A joint ceremony was held today at the Embassy of Italy in London during which Professor Elio Riboli was made an Officer of the Order of the Star of Italy and Professor Paolo Vineis was made a Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy. The decorations, presented by the ambassador, Raffaele Trombetta, on behalf of the Italian president, recognise the two professors’ work to promote British-Italian relations in science, university teaching and research.
Professor Elio Riboli is an acclaimed expert in epidemiology, cancer prevention and chronic illnesses. He trained at the National Cancer Institute in Milan and the Harvard School of Public Health. He is Chair in Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention at Imperial College London, where he formerly was also director of the School of Public Health. He is a member of the British Academy of Medical Science and an honorary member of the College of Public Health of the Royal College of Physicians.
Professor Paolo Vineis currently holds a number of high-level roles in the fields of epidemiology, exposomics and research on the effects of climate change on non-transmissible diseases, both in Italy and abroad. He is the chair of environmental epidemiology and director of the BSc course on global and environmental health at Imperial College London, as well as being an associate professor at the J. Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. In Italy, he has been head of the Molecular Unit and genetic epidemiology at the University of Turin since 2010.
In his acceptance speech, Professor Riboli said that we must avoid practising “science without a conscience”. Professor Vineis, meanwhile, said that science knows no national borders. He also talked about the British and Italian healthcare models, pointing out, in particular, the legacy of Severino Delogu, an important reformer of Italy’s public-health system.
