Commemorative speech on Prof. Spampinato academic farewell ceremony - 22nd November 2023

Esteemed Rector, Most Illustrious Senators and Departments Heads, Dear Colleagues,

I am here today on behalf of the research group that Professor Spampinato directed, and whose members are all gathered here today.

We would like to give our heartfelt and emotional farewell to our Mentor, to rally around his family in this moment of pain and mourning, to remember the countless teachings we received during all these years spent working together.

If we think about Prof. Spampinato, for sure it comes to all our minds:

-          his strong and contagious passion for research, that had never faded all over the years;

-          his relentless dedication to teaching;

-          his constant care for students and for mentoring his youngers collaborators, up to the latest undergraduate joining the lab.

Professor Spampinato has always carried out scientific and academic duties with scientific rigor, intellectual honesty, the deepest respect for academic role and institutions.

In this painful hour, so many memories and scenes have emerged to our minds while looking back at all these numerous years spent together (for someone of us more than 20, for others more than 40).

We particularly would like to remember:

-          some of his typical mottos, like “less talk more work” or “studere, studere, studere”;

-          all the several Friday afternoons in the lab, when he used to come dressed less formally (without the usual jacket and tie) and we had plenty of chances to sit down together and talk about research and science in a broader perspective, and we could listen to and learn about his personal memories and experiences as well as about pharmacology and its history and development;

-          our last meeting, remotely on Teams, held on last September: we were in Budapest to take part to a scientific meeting and he was as usual keen to be close to us, to be updated about the meeting, to plan all the research activities we should have started immediately after getting back to the lab.

Everything he transferred to us stands now as a precious legacy for us to keep and pass on throughout our daily efforts within research, teaching and academic duties.

Thank you for everything, our Dearest Professor, you will be greatly missed.