Catalog Title

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Political Highlights………………………………….. page 02

Business, Finance, and Science Highlights ………... page 11

www.ambwashingtondc.esteri.it Volume Two | Issue Four October-December 2007 | Part Two

The President of the Republic of Italy, T.H. Giorgio Napolitano, and the President of the United

States, George W. Bush, during their meeting in the Oval Office

edited and designed by Silvia Limoncini, Simona Massobrio, and Caterina Ghiselli

Minister Lanzillotta speaking at Georgetown University

Visit of the Minister for Regional Affairs and Local

Governments, T.H. Linda Lanzillotta, to Washington

October 1-3, 2007

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The Italian Minister for Regional Affairs and Local Autono-

mies, T.H. Linda Lanzillotta, visited Washington D.C. on October 1-3, 2007. On the morning of October 1st, the Minister took part in the ope-ning of the conference titled Globali-zation and social justice: inequalities and insecurity in the global economy, organized by the Center for A-merican Progress. Minister Lan-zillotta later had meetings at the Brookings Institution. On the following day the Minister addressed the final session of the conference at the Center for A-merican Progress and later held a conference at the Italian Depar-tment of the prestigious George-town University. The topic of the meeting was reform in Italian poli-tics.

Political Highlights

Ambassador Castellaneta chairs the annual meeting between Italian Consuls in the United States, Presi-dents of Comites, members of CGIE elected in the United States, Parliamentarians elected in North

America and Honorary Consuls

October 12-13, 2007

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The Embassy of Italy in Washington hosted an important sequence of remarkable events on October 12th and 13th, 2007. On Friday, October 12th, Ambassador Giovanni Castellaneta chaired the annual meeting between Embassy Offi-cials and the ten Italian Diplomats who head the Italian Consulates in the United States. After the meeting, a reception was offered in honor of the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) Gala for more then five hun-dreds guests in the beautiful salons of the Embassy. On Saturday, October 13th, the Embassy hosted the annual meeting between Consulates, Presidents of Comites, members of CGIE elected in the United States, Parliamentarians elected in North America and Honorary Con-suls (Consuls and Vice Consuls). During this meeting the discussion centered on the most important issues regarding Italian communities abroad: in particular, the reform of the legislation concerning voting abroad, the reacquisition of Italian citizenship and the strengthening of the consular network in the United States. The Deputy Minister for Italians Abroad, Senator Franco Danieli, the Director General of the Italian Foreign Ministry for Migration Policies and Italians Abroad, Ambassador Adriano Benedetti, and the President of Italian Institute for the Foreign Trade (ICE), Ambassador Umberto Vattani, took part in the proceedings.

From the left: Ambassador Umberto Vattani, Am-bassador Giovanni Castellaneta, and The Deputy Min-

ister for Italians Abroad, Senator Franco Danieli

From the left: Melo Cicala, President of Comites for Washington, T.H.

Salvatore Ferrigno, and Ambassador Giovanni Castellaneta

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Visit of the Minister of Defense, T.H. Arturo Parisi, to the United

States October 28-31, 2007

The Italian Minister of De-fense, T.H. Arturo Parisi, vis-ited Washington D.C. from 28th to 30th October, 2007. Accompanied by the Ambassa-dor of Italy to Washington, Giovanni Castellaneta, on the afternoon of October 29th, the Minister had a meeting with U.S. National Security Adviser, Stephen Hadley. On the morning of October 30th, he laid a wreath at the grave of the Unknown Soldier, at Ar-lington National Cemetery. Subsequently, he went to the Pentagon for a meeting with the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Robert M. Gates.

In the picture from the left: Italian Minister of Defense, Arturo Parisi, with U.S. Secre-

tary of Defense, Robert M. Gates during the Arrival Ceremony at the Pentagon

From the left in the picture: Ambassador Giovanni Castellaneta with the Italian Min-ister of Defense, Arturo Parisi during the

Press Conference at the Embassy

Italian Minister of Defense, Arturo Parisi, Greeting Italian Military Personnel and

their Families during his Visit to the Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas

Italian Ministry of Technology Innovation, Luigi Nicolais Visits Washington

November 5, 2007

On November fifth, the Italian Minister for Tech-nology Innovation (MIT), T.H. Luigi Nicolais, visited Washington accompanied by his Diplomatic Coun-selor, Minister Gianluigi Benedetti. While in the nation’s capi-tal, Minister Nicolais at-tended several high level meetings at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), at the World Bank, as well as at the Office of Science and Technology and the Of-fice of Management and Budget of the White House.

