Sofia Baggini
University of Pavia

A graduate in Law, with over 25 years of experience in Research Management, she is Head of the “Area Ricerca e Terza Missione” at the University of Pavia, where she coordinates the strategic and administrative activities related to research and technology transfer. In this role, she has developed extensive expertise in managing the full lifecycle of research projects, from planning to reporting, as well as in enhancing research outcomes through IPR protection, spin-offs, contracts, and collaborations with businesses and institutions. She oversees the entire process concerning PhD programs, research contracts, grants, and fellowships, as well as the mechanisms for assessing research quality and third mission activities.

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Claudio Bandi
University of Milan

Prof- Bandi is a Full Professor of Microbiology at the University of Milan. He has conducted his research in collaboration with scientists from various countries, including Australia, Japan, and the United States, with a focus on infectious diseases, parasites, and their evolution. He is a member of the Technical-Scientific Committee of the National Anti-Pandemic Center and has collaborated with the WHO to develop novel approaches to treating filariasis. He was among the first in Italy to use WGS to reconstruct outbreaks of multi-drug-resistant bacteria. With his hard-boiled novel La Città e l’Abisso, published by Mondadori, he won the Alberto Tedeschi Prize in 2025.

Lara Bellardita
Centri Psicologia Clinica

Dr. Bellardita is a licensed psychologist and psychotherapist with a PhD in Clinical Psychology and an MS in Industrial and Organizational Psychology. She has extensive experience in clinical practice, research, and consulting, focusing on strategies that enhance mental health, psychological well-being, and quality of life. She collaborates with research institutions and healthcare organizations, combining clinical expertise with assessment, training, and education at both individual and organizational levels. Author of numerous national and international publications, she promotes well-being within a salutogenic framework, integrating scientific rigor with a strong focus on the human dimension.

Raffaele Bruno
University of Pavia

Prof. Bruno is a Full Professor of Infectious Diseases at the University of Pavia and has been the Director of the Infectious Diseases Unit at IRCCS San Matteo Foundation in Pavia since 2019. Since September 2022, he has also served as Director of the Medical Department at the same institution. He graduated in Medicine and Surgery in 1991 and specialised in Tropical Medicine in 1995. He has an impressive scientific record with over 360 publications in international journals and an H-index of 66. In 2021, he was honoured with the title of Commendatore della Repubblica by the President of the Republic, and in 2023, he received the benemerito della salute pubblica award from the Ministry of Health.

Maria Rosaria Capobianchi
Unicamillus, formerly INMI “L. Spallanzani”

Former Director of the Virology Laboratory and of the Department of Epidemiology, Preclinical Research and Advanced Diagnostics at the National Institute for Infectious Diseases “L. Spallanzani”, Rome, Prof. Capobianchi is now teacher of Molecular Biology at Saint Camillus International University of Health Sciences, Rome. She has more than 40 year experience in the study of viruses, focussing, in particular on: emerging viruses, persistent viral infections, viral pathogenesis and antiviral defence mechanisms. The team led by MR Capobianchi was among the first groups in the world able to successfully isolate and characterize SARS-CoV-2.

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Annalaura Carducci
University of Pisa

Prof. Carducci graduated in Biology and is specialized in Hygiene and Public Health. She is a former Full Professor of General and Applied Hygiene, with ongoing teaching and scientific activity assignments. Formerly head of the Laboratory of Hygiene and Environmental Virology and of the Health Communication Observatory of the Department of Biology, director of the Master in Industrial Hygiene, Prevention and Safety at the University of Pisa. Her research activities are about environmental hygiene, epidemiology and prophylaxis of infectious diseases, wastewater based surveillance, microbiological risk analysis for food, life and working settings, health and risk communication. 

Andrea Carini
University of Pavia

Dr. Carini has solid experience in managing research and university training. He currently serves as Head of the Research and Training Service at the University of Pavia, where he is responsible for the design, management, reporting, and auditing of research projects, working in collaboration with national and international institutions. Andrea has an academic background in Economics and International Relations as well as in International Economic Integration, obtained at the University of Pavia, where he also completed several specializations and certifications, including a short Master’s in EU Project Design.

