OPTIMA Newsletter 38

O P T I M A N E W S L E T T E R O P T I M A N E W S L E T T E R O P T I M A N E W S L E T T E R
M E E T I N G S
REPORT ON THE XII OPTIMA MEETING PISA, ITALY - 10-15 SEPTEMBER 2007
The XII OPTIMA Meeting started on Monday,
10 September, noon, at the “Polo Didattico
Universitario Porta Nuova”.
After the welcome address by Fabio Garbari,
President of the Organising Committee, the
Deputy Rector for International Relations of the
University of Pisa, Enrico Giaccherini, conveyed
the greetings of the Rector, Marco Pasquali. Then
the Vice-Minister for the Universities and Scientific
Research, Luciano Modica, outlined the difficulties
faced by Italy’s education and research systems
and underlined the Government’s commitment to
support this sector of public administration.
Werner Greuter, President of OPTIMA, thanked
all participants, in particular the organisers and
the speakers. Gianni Bedini, Meeting Secretary,
has surveyed the general programme and noted
relevant logistic points.
The OPTIMA Gold Medal, awarded every
six years to a botanist who, by his or her activity,
is considered to have made an outstanding contribution
to the phytotaxonomy of the Mediterranean
area. In Pisa, this prestigious medal was
presented to Vernon H. Heywood. The recipient is
a scientist with a very prominent academic career
and international radiance. One of OPTIMA’s
founding members, and indeed a driving force in
the group of four who conceived OPTIMA and
ensured that it became real, he started as a young
man to work in the Mediterranean area, notably
southern Spain. His later work on a variety of
principally Mediterranean groups (to name but
Petrorhagia in Caryophyllaceae and Daucus in
Umbelliferae) was mostly part of his commitment
with the Flora Europaea Project, to which he
served as Secretary from the onset. Among his
numerous scientific activities, his efforts toward
the study and conservation of Plant Biodiversity
take a prominent place, focusing especially on the
conservation and sustainable use of medicinal
by Fabio Garbari and Gianni Bedini
and aromatic plants, as well as wild relatives of
cultivated plant species. With his presence and
active contributions he has enlivened almost all
OPTIMA Meetings to date and will hopfully continue
to do so in the future.
To conclude the Opening Ceremony, Lucia
Tongiorgi Tomasi, Deputy Rector and expert of
the history of arts, delivered a lecture on “Botanical
Sciences and Visual Arts: the flowering of a
partnership in early modern Tuscany”.
Previously, on Sunday 9 September, OP-
TIMA’s Scientific Commissions had held their
meetings at the Pisa Botanic Garden. So did the
International Board and the Executive Council on
Monday morning, while participants registered
and set up their posters.
On Monday afternoon the first plenary
Symposium, organised by Sandro Pignatti,
was devoted to “Phytotaxonomic studies in
Italy”. Tuesday morning, Symposium 2 on
“Vegetation and plant landscapes in Italy”,
organised by Carlo Blasi, and Symposium 3
on “Plants and Man. Symbiosis and antagonism
through the times”, organised by Avinoam
Danin, were held in parallel.
The plenary session of Tuesday afternoon
was devoted to Symposium 4 on “Karyology
and palynology of Mediterranean plants:
case studies”, jointly organised by Sonia Šiljak-
Yakovlev and Georgia Kamari. Wednesday
morning again saw two concurrent events,
Symposium 5 on “Herbaria: maintenance,
management and digitisation of holdings”, organised
by Ernst Vitek, and Symposium 6 on
“Invasion and extinction in man-made and
natural habitats”, organised by Montserrat Vilà.
Wednesday afternoon was devoted to the
presentation and discussion of posters, a session
May 2009 OPTIMA Newsletter No. 38 25