H.E. Ambassador Giovanni Castellaneta

(left) with Minister Luigi Nicolais

Minister Luigi Nicolais (left) with the Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget at the White House, Clay Johnson

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The Special Envoy of the European Union to Burma, T.H. Piero Fassino,

Visits Washington

November 19, 2007

On 19th November, 2007, T.H. Piero Fassino, Special Envoy of the European Union to Burma, visited the American Capital to meet with US Administration offi-cials and discuss the Burmese crisis. During the morning, Mr. Fassino met with White House Acting National Security Advisor, Jim Jeffrey, and with Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Nichlas Burns. Following the meetings, T.H. Fassino held a Press Con-ference at the Embassy of Italy during which he briefed international press on the latest developments of the situation in Burma and stressed the common viewpoint held by the EU and the US on the crisis, as well as their common endeavor of providing full support to the ef-forts made by the UN Envoy Ibrahim Gambari in further-ing a constructive dialogue between the Burmese gov-ernment and the opposition.

T.H. Piero Fassino during

the Press Conference at the Embassy of Italy

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Tha Annapolis Middle East Conference

November 26, 2007

Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema participated in the Anna-polis Middle East Conference. The international framework makes this important event differ-ent. The broad-based participation of international actors—which is in itself a positive factor—could lead to the greater involvement of the international community in moni-toring and concretely implement-ing the understandings reached in Annapolis regarding the creation of a Palestinian State, which was an aspect that was missing on the occasion of the previous Camp David and Oslo meetings. Italy is convinced that this time the two parties must be accompanied in negotiations, and that Europe can play an important role by ac-tively contributing to achieving concrete results in the areas of institution-building and govern-ance. And within this context Italy is ready, as on other occasions in the past, to make its active contri-bution.

The President of the Republic of Italy, T.H. Giorgio Napolitano, performed a visit to Wash-ington from December 10th until December the 12th, 2007 following an invitation by President Bush. President Napolitano, accompanied by the Deputy Prime Minister, T.H. Massimo D’Alema, met President Bush at the White House on December 11th. On December 12th, he was received on Capitol Hill by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Italian-American Nancy Pelosi, who, on this occasion was assisted by a large delegation of Congress-men from both parties. The Italian Head of State also took part in a debate with representatives of various Washing-ton “think-tanks”’ organized at the Embassy, where he also inaugurated the exhibition of historical china by Richard-Ginori from the Tus-can Museum of the Manifattura di Doccia titled: “Richard-Ginori 1737-1937: Ceramics from the Manifattura di Doccia Museum”. Ambassador Giovanni Castellaneta hosted a dinner in honor of President Napolitano at “Villa Firenze”, his residence. More than eighty American guests from the world of politics, eco-nomics, media, and culture attended the eve-ning. At the conclusion of his visit to Washington, the Head of State paid a visit to the Arlington Na-tional Cemetery, where he deposited a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The cere-mony was characterized by a solemn atmos-phere and was accompanied by a 21 gun salute and an honor cordon of three hundred and sev-enty servicemen in high uniform.

The President of the Republic of Italy,

T.H. Giorgio Napolitano, Visits Washington December 10-12, 2007

President Napolitano and

President Bush during their meeting in the Oval Office

President Napolitano with the Speaker

of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, and

Congressman Vito J. Fossella

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President Napolitano during the Ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, where he deposited a

wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

President Napolitano with H.E. Am-bassador Giovanni Castellaneta and the Depty Chief of Mission, Minister Sebastiano Cardi, during his visit to

the Embassy

Mrs. Napolitano during her

meeting with Mrs. Bush at the White House

President Napolitano with Italian Astronaut Paolo Nespoli during the Inauguration of

the exhibition of historical china by Richard-Ginori from the Tuscan Museum of the Manifattura di Doccia titled: “Richard-

Ginori 1737-1937: Ceramics from the Mani-fattura di Doccia Museum”.