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Danilo Cereda
Welfare General Directorate General for Health, Lombardy Region.

Dr. Cereda is a medical doctor specialized in Hygiene and Preventive Medicine, with a PhD in Public Health. He has worked in the Italian National Health Service since 2010 and currently leads the Prevention Unit of the Lombardy Region, a position he has held since 2022. He coordinates regional programs in cancer screening, vaccination, epidemiological surveillance, infectious disease emergency preparedness, occupational health and safety, food safety, and environmental health. He believes in long-term vision balanced with pragmatic daily management, in the power of data, institutional collaboration, and concrete transformation of services.

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Mario Clerici
University of Milan

Prof. Clerici graduated in Medicine and Surgery at the University of Milano and trained for more than 7 years at the NIH in Bethesda, USA. He is a full professor of Immunology at the University of Milano and the scientific coordinator of the SM Nascente (Don C. Gnocchi) IRCCS. He directed three University Departments and currently heads the PhD School in Translational Medicine. He authored more than 750 papers, has been awarded National and International prizes, is a knight of the Italian Republic, an honorary citizen of New Orleans, and is one of the most cited Italian scientists worldwide.

Edoardo Colzani
European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control

Dr. Colzani is a medical epidemiologist with a Master of Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health and a Ph.D. in cancer epidemiology from the Karolinska Institute. After working as assistant professor in hygiene and preventive medicine at the University of Milano-Bicocca, he joined the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control in 2011 where he covered different roles and subjects. Since 2022, he leads the respiratory virus section at ECDC and, since June 2025, he has been appointed deputy head of the directly-transmissible and vaccine-preventable diseases (DVD) unit.

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Marco De Ambrogi
The Lancet Infectious Diseases

Dr. De Ambrogi studied veterinary medicine at the University of Parma and then completed a PhD in animal endocrinology at the University of Bologna. After several research roles at the Royal Veterinary College in London, UK, he moved into publishing. After working as Assistant Editor at BioMed Central and Associate Editor at Future Medicine, he became Senior Editor at The Lancet Infectious Diseases. In 2020 he was appointed Deputy Editor of the journal and is currently serving as Acting Editor-in-Chief. His main interests include tropical medicine, parasitology, human rights, and zoonoses, and he particularly values the daily contact with researchers from around the world.

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Federico Gobbi
University of Brescia, IRCCS Ospedale Sacro Cuore Don Calabria

Prof. Federico Gobbi is a medical doctor with a specialization in Infectious Diseases and a PhD from the University of Brescia. He is the Scientific Director and Head of the Department of Infectious/Tropical Diseases and Microbiology at IRCCS Sacro Cuore Hospital, Negrar (Verona), and Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases at the University of Brescia. He is the director of the Negrar Geosentinel site (The Global Surveillance Network of The International Society of Travel Medicine in partnership with the CDC) and a member of the Steering Committee of TropNet Europe (European Network for Tropical Medicine and Travel Health).

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Valentina Discepolo
(University of Naples Federico II)

Prof. Discepolo is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Department of Translational Medical Sciences, University of Naples Federico II, where she also serves as Principal Investigator at the European Laboratory for the Investigation of Food Induced Diseases (ELFID) and Medical Executive in the Department of Maternal and Child Health, Section of Pediatrics. Her research focuses on understanding how environmental triggers, including viral infections and dietary factors, influence the development of autoimmune diseases, particularly celiac disease. Interested in implementing whole-person care and personalized medicine, she is also passionate about scientific dissemination, education and public health-oriented projects.

Andrea Gori
University of Milan

Andrea Gori, MD, is Full Professor of Infectious Diseases at the University of Milan and Director of the Infectious Diseases Unit (2nd Division) at ASST Fatebenefratelli Ospedale L. Sacco. His research focuses on T-cell immunology, immune reconstitution, HIV immunopathogenesis, and antimicrobial resistance. He has led national and international projects, founded the Lombardy Drug Resistance Surveillance Network, and co-founded the Centre for Multidisciplinary Research in Health Science (MACH). Author of over 300 peer-reviewed articles, he is also engaged in antimicrobial stewardship and in advancing patient care in infectious diseases.

