Brains of Italy

The book is conceived as a journey through the Italy of research, through successive meetings with each of the researchers. The author of the book acts as the connecting link, bringing together the different stories, asking questions and reflections, jotting down ideas and impressions of places and people. The author also serves as a spectator and protagonist, being himself in search of something during this journey. Various cities are touched upon during the year-long journey, including Rome, Trieste, Milan, Lodi, Naples, Turin, Cosenza, Bologna, Bari and Padua, which are the background of the encounters. The stories of these researchers are extrapolated by following a dialogic form and emphasizing, from time to time, different aspects so as to form a complete picture especially on what drives a person to take the path of research and what are the underlying motivations and possible successes of applications and studies. These stories tell about "normal" people, and all the people involved in the book have a common generational trait, being mostly born in the mid-1970s, so a generation of 30-35 year olds will be discussed. The ten stories cover different fields, not only at the level of the scientific or medical field, and highlight different paths of growth, so not only "pure" researchers (academic and university field) will be talked about, but also those who work in industry as employees or those who have founded a business.