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The President of the Republic of Italy,

T.H. Giorgio Napolitano, Visits New York December 12-13, 2007

The Exhibition of the “Ascoli Piceno Annunciation” by Guido Reni

Inaugurated by President Giorgio Napolitano

President Giorgio Napoli-tano, during his speech at

the Italian Accademy

President Giorgio Napolitano with Ambassador Richard Gardner at the

Council on Foreign Relations

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After his visit to Washington President Giorgio Napolitano traveled to New York where, on the afternoon of December 12th he gave a speech at the Italian Academy at Columbia University. He was accompanied by Mrs. Napolitano and by the Italian Ambassador to the United States, Giovanni Castellaneta, as well as by the Minister for Family Policy, Rosy Bindi, and the Consul General of Italy in New York, Francesco Talò. President Napoli-tano was welcomed to the Academy by Professor David Freedberg, Director of the Italian Academy. On the morning of December 13th, President Napolitano was the guest of honor at the Council on Foreign Rela-tions for a breakfast and debate on “The United States, Italy, and Europe” moderated by Ambassador Richard Gardner. In New York, the President of the Republic also inaugurated the exhibition of “The Annunciation” by Guido Reni at the Italian Cultural Institute, and visited the Headquarters of the “New York Times”, where he met with members of the editorial board. He left to return to Italy on the evening of December 13th.

On October 1st, 2007, the International Balzan Foundation held a conference at the Embassy of Italy in Washington. The event was organized in cooperation with the Embassy of Italy and the Embassy of Switzerland. The 2007 Balzan Conference’s title was “Light from a Very Distant Past: an Outline of the BOOMERanG Experiment and Future Projects in the Study of the Cosmic Background Radiation”. The speakers, Prof. Paolo De Bernardis from the University “La Sapienza” in Rome, and Prof. Andrew Lange from the “Ca l i forn i a I n s t i tu te o f Technology” are the winners of the 2007 Balzan Prize. A round table fol lowed the Conference and the discussion was joined by Prof. Russell J.Hemley, Director of The Geophysical Laboratory of The Carnegie Institution of Washington and winner of the 2005 Balzan Prize, and by Prof. Per Olof Lindblad, Professor Emeritus of Astronomy from the University of Stockholm and member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The evening concluded with a reception.

The 2007 Balzan Conference

October 1, 2007

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Professor Andrew Lange from the “California Institute of Technology”,

winner of the 2007 Balzan Prize

Business, Finance, and Science Highlights

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The National Endowment for Humanities (NEH) and the National Research Council (CNR) of Italy jointly organized the conference “Using New Technologies to Explore Cultural Eritage”, which was held on October 5th in Washington, DC: This conference was the first result of the Memorandum of Understanding signed by NEH and CNR in July of 2007. The conference was opened by an evening reception on October 4th hosted by the Embassy of Italy on the theme: “The Open Book: the future of the written text in the Digital Age”. The Embassy Spokesman, First Counselor Luca Ferrari opened the evening with welcoming remarks. Roberto De Mattei, Vice President of CNR, and NEH Chairman, Bruce Cole also spoke briefly. The keynote speaker for the evening was Steven Johnson, contributing editor to Wired magazine; distinguished writer in residence at the New York University Department of Journalism and best selling author on the intersection of technologies and personal experiences. Johnson’s remarks, focused on the significance of the written word and research in the era of Google and Wikipedia.

The Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Bruce Cole The Keynote Speaker, Steven Johnson

Embassy Reception held on the occasion of

the conference organized jointly by the National Endowment for Humanities (NEH) and the National Research Council (CNR) of

Italy in Washington, D.C.

October 4, 2007

Conference on "Global Health in the 21st Century: A Road Map for

International Collaboration”

October 11-12, 2007

A two-day conference titled "Global Health in the 21st Century: A Road Map for Inter-national Collaboration”, was held at the Em-bassy of Italy on October 11th and 12th, 2007. The conference was organized by the Em-bassy itself and The National Academies Partners HealthCare System amfAR (Foundation for AIDS Research), in coop-eration with the British Embassy and the Embassy of France, and in collaboration with The Carter Center, The NIAF Frank J. Guarini Public Policy Forum, Continua Health Alliance Consortium for Risk and Crisis Communications, Italian Cultural Institute, Washington, DC, and Pan Ameri-can Health Organization (PAHO). This two-day conference provided an impor-tant opportunity to hear from leading experts on policies, research and technologies for the improvement of health conditions on a global scale. The conference was attended, among others, by Prof. Anthony Fauci, Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH, Rear Admiral Susan J. Blumenthal, MD, MPA, Former Assistant Surgeon Gen-eral of the United States Senior Medical Ad-visor, amfAR (Foundation for AIDS Re-search), T.H. Chiara Moroni, a Deputy at the Italian Parliament, T.H. Paula Dobri-ansky, PhD, Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs, U.S.

