Università degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia

Unimore professor elected as new National Fellow of the Accademia dei Lincei

– The University of Modena and Reggio Emilia is honoured to count a new National Fellow of the Accademia dei Lincei among its full professors. Alberto Melloni, Full Professor of the History of Christianity at Unimore's Department of Education and Humanities, has been elected by the members of Europe’s oldest academy to the Class of Moral, Historical and Philological Sciences (Category IV: History and Historical, Human and Anthropic Geography).

Election as a National Fellow represents one of the highest accolades in Italian scientific and cultural life. The Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, founded in Rome in 1603, is the world’s oldest national scientific academy and included Galileo Galilei among its earliest members. Today, it operates as a non-economic public body of high culture, promoting research and the dissemination of scientific knowledge in its most authoritative forms.

This is a particularly significant achievement for Unimore. Following his election as a National Fellow of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Professor Alberto Melloni is currently the university’s only active professor among the Academy's National Fellows, and the first in many decades within the Class of Moral, Historical and Philological Sciences.

Other Lincei fellows associated with Unimore include Professor Maria Franca Brigatti, Professor of Mineralogy (retired since 2017), and Professor Michele De Luca, Director of the "Stefano Ferrari" Centre for Regenerative Medicine, both of whom serve as Corresponding Fellows.

The presence of scholars from such diverse fields—ranging from geosciences to historical and religious studies, through to regenerative medicine and life sciences—confirms the high quality of research conducted at the university and Unimore’s ability to foster researchers at the absolute forefront of the country's science and culture.

Professor Melloni’s appointment also builds upon a centuries-old connection between Modena, its university, and the Accademia dei Lincei. Among the most illustrious past fellows are Giovanni Battista Amici (1786–1863), who taught and directed the Modena Observatory, and Onorato Nicoletti (1872–1929), Professor of Calculus in Modena during the late 19th century.

"The election of Professor Alberto Melloni as a National Fellow of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei," commented the Rector, Professor Rita Cucchiara, "is a source of immense pride and profound satisfaction for the entire Unimore community. This is one of the most prestigious accolades in the Italian scientific landscape. It rewards an internationally renowned scholar whose work has deeply influenced historical, religious, and humanistic research, with a constant focus on the major transformations of the contemporary world and innovation in research."

"Over time," the Rector continued, "Professor Melloni has established a position of absolute scientific authority, alongside an international network of academic relations and top-tier research projects. This is further demonstrated by Unimore’s coordination of ITSERR – Italian Strengthening of the ESFRI RI RESILIENCE, the most important PNRR (National Recovery and Resilience Plan) project dedicated to research infrastructures for religious studies. This initiative places our university at the centre of a national and international network for the preservation of documentary heritage, the digitisation of sources, and the development of new research methodologies."

"For Unimore," the Rector concluded, "this result is even more significant because Professor Melloni is currently the university’s only active professor among the National Fellows of the Lincei. His election, alongside the recent contributions to the university's history by Professor Maria Franca Brigatti and Professor Michele De Luca, confirms our university's capacity to achieve recognised excellence at the highest levels across profoundly different disciplines. It brings prestige to the entire academic community and serves as an incentive to keep investing in free, high-quality research that is open to international dialogue."

The election comes just days before a particularly significant event for the university. On Wednesday 8 July at 10:00 am, at the Modena Tecnopolo, Professor Melloni will deliver the keynote lecture "AI and Society: the Magnifica Humanitas Encyclical Letter", dedicated to Pope Leo XIV’s new encyclical on the relationship between the human person and artificial intelligence.

The lecture will take place as part of the event "GenAI and Agents: University and Industry – UNIMORE meets OpenAI", organised by Unimore in collaboration with CRUI (Conference of Italian University Rectors). Unimore will have the honour of hosting US experts from OpenAI to discuss the impact of generative artificial intelligence tools, such as ChatGPT and AI agents, on university life, research, teaching, and business. Following the institutional welcome by the Vice-Chancellor Rita Cucchiara, the programme will feature sessions dedicated to the use of these tools in academic and corporate settings, with the participation of OpenAI staff, Unimore's AIRI Centre, and the Master’s Degree programme in Artificial Intelligence Engineering.

Alberto Melloni, born in Reggio Emilia in 1959, has been a Full Professor of the History of Christianity since 2001 at Unimore’s Department of Education and Humanities, where he has previously served as Director and currently holds the position of Director. He completed his education at the University of Bologna, Cornell University, and the University of Fribourg. He is the Secretary of the John XXIII Foundation for Religious Sciences, directs the European research infrastructure RESILIENCE, and coordinates the National PhD Programme in Religious Studies. He has also been appointed by the Vice-Chancellor to oversee honours courses and the college of excellence.

He holds the UNESCO Chair on Religious Pluralism and Peace and was a member of the European Commission's Group of Chief Scientific Advisors. His research activities focus on the history of Christianity, the history of councils, the papacy, ecumenism, religious institutions, and inter-church relations. He has directed and edited international scientific projects, critical editions of conciliar sources, and collaborative works dedicated to contemporary religious history. He is a contributor to Corriere della Sera and RAI.

Categorie: International - english, Notizie_eng