Valentina Marziano
Bruno Kessler Foundation

Dr. Marziano is a senior researcher at the Center for Health Emergencies of the Bruno Kessler Foundation. She develops mathematical models and applies quantitative epidemiology methods to real-world data to support public health decision-making. Her work has improved understanding and guided interventions for diseases such as varicella, measles, H1N1 pandemic flu, COVID-19, mpox, and Sudan Virus disease. She collaborates closely with national and international public health institutes, including the Istituto Superiore di Sanità. Since 2024, she has been a member of a WHO expert group developing mathematical modeling tools for rapid response to emerging epidemic and pandemic threats.

Giansanto Mosconi
University of Pavia

Dr. Mosconi earned his degree in Medicine and specialized in Hygiene and Preventive Medicine at the University of Pavia. In 2022, he was awarded the Maccacaro Prize by the Italian Association of Epidemiology. He is currently a Research Fellow at the Department of Public Health, Experimental and Forensic Medicine of the University of Pavia, where he teaches in the Public Health course within the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery. His research focuses on lifestyle epidemiology, with particular attention to addictive behaviors such as gambling (an area in which he has collaborated with the National Research Council and the Italian National Institute of Health), as well as on preventive medicine.

Anna Odone
University of Pavia, Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo.

Prof. Odone is the coordinator of the national PhD programme “One Health approaches to infectious disease and life science research”, a Full Professor and Director of the School of Public Health at the University of Pavia. She is the president of section III of the Italian Supreme Health Council (CSS). Medical doctor by training, Prof. Odone received an M.Sc. in Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and an M.P.H. in Health Policy and Management as a Fulbright Scholar from the Harvard School of Public Health. Passionate about the value of public health, she is mentor to public health researchers, residents and PhD students; her research is in the field of infectious diseases control, with a focus on vaccines and immunisation programmes and policies.

Elena Pariani
University of Milan

Prof. Pariani works at the Department of Biomedical Sciences for Health, University of Milan, where she manages and coordinates the research activities of the reference laboratory for the Lombardy region for the virological surveillance of influenza and viral respiratory infections. She obtained her degree in Biological Sciences in 2002 and a PhD in Public Health in 2006. She further enhanced her scientific training through work experience at the Respiratory Virus Unit of the WHO National Influenza Centre – Public Health England in London. Professor Pariani’s research activity focuses on the epidemiological, molecular, and preventive aspects of viral infectious diseases.

Antonio Piralla
University of Pavia, Fondazione IRCCS Fondazione Policlinico San Matteo

Antonio Piralla has specialized in Microbiology and Virology since 2009 and has been focusing on respiratory virus studies. He joined the staff of Microbiology and Virology Department at Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo, Pavia (Italy) in 2015. He is the coordinator of the Respiratory Virus Infection Working Group (GLIViRe) of the Italian Association for Clinical Microbiology (AMCLI). His main research interest focuses on the epidemiology of respiratory viruses with special focus on molecular aspects of viral evolution. He was honoured by the Heine Medin medal from European Society of Clinical Virology in 2015. 

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Giovanni Rezza
Vita-Salute San Raffaele University

Prof. Rezza graduated in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Rome La Sapienza, specializing in Hygiene and Preventive Medicine and in Infectious Diseases. He has served as Director of the Department of Infectious, Parasitic and Immunomediated Diseases at the Italian National Institute of Health (ISS) and as Director General for Health Prevention at the Italian Ministry of Health. He is an expert in HIV and emerging infectious diseases such as Chikungunya, West Nile virus, influenza, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and Q fever. He has conducted epidemiological investigations both in Italy and abroad, working on behalf of the WHO and the EU.

Carlo Signorelli
Vita-Salute San Raffaele University

Prof. Signorelli is currently Full Professor of Hygiene and Public Health at the University Vita-Salute San Raffaele of Milan and Director of the Post-Graduate School in Hygiene and Preventive Medicine. He graduatedqualified in Medicine at the University of Milan in 1986, and holds an MSc in Epidemiology and a PhD from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. His research work focuses on public health, epidemiology, environmental health, health organisation and immunization policies. He has been an active Member of the Italian National Immunization Technical Advisory Groups (NITAG) since its institution by the Ministry of Health in 2017.

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