T.H. Paula Dobriansky, PhD, Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs,

U.S. Department of State

Prof. Anthony Fauci, Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,

National Institues of Health

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Department of State, Corrado Clini, Director General at the Italian Ministry of the Environ-ment, John Podesta, President and CEO, Center for American Progress, Roberto Cingolani, PhD, Scientific Director of the Italian Institute of Tech-nology, Vincent Covello, PhD, Consortium for Risk and Crisis Communications, John Hardman, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer, The Carter Center, Donald R. Hopkins, MD, MPH, Vice President of Health Programs, The Carter Center, and Sir Richard Feachem, DSc, PhD. The first day’s session was devoted to a discus-sion of critical health challenges facing nations today, including infections and chronic diseases, the impact of climate change and prevention strategies. The Ambassador of Italy, Giovanni Castellaneta, welcomes the conference participants with open-ing remark, and important experts from the scien-tific world contributed with their comments to the conference. The second days focused on new models and strategies for addressing health challenges in de-veloping countries. After the discussions, the rep-resentatives of the various associations which co-organized the event briefly addressed the confer-ence with closing remarks.

Rear Admiral Susan J. Blumenthal, MD, MPA, Former Assistant Surgeon General of the United States Senior Medical Advisor, amfAR (Foundation for AIDS Research)

T.H. Chiara Moroni, a Deputy at the

Italian Parliament, with Professor Vittorio Daniore, Scientific Attache'

Mr. John Podesta, President and CEO, Center for American Progress

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As part of its public diplomacy out-reach, on October 16th the Embassy hosted the MIT Club of Washington DC, the MIT Alumni association chapter in the Capital city. Two hundred MIT Alumni were welcomed to the Embassy by the Deputy Chief of Mission, Minister Sebastiano Cardi. They then at-tended a Conference about Italy and Italy – MIT relations, followed by a social event. During the Conference, Counselor Stefano Beltrame of the Embassy Economic and Scientific Affairs Office gave a presentation on Italy’s economic structure and economic bilateral relations between Italy and the United States. Profes-sor Giorgio Einaudi, Embassy Sci-entific attaché, spoke on the MIT Italy Program, a program of bilateral scientific cooperation, and intro-duced the recently established Ital-ian Scientists and Scholar in North America Foundation (ISSNAF).

MIT Alumni visit the Embassy for a Conference and Reception

October 16, 2007

Minister Sebastiano Cardi

Welcomes the Guests

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On 18th October, 2007, during the annual conference of the U.S. National Association of invest-ment companies held this year in Washington DC at the Investment Company Institute, the Italian Em-bassy hosted the DST System Inc. party. The DST System Inc. is an investment company which pro-vides sophisticated information processing and computer soft-ware services and products that help clients improve pro-duct iv i ty and increase ef f i -ciency. Almost two hundred and fifty people took part in the reception.

The Embassy Hosts a DST Systems Inc. Event

October 18, 2007

Inauguration of the Italian Scientists and

Scholars in North America Foundation (ISSNF)

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A group of influential and authoritative Italian scientists and scholars operating in the United States founded the ISSNAF (Italian Scientists and Scholars in North America Foundation) which is a nonprofit foundation aimed at promoting a network among Italian scientists, scholars and professionals in North America and Italy. More specifically it is a foundation aimed at promoting Research and Development interaction among those Italians active in North-American and Italian Academic and non-Academic Institutions, in the fields of the Biological, Human, Medical, Mathematical, Physical and Social Sciences, Engineering and Information Technology. The or-ganization’s website is: www.issnaf.org. To realize this mission and vision, ISSNAF has set the following primary objectives: - providing networking opportunities to facilitate contacts between Italian Academic and non-Academic Institu-tions and those Italians who have demonstrated scientific and technological ability in North America; - facilitating the sharing of know-how and information between Italians involved in Research and Development and other constituencies in academia, government, industry, and the public at large both in Italy and in North America; - facilitating joint Research and Development projects between Italian and North American Scientists and Scholars; - fostering the creation of fellowship programs for the exchange of scientists and scholars; - acting as an interface between ISSNAF members and Italian organizations on Research and Development ac-tivities and issues of competitiveness; - identifying significant research opportunities yet untapped in Italian industry and academia, and helping to stimulate their growth; - creating an online journal to report to the Italian public and to policy makers outstanding scientific, techno-logical and academic achievements of fellow Italians, and to list Research and Development opportunities as well as position openings announced by ISSNAF members. Scientific and technological research and development (R&D) is evolving at an extremely fast pace and is the basis for the astonishing progress of human kind. Future progress is tightly linked to our ability to unravel new discoveries through R&D, which has become progressively more complex and requires multidisciplinary and multi-institutional collaboration with no boundaries. In fact, in the era of globalization, efficient interchange among scientists in different countries has become an essential ingredient for technological progress. In the past, both Italy and the United States have drawn enormous benefits from reciprocal collaboration. At the grass roots of this collaboration are the visits and exchanges of scholars. The ISSNAF initiative wants to assure the continuing success of this collaboration through a “Network of Italian Scientists” that will facilitate scientific exchanges in both directions of the Atlantic.

