Graduation Day: 35 new PhD graduates received their diplomas
This morning, for the first time, the traditional doctoral degree conferment ceremony of the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca took place in the Church of San Francesco.
A total of 22 male and 13 female students completed their PhD programmes at the IMT School over the past year and took part in the graduation ceremony. Originally from eleven countries around the world, they come from Italy, Germany, Poland, Spain, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Iran, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Mexico.
The ceremony opened with official addresses by Massimo Marsili, President of the Cassa di Risparmio Foundation; Patrizio Andreuccetti, Mayor of Borgo a Mozzano and Provincial Councillor, representing the Province of Lucca; Mario Pardini, Mayor of Lucca; and Eugenio Giani, President of the Toscana Region.
Rector Lorenzo Casini’s address was particularly moving; he addressed the new PhD graduates, urging them to face the future with curiosity, rigour and a sense of responsibility. In his speech, he emphasised the value of interdisciplinarity, critical thinking and the ability to learn from one’s mistakes, highlighting the role of research and the university in tackling the great challenges of our time, from artificial intelligence to ethical and social issues. The Rector also paid tribute to Carlo Ginzburg, a visiting professor at the School and a master of historical research, recalling his teaching: the ability to recognise the value of details and seemingly marginal clues in order to understand broader phenomena – a lesson that continues to inspire the interdisciplinary ethos of the IMT School.
Following Casini’s speech, a number of students took to the podium in turn to share their experiences of their PhD programmes in Lucca: Juan Francisco Blázquiz Pulido (PhD in Economics, Networks and Business Analytics), Mohadeseh Fallah Yakhdani (PhD in Computational Mechanics), Christina Iannelli (PhD in Museum Studies), Riccardo Loconte (PhD in Cognitive, Computational and Social Neurosciences), Giulio Pappa (PhD in Management of Digital Transformation) and Matteo Fabbri (National PhD in Cybersecurity). This was followed by a speech by Laura Gianfagna, president of the Students’ and Alumni Association.
The ceremony continued with a musical interlude performed by Vincenzo Costa and Jennifer Palmerini from the “Luigi Boccherini” Conservatoire of Music, together with Giorgio Gnecco and Adrien Zweifel from the IMT School, who performed pieces by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Ferdinando Carulli and Jean-Marie Leclair.
The event concluded with the awarding of diplomas, which the new graduates received whilst wearing the traditional academic gown and cap, before processing down the aisle of the Church of San Francesco to the strains of the anthem Gaudeamus Igitur.
In the afternoon, at 3 pm, the "AI & Ethics Panel" event took place in the Guinigi Chapel, organised as part of the annual meeting of the Students’ and Alumni Association (SAA). Following the opening remarks by Rector Lorenzo Casini, Payal Arora and Dennis Nguyen from Utrecht University took the floor. This was followed by a round-table discussion featuring Anna Pirri Valentini, Assistant Professor of Administrative Law at the IMT School, Alessandro Maserati, AI Director at Logol AG, and Fabio Michele Russo, a PhD student at the IMT School. The session was introduced and moderated by Laura Gianfagna, from the European Investment Bank, and Samrawit Ayele, CRO Specialist at Precis, both former students of the IMT School.