Premio Piazzano and the importance of scientific popularization

by Alessandro Ferrua

Scientific popularization, for non-specialist audience is a very useful type of information which often helps to get an idea on some issues, even if you don’t know some “technical” aspects, matter of scientists. Currently there are very few organizations dedicated to this activity. Among these, the cultural association “Piero Piazzano”, founded in 2001 following the death of the homonymous journalist from Novara (in the north-east of Piedmont, in Italy) who has devoted his life to spreading knowledge in science. The intention of Alberto Toscano, president of the association, was «to continue on the path of dissemination of scientific, technological and ecological topics, very dear to Piero Piazzano, rewarding young people who have excelled in this field, thanks to their communication knowledge».Indeed, it’s precisely among young people the prize winner, consisting of a sculpture by Angelo Bozzola and awarded annually in May, during which the Po Valley near Novara, with its flooded rice fields, is even more striking.

«The award ceremony takes place at the Faculty of Economics, Università del Piemonte Orientale (University of the Eastern Piedmont) “Amedeo Avogadro”, during a Saturday morning and it’s preceded by a conference that every year offers a new topic for discussion, president says and adds that «the award and the conference were born with the official patronage of UNESCO, which is rare for a cultural association, especially because it’s assigned since the beginning of their activity».
The same members of UNESCO, together with some experts from OECD, took part, above with many personalities from the world of scientific culture, representatives of the UGIS (Union of the Italian Scientific Journalists) and the president of the national order of journalists, Lorenzo Del Boca.

The edition of 2010 was the ninth and was won by Federico Ferrazza, known for his scientific and technological knowledge, applied in his teaching at the masters of scientific popularization at the university “La Sapienza”, in Rome, at the university “Tor Vergata” and the Scuola Superiore di Pubblica Amministrazione (school of public administration). The conference was entitled “Resources and risk to humans and the environment of tomorrow”, in fact, never as in this period and especially during this year, the public has shown concern about everything related to the environment and the negative consequences that may result from many human activities.

Emblematic episodes contributed particularly, as the failure of the Copenhagen conference on climate change, the oil spill from the drilling platform of BP in the Gulf of Mexico and the Icelandic volcano that has highlighted the vulnerability of our socio-economic system. Issues that are of relevance and suggest the importance of scientific dissemination related to other aspects of society.