Special Guests

Salvatore Maria Aglioti

Trained as behavioral neurologist, is now professor of Social Neuroscience and of Organizational Neuroscience at Sapienza University of Rome. He is the head of the laboratories of Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at Sapienza and at Fondazione Santa Lucia, IRCCS, Rome. His research interests revolve around a variety of social neuroscience topics ranging from empathy for pain and existential neuroscience to deception and dishonesty in social and organizational contexts as well as in underpinnings of social group coding driven by race as well as by political and religious affiliation.

Professor at the University of Padua, Coordinator of the PhD Program in Experimental and Clinical Psychobiology; Member of the Scientific Area Commission (CSA), Area 17 Psychology. Associate Editor of Biological Psychology and BMC Neuroscience. In 1997 he received the AIP Award – The Italian Psychology Association – for the Best Doctoral Thesis (Title: “Psychophysics of Emotions”) In 1998 Marie Curie Researcher (TMR) at the University of Constance.

Visiting professor of Pediatrics Postgraduate School at University of Padua. Medical Director of the Venetian reference Center for Pain Therapy and Pediatric Palliative Care. She has conducted and still conducts research about infants’ and children’s pain.

Onorevole Pier Luigi Bersani

Member of the Italian Republic, graduated in philosophy at the University of Bologna. As a young man he started his political career as the Vice President of the Comunità Montana Piacentina, then moving into the Presidency of the Emilia-Romagna Region, to being Minister of Industry, Commerce and Crafts in the Prodi Government I and D’Alema I, and to Minister of Transport and Navigation in the D’Alema II Government and in the Amato II Government, while changing from the Partito Comunista Italiano, to the Partito Democratico della Sinistra and then to the Democratici di Sinistra. In 2004, he was elected as Member of the European Parliament and became a member of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) and of the Commission for Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO), too. In 2007 joined the Partito Democratico in which he remains until 2017, when, due to the internal division of the PD, he joins Articolo 1 – Movimento Democratico e Progressista.

Guidalberto Bormolini

Priest and monk in the community of the Ricostruttori, graduated from the Pontificia Università Gregoriana, is currently a graduate student in Spiritual Theology at the S. Anselmo University in Rome. For the University of Padua he’s a teaching professor at the Master “Death Studies & the End of Life”. He deals with training on Spirituality and with interreligious dialogue connected with the end of life for many Hospices, Health Service Units and Hospital facilities.

Adone Brandalise

Professor of Theory of Literature at the University of Padova. His research activity is characterised by a strong interest for the interrelation among philosophical and psychoanalytical reflection  and the interpretation  of literary works. He currently is the director of the Master in Intercultural Studies at the University of Padova.

Professor at St. John’s University in Queens, NY and director of the Collaborative Health Integration Research Program (CHIRP), is permanent member of several studies on mechanisms of emotions, stress and health; she chaired a task force on discrimination and health for the APA Division 38.

Emeritus professor of Social Psychology at University of Padua, dealing with stereotypes, prejudice and intergroup relations. Member of many international scientific societies and has been named a Fellow of the American Psychological Society (APS).

Medical Director, Ambulatory Care and Population Health at New York-Presbyterian/Queens where he is on medical staff in the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Palliative Care and serves on the faculty of its Palliative Care Fellowship program. He is co-chair of New York City’s Adult Immunization Coalition, and Vice President of the Regional Emergency Medical Services Council of New York City. He is a board member of the China Aids Fund.

Psychiatrist and Emeritus Professor. He has been the world leading researcher in suicide research and prevention over several decades, designing suicide prevention activities, projects and programs around the world, including his contribution to the World Health Organization.

Professor at Linköping University in Sweden, expert of analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data, brain computer interfaces (BCI), image registration, image enhancement, implementation of medical image processing algorithms on graphics processing units (GPUs).

Full professor of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care  at University of Padua. Member of Scientific Committee Master Death Studies; President of Italian Association Narco-Odontostomatology (AINOS); President European Federation for the Advancement of Anesthesia in Dentistry (EFAAD).

Professor of Developmental and Educational Psychology at the DPSS, Padova University Member of the Science of Consciousness Research Group.

Professor in Psychometrics at Sapienza University of Rome. His research activity focuses on the social-cognitive processes involved in behavioural’s self-regulation; Vice-President of the Scientific Committee of the European Congress of Psychology and president of the Italian Association of Psychology.

Reader in Early Intervention and clinical psychologist at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (King’s College London). Expert in the application of machine learning methods to neuroimaging data to make individualised inferences in brain-based disorders.

Associated Teacher and Centre for Psychological Research director at the Department of Psychology University “Lucian Blaga” of Sibiu – Romania. Doctor in clinical psychology, in his mainly research areas are Work and Organization Psychology and Military and Forensic Psychology. He is autor of many articles, book and specialized magazine.

Full professor of Sociology of religion at the Galilean School of Advanced Studies of the University of Padua. Co-editor of the Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion (Leiden, Brill) and the International Journal of the Latin American Religions (Springer, New York).

Italian philosopher and academic, awarded the title Cavaliere di Gran Croce. Founders of the Departement of Philosophy and Theory of Science at the University Ca‘ Foscari Venice. He was and still is full professor of Theoretical Philosophy, Logic and Epistemology at the Ca’ Foscari University Venice and San Raffaele University Milan. He has the honour of Lincei Academy. For several years he has been working with the Corriere della Sera.

Professor of interpersonal relationships, psychology of violence, and psychology of social discomfort at University of Padua, and the Director of the Center of Research and Services for Migration and Intercultural Studies (CIRSIM). His field of research includes solidarity and indifference, social justice and human rights, interpersonal and collective conflicts, war and peace, and psychology of health.