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An Italian Shares 2007 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine

On behalf of Italy and its Gov-ernment, The Italian Ambassa-dor to the United States, Gio-vanni Castellaneta, personally congratulated Professor Mario Capecchi for the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine, noting the fact that the an-nouncement of this award took place on the day the United States celebrates Columbus Day.

This new achievement on the part of a scientist of Italian origin, highlights once more the high quality of the Italian-American scientific commu-nity which, thanks also to the sup-port of this Embassy, has recently organized itself with the creation of ISSNAF (Italian Scientist and Schol-ars of North America Foundation). Among the founding members of ISSNAF there are three Nobel prize and two Balzan prize winners and two members of Academia dei Lincei. During the conversation with Capecchi, the Italian Ambassador outlined the goals and the aims of this new Foundation.

In both pictures: Professor Mario Capecchi, Winner of the 2007 Nobel

Prize for Physiology and Medicine

Italian Astronaut, Paolo Nespoli (second from the left), with Some of the Other

Members of the Shuttle Crew

Shuttle Discovery is launched with Italian Made Module “Harmony” and Italian Astronaut, Paolo

Nespoli, on Board

October 23, 2007

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The success of the Shuttle launch, on October 23rd, 2007, or what the European Spatial Agency-ESA calls “Esperia Mis-sion” (Esperia is the name which the Greek used to indicate It-aly), and the NASA calls “STS-120 Mission”, represents an important step for European scientific research and is a re-markable achievement for It-aly’s role in the collaboration with NASA. During the quarantine, immedi-ately before the launch from the Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX, Ambassador Castellaneta had a telephone conversation with Paolo Nespoli, who was very touched by the call. The Ambassador wanted to convey to our astro-naut his regards and the best wishes of the Italian Govern-ment for the complete success of the mission.

From the left: Professor Giorgio Einaudi, Scientific

Attaché at the Embassy, the Presi-

dent of ASI, Giovanni Bignami, and Massimiliano

Mazzanti, Counselor at the Commercial

Office of the Embassy (standing in front of the Italian

built Leonardo Module at NASA)

A Ceremony was held at Lockheed Martin on the

day of the Shuttle Mission Launch. In the picture: Minister Sebastiano Cardi, the

Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission with Steve Wil-liams, Director Europe/Eurasia at Lockheed Martin

Paolo Nespoli is the fifth Italian as-tronaut to go into space (after Malerba, Guidoni, Cheli, and Vittori) and the fourth to fly with the Shuttle (Vittori participated two times to the Soyuz missions). NASA assigned Nespoli to an important role in this space mission, which will last 14 days. This mission’s aim is to trans-port and to hook up the Harmony Module (Node 2) to the Interna-tional Space Station (ISS). The inter-connecting module was completely built at their Turin plant by Thales Alenia Spazio. The creation of Har-mony was part of the agreement between ESA and NASA for the launch of “Columbus”. Ambassador Giovanni Castellaneta, had a second telephone conversation with the Italian astronaut after his return from the development mis-sion of the Shuttle on the Interna-tional Space Station (ISS) to con-gratulate him on the success of the mission.

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Lombardia Region Signs an Agreement with the National Institutes of Health

December 5, 2007

On December 5th in Washington, DC, the “Regione Lombardia”, rep-resented by the Region UnderSecre-tary for research and innovation, Prof. Adriano De Maio, and the Na-tional Institutes of Health (NIH), represented by Deputy Director for Intramural Research, Dr. Michael Gottesman signed an agreement. At the ceremony, held at the NIH Headquarters, were present a se-lected number of Italian researchers who at the moment are working at the NIH. The agreement institutes a program to promote the biomedical research. It provides a time frame of 5 years of research, subdivided in 2 phases: Phase 1: 3 years of post doctoral instruction at NIH and Phase 2: at least 2 years in a research position at one of Lombardia’s Research Insti-tutes.

H.E. Ambassador Giovanni Castellaneta (left)

with Prof. Adriano De Maio

Prof. Adriano De Maio (left) with Dr. Michael Gottesman

at the Signature Ceremony

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