Stefano Del Prato, new President of the Fondazione Menarini

Florence, 5 August 2024 - The new President of the Fondazione Menarini, professor Stefano Del Prato, with his prestige and experience, will contribute to the Foundation’s mission of promoting and disseminating medical and scientific knowledge around the world. 

A world-renowned authority in the fight against diabetes, with a lifetime of service to the scientific community, Stefano Del Prato boasts a career studded with successes. His studies on the physiopathology and research into innovative therapies for the treatment of type-2 diabetes and insulin resistance have earned him the role of president of many international societies and associations including the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) and the Italian Society of Diabetology. He currently chairs the European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes (EFSD) and the European Diabetes Forum.

In 2011, he was also President of the Scientific Committee of the World Diabetes Congress in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. In the same year, he was awarded the honour of Commander of the Order of the Italian Republic for Scientific Merits, crowning his extraordinary professional commitment.  

In his first statement as the newly elected President of the Fondazione Menarini, Professor Stefano Del Prato said, “I am immensely proud of the role of President of the Fondazione Menarini that I am about to take on. Proud because, in nearly fifty years of activity, the Fondazione Menarini has become a reference point for international scientific discussion, certified as it is by a Scientific Committee whose members include figures of the calibre of Prof. Louis J. Ignarro, 1998 Nobel Prize winner for Medicine. This Presidency is a challenge which aims to contribute to further growing the Foundation with a focus on the new generations of researchers and doctors. I believe that the Foundation can represent a major opportunity to attract even more young people to the world of science, providing them with a forum for information, exchange, and networking. I am convinced that the encounter between the experience of individuals who have already achieved important milestones and the enthusiasm of those who are about to face the new horizons of science are the key to the success of scientific research and the quickest way to implement new discoveries in clinical practice.”

Since 1976, the Fondazione Menarini has been promoting research and knowledge in the fields of biology, pharmacology, and medicine. Over the years, it has organised more than seven hundred and fifty International Conferences on innovative medical and biological topics and on issues of specific interest to the medical world in terms of their broad scientific implications and practical repercussions.