L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2022 www.italoamericano.org 28 L'Italo-Americano SAN FRANCISCO ITALIAN COMMUNITY T h e L e o n a r d o da Vincy Soci- ety celebrated the 4th edition of its A w a r d s o n December 2nd in San Fran- cisco. Twelve awards and two Emeritus Awards later, the organization is stronger than ever, thanks to the work of its Board members who showed a l o t o f r e s i l i e n c e a n d strength, especially during the pandemic. The founding of the Leonardo Awards, on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the artist's death, took place under Con- sul General Lorenzo Ortona and Scientific Attaché Massi- mo Maresca, however the l e g a c y l i v e s o n t h a n k s t o C o n s u l G e n e r a l , S e r g i o Strozzi, who has shown big support and involvement s i n c e i t s a p p o i n t m e n t i n 2021. This year's edition was held at The Commonwealth C l u b o f C a l i f o r n i a , i n i t s venue on Embarcadero street in San Francisco. In the gor- geous Taube Family Audito- r i u m , M a r t i n K e m p , t h e world-renowned Leonardo scholar and Emeritus Profes- sor of Oxford University, pre- sented a webinar lecture of his latest research on the sci- e n c e o f o p t i c s a n d t h e absence of perspective in Leonardo's artistic creations. D e b o r a h L o f t , P r o f e s s o r Emerita of Art History, gave an overview of Leonardo's masterpieces - especially of the Mona Lisa and the vari- ous interpretations of her myth in centuries following her creation. We talked to Carla Priola Anisman, President of The Leonardo da Vinci Society, who opened the Awards cere- mony. Carla, how did the col- l a b o r a t i o n w i t h C o m - monwealth club come to life? Humanities West has been a collaborator of The Leonar- do da Vinci Society for a long time, with previous Director Patricia Lundberg. In 2019, on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of Leonardo's d e a t h , H u m a n i t i e s W e s t joined our organization and the Italian Cultural Institute in a presentation of seven- teen cultural programs that took place all over the Bay Area at the Commonwealth Club, at Stanford University, Berkeley University, and at the Museo Italo Americano. Humanities West has now a new Director, George Ham- mond, who moved all his activities at the Common- wealth Club. What's your favorite p a r t o f t h i s a n n u a l event? I love seeing the winners smiling or crying of joy and it's an honor to see the pride of parents or partners or rel- a t i v e s . I t i s s u c h a w a r m experience to know that we can reward someone that has been working so hard for a long time. It's the moment of recognition of their achieve- ments that really moves me. I t h a s b e e n a g r e a t year for the Leonardo da Vinci Society. We had a memorable year. The pandemic slowed down and we were able to meet in person again. We used Zoom with our international writ- ers, like Dacia Maraini, who spoke about Film Director Pier Paolo Pasolini. We invit- ed Director Mark Pedri at SFIAC to present his film, Dear Sirs, on Italian Immi- gration. We presented the story of Edoardo Mortara with Prof. Carey Perloff; The Life and Legend of Catterina Vizzani by Prof. Clorinda D o n a t o ; L a S t r a n i e r a b y Claudia Durastanti. We had an event on Giorgio Perlasca with a recognition, collected by his son, from both Italian C o n s u l G e n e r a l S e r g i o Strozzi and Israeli Consul General Marco Sermoneta, for saving over 5200+ Jewish people in Hungary in WWII. Looking at 2023, what should we expect? We have a great year com- ing up. The celebration of Alessandro Manzoni and the translation of the Promessi Sposi by Michael Moore; the H o n o r a r y A w a r d S p r i n g Gala, to be held at the SFIAC, t o M a r i o T a d d e i f o r h i s h u m a n i t a r i a n w o r k . T h e 100th Anniversary of the San F r a n c i s c o O p e r a a n d i t s founder Gaetano Merola. And of course, another round of the Leonardo's Awards. Sendy Caffarra, winner for Life Science, is a Visiting Scholar at Stanford Universi- ty, School of Medicine. "I investigate how our brain changes as a function of lan- guage experience. I use neu- roscientific methods to moni- tor functional and structural properties of our brain and see how they change over time while we learn how to read or while we learn to s p e a k a n e w l a n g u a g e " . Sendy won a Marie Curie Global Fellowship and start- ed working at Stanford in J a n u a r y 2 0 2 0 . S h e c a m e here to carry out a project on neuroplasticity of reading and tested how the brain of young kids changes while they are enrolled in a reading intervention program. After the Marie Curie fellowship, s h e e x t e n d e d h e r s t a y a t Stanford to continue working on this topic and to explore the link between structural and functional properties of the brain. "I love to constant- ly learn from and interact with brilliant colleagues and collaborators. I think that my major drive for doing this work is curiosity and the pos- sibility to wonder about how our brain can learn incredi- bly complex skills, such as reading." This award keeps that connection with Italy tight: "It made me realize that I should work even more i n c r e a t i n g c o n n e c t i o n s between the researchers from Italy and those from the Bay Area." The Winner for Humani- ties, Donatella D'Aguan- n o , s t u d i e d i n I t a l y a n d Spain and taught Italian in Spain, Spanish in England, a n d I t a l i a n a t t h e D a n t e Alighieri Society in Quito, Ecuador. Currently, she is a Ph.D. candidate in Italian at Stanford University under the supervision of Professor Robert Harrison and Profes- sor Sarah Prodan. Her disser- tation focuses on the figure of Saint Francis in the Divine Comedy and his legacy in the contemporary world. The passion around this work is key to Donatella's research: "What I love about working on Dante is the fact that I can read his work over and over again, and I always find new interesting, thought-provok- ing, and inspiring details." T h e c o n n e c t i o n w i t h h e r country is strong, yet diffi- cult: "I have a conflictual relationship with Italy. I am deeply attached to the tradi- tions, and my family, whom I miss every single day. I miss Sicily, my Mediterranean sea, and my delicious Italian and Sicilian food. However, Italy is still a country that did not recognize any of my profes- sional qualities." The award restored some faith in the c o u n t r y D o n a t e l l a l o v e s unconditionally: "This award means a lot to me, especially because I lost my amazing dad a few months ago after a battle with cancer. Without him, I felt so lost that I was almost giving up on my Ph.D. I have decided to keep work- ing on my dissertation to honor him because he always supported me. This award is dedicated to him." A n t o n e l l a P a l m e s e , who could not attend the cer- emony, won the Award for Engineering, Math,Physics. She is a NASA Einstein Fel- low at the University of Cali- fornia, Berkeley. She got her undergraduate degree and Masters from La Sapienza University of Rome, before her Ph.D at University Col- lege London and worked on t h e D a r k E n e r g y S u r v e y (DES). She was a Postdoc at the Fermi National Accelera- tor Laboratory and at the University of Chicago. She is also very enthusiastic about applying machine learning techniques to astronomy, and she is deeply involved in several large galaxy surveys, such as DES and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instru- ment (DESI). Antonella will soon join Carnegie Mellon University as an Assistant Professor. SERENA PERFETTO From left, the winners of this year's Leonardo Awards, the Leonardo da Vinci Society's board members and Consul General of Italy Sergio Strozzi (Photo: Nadia Andreini) Leonardo's genius endures at the Awards ceremony of its homonymous Society

• Cover