Honorary doctorate awarded to scientist Ilaria Capua

The Rector of the University of Sassari, Gavino Mariotti, will confer the Honorary Doctorate in Veterinary Sciences to the teacher Ilaria Capua , internationally renowned scientist and Senior Fellow of Global Health at Johns Hopkins University SAIS Europe. The ceremony will be held on Thursday 4 December at 11:00 in the Aula Magna of the University (Piazza Università, 21, Sassari). It is the first time ever that the University of Sassari confers this type of honorific title.

The appointment represents recognition of the scientific and cultural contribution of Professor Capua who, for over thirty years, has been conducting research on viral infections transmissible from animals to humans and their pandemic potential. She was responsible for introducing the concept of Circular Health , a model that proposes an integrated and interdisciplinary approach to health, as a single system that includes humans, animals, plants and the environment.

Program of the day

The day will open at 9.30 in the Botanical Garden , where, in collaboration with the weTree Association - of which Professor Capua is a founding member - a tree will be planted in memory of Professor Rina Mazzette. The initiative is part of weTree's national disseminated forest project, committed to the creation of green spaces dedicated to female figures who have contributed to the improvement of society, in the dissemination of responsible environmental practices and in the promotion of alliances with administrations and citizens.

The official academic degree award ceremony will then take place at 11:00 in the Aula Magna. Professor Capua will hold the lectio doctoralis entitled “Circular Health, the necessary synthesis between health and sustainability”, an intervention that will offer food for thought on pressing current issues: from the difficulties in achieving herd immunity to the general lowering of public health care levels, up to the effects of climate change and massive global movements. A combination of factors that contributes to the reappearance of diseases considered eradicated, such as polio.

Also speaking during the ceremony will be Eugenio Garribba, Director of the Doctoral School of the University of Sassari, Alberto Alberti, Coordinator of the Doctorate Course in Veterinary Sciences, Pier Luigi Fiori, former Full Professor of Microbiology and Clinical Microbiology, who is entrusted with the laudatio .

The ceremony will be broadcast live via web streaming on www. uniss. it.

Ilaria Capua , born in Rome on april 21, 1966, she graduated in Veterinary Medicine cum laude in 1989; he obtained a specialization in Virology at the University of Pisa and a doctorate in Public Health in Padua. He has directed research groups in Italy and abroad for over three decades, dedicating himself to the study of viruses with zoonotic and pandemic potential. He is Courtesy Professor and director emeritus of the One Health Center of Excellence at the University of Florida. He has published numerous popular essays translated into the main languages, including Circular health. A necessary revolution (Egea, 2019); The after. The virus that forced us to change our mental map (Mondadori, 2020); Wonder and transformation. Towards circular health (Mondadori, 2021); The words of circular health (Aboca, 2023).