the area of the full Moon on the sky - were collected in just under five hours of observations.

Euclid is surveying the sky to create the most extensive 3D map of the extragalactic Universe ever made. Its main objective is to enable scientists to pin down the mysterious nature of dark matter and dark energy.
Yet the mission will also deliver a trove of observations of interesting regions in our galaxy, like this one, as well as countless detailed images of other galaxies, offering new avenues of investigation in many different fields of astronomy.

The Euclid Consortium involves several UniTS professors from the Department of Physics (Stefano Borgani, Matteo Costanzi, Marisa Girardi, Anna Gregorio, Pierluigi Monaco, Alexandro Saro), as well as postdocs and PhD students (Lucie Baumont, Yousry Elkhashab, Roberto Ingrao, Marius Lepinzan) with responsibilities ranging from coordinating the Instrument Operation Team to participating in the Euclid Consortium Publication Group - Science, as well as significant involvement in the Science Working Groups on Galaxy Clustering and Clusters of Galaxies and in the Science Ground Segment. These activities, carried out in close collaboration with researchers from INAF-Trieste Astronomical Observatory and SISSA, make Trieste one of the focal points of the Euclid Consortium. 

The mid-term meeting of the European BluEcho project, dedicated to the study of noise pollution in the marine environment, was held in Trieste. Co-funded by the European Union through the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership and coordinated by UniTS, BluEcho addresses issues ranging from numerical noise modelling to the impact on marine fauna, as well as economic models for defining mitigation strategies.

In addition to Italy, the international consortium involves partners from Sweden, Norway and Germany.

Summary of mid-term results 

A year and a half after its launch, the project has achieved significant results in the three main areas of research: numerical modelling, biological impacts and socio-economic analysis. 

In the field of numerical modelling of underwater noise, new source models based on CFD simulations have been developed and tested, with particular attention to the noise generated by cavitating propellers and marine turbines.

Acoustic modelling has so far focused on single sources, wind turbines or marine propellers, allowing for detailed analysis of the interaction between the various components and noise generation mechanisms. The next step will be to extend the analysis to the propagation of multiple sources, in order to more realistically represent the acoustic impact of entire offshore wind farms and shipping traffic.

In parallel, in the field of acoustic propagation modelling, comparative studies on different solvers have been launched and the first reference case studies have been defined, based on accurate collection of environmental and ‘source’ data (bathymetry, seabed characteristics, source types, etc.).

One of the main cases analysed concerns sound propagation in the Gulf of Trieste, chosen as a representative site for the validation of numerical models.

In addition, a measurement campaign was organised in the Bracciano lake, involving ISPRA, CNR and Hydra Ricerche. The data collected will be used to calibrate the acoustic maps and metrics used.

In the area dedicated to biological impacts, a review of the state of the art has been completed and a monitoring campaign has been carried out by the Institute of Marine Research (IMR) at two sites of particular interest: a floating wind farm (Hywind Tampen) and an area subject to intense shipping traffic (LoVe Ocean observatory).

Through the combined use of hydrophones and echosounders, it was possible to correlate environmental noise levels with the abundance and behaviour of different marine species, providing preliminary indications of the influence of anthropogenic noise on local ecosystems.

In the research area dedicated to economic modelling, a review of the most relevant methodologies for the assessment of ecosystem services and mitigation measures has been completed.

An international questionnaire and interviews with maritime stakeholders are being prepared to assess the costs, benefits and preferences associated with noise reduction policies.

Finally, with regard to data management, the infrastructure for standardisation, quality control and sharing of acoustic datasets via the OPUS platform has been implemented.

A joint group of researchers from the University of Padua and the University of Trieste has observed surprising behaviours in jellyfish of the Aurelia species, commonly known

as the four-leaf clover jellyfish. The results of the study, published in the prestigious journal Behavioural and Brain Sciences, raise fascinating questions about the origin of curiosity and the possibility that forms of cognition can emerge even in the absence of a centralised brain.

‘Our results are particularly interesting,’ explains Cinzia Chiandetti, professor of cognitive neuroscience at the Department of Life Sciences of the University of Trieste, ‘because these animals are considered ‘brainless’: their nervous system is organised radially, without a command centre, and equipped only with rudimentary sensory organs. Finding signs of memory and attraction to novelty in them is an important key to understanding the evolution of nervous systems and cognition itself.’

Specifically, the researchers observed the behaviour of young jellyfish placed individually in a rectangular tank. In the first phase, each animal was presented with an object, which elicited an immediate reaction: the jellyfish left the empty part of the tank and headed towards the novelty. In the second phase, after a one-minute interval, a second object was placed alongside the first, and on that occasion, the jellyfish showed a clear preference for the latter. This behaviour, which experts call ‘neophilia’, indicates that jellyfish have a memory of the first object and are attracted to the new one.

‘Not only did the jellyfish show neophilia,’ comments Christian Agrillo, professor of comparative psychology at the University of Padua, ‘but they also showed that they could retain certain information in their memory for at least one minute. We generally think that in the sea they approach us passively, carried by the current. Our study also opens up the possibility that in some cases they do so because of the same attraction to novelty documented here. You could say that perhaps they are curious to get to know us!’

The study invites us to rethink traditional models that link cognition to the presence of centralised brains, suggesting that even ‘diffuse’ nervous systems, such as that of jellyfish, can support complex behaviours. This discovery once again pushes the boundaries of what we think is possible in the animal world.

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