Giuliano Preparata (Rome 1942 - Frascati 2000) was a brilliant theoretical physicist who graduated in Rome. He worked in several highest-rank universities including Princeton, Harvard, New York University and others. He has devoted much of his scientific activities to high-energy physics bringing relevant contributions to the construction of the Standard Model, the new synthesis of sub-nuclear interactions.
Giuliano Preparata had also a strong interest in topics related to Biology, and gave important and enlightening contributions to the field of Bioinformatics. The Italian Society of Bioinformatics starts each year its Annual Conference with the Preparata Lecture, delivered by a distinguished keynote speaker. Over the years, the Society, thanks to the contribution of the Preparata Foundation, also delivered Travel Grants to young researchers for the participation to BITS Annual Conferences.
The first annual Preparata Lecture was in 2004, and every year the BITS select a Preparata Lecture choosing a keynote among the invited speakers of the BITS annual meeting.
In the following the Preparata Lecture organized during the BITS Annual Meeting:
Franco Preparata - Brown University, USA - BITS2004 - Padova
David Lipman, NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information), Bethesda, USA - BITS2005, Milano
Alfonso Valencia, Spanish National Cancer Research Center, Madrid, Spain - BITS2006, Bologna
Roderic Guigo, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcellona - BITS2007, Napoli
Eske Willerslev, Centre for Ancient Genetics, Biological Institute e Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen - ECCB08/BITS2008 Cagliari
Alex Bateman, Sanger Center, Hinxton, UK - BITS2009 - Genova
Cecilia Saccone - Univerisita' di Bari, BITS2010 - Bari
Arthur Lesk - Penn State University, PA, USA, BITS2011 - Pisa
Eugene Myers - BITS2012, Catania
Mauno Vihinen, Lund University Cancer Centre, BITS2013 Udine
Ewan Birney, Joint Associate Director and Senior Scientist at EBI, BITS2014 Roma
Charles Cantor - Boston University, Boston USA - BITS2015 Milano
Janusz Bujnicki - IIMCB in Warsaw - BITS2016 Salerno
Andrew C.R. Martin - University of Oxford - BITS2017 Cagliari
Stefano Gustincich - SISSA and IIT - BITS2018 Torino
Pedro Beltrao - EMBL-EBI, Cambridge UK - BITS2021 Virtual conference
Giorgio Valle - University of Padua - BITS2022 Verona
Silvio Tosatto - University of Padova - BITS2023 Bari
Nicola Segata - University of Trento and European Institute of Oncology, Milan - BITS2024 Trento