Montreal to award prize to Italian 'brain drain'

Montreal - Montreal's Casa Italia will host, on May 27, the first award for the "Brain Drain" of Italian knowledge around the world. It was designed and promoted by the Vittoriale degli Italiani and the Italian Cultural Institute in Montreal. Current events have often told stories about the well-known "brain drain". They are not like the migrants of the past travelling with their cardboard suitcases, but are young graduates, often finishing a brilliant - 'cum laude - university career, PhD doctors and alumni of master courses who are successful in the four corners of the world, except in Italy. No matter the reason, but often it is the most brilliant graduates that leave.

The meeting will bring together old and new generations of Italian migrants and will award a prize to Andrea Paolella - a young Italian who is building a brilliant career in Canada. The organisers of the event explained he will be rewarded because, just like the artists, scientists and artesans of the Renaissance, he is taking around the world Italian knowledge, returning to his country much more tha he received. The prize seeks to establish a virtuous link between Italy and its young representatives across the world.

Paolella, with a degree in chemistry in 2008 from the University of Bologna, moved to Genoa in 2010 where he met and married Bernadett. In 2014 the couple, and their baby daughter, Rebecca, moved to Montreal for a post-doctorate course at McGill University. In 2016 he became a chemistry researcher at the Energy Stocking and Conversion Department at HydroQuebec, directed by Karin Zaghib. There he works on the synthesis of ceramics for the new generation of lithium ion batteries. He is fond of photography and was a pupil of the renowned photographer Vasco Ascolini, and produced three photography books, called "Senza Oriente Nessun Occidente", "Questi Qui" and "I luoghi di Pasolini". Paolella will receive a sculpture made for the event by Ugo Riva, granted by the Vittoriale degli Italiani, to pay homage to Gabriele D'Annunzio's motto "Arma la prora e salpa verso il mondo" [Set sail and go forward around the world].