The International Award Guido Dorso 2017 given to Maria Saponari for her research on Xylella fastidiosa in Apulia

Maria Saponari (CNR-IPSP), Scientific Coordinator of Xylella fastidiosa research within the POnTE Project and Coordinator of the H2020 XF-ACTORS Project received the International Prize entitled to Guido Dorso for her studies on Xylella epidemic in Apulia on 12 October 2017, in Rome, Palazzo Giustiniani, Senate of the Italian Republic.

Since 1970, the prestigious award, now in its 38th year, has marked institutional figures and young scholars of the southern regions of Italy who have distinguished themselves and “contributed to their activities to sustain the needs of development and progress of the South”. In previous editions of the initiative, sponsored by the Senate of the Republic, the National Research Council and the University of Naples “Federico II”, 42 young graduates have been awarded the prize, 218 political, economic and cultural representatives, 28 of whom are of Italian origin working abroad, as well as the Nobel Prize Laureates, Renato Dulbecco and Franco Modigliani.

Maria Saponari, a young researcher at CNR-IPSP of Bari, has been awarded in recognition of her research, as in 2013 she significantly contributed to discovering the Xylella quarantine bacterium in olive trees affected by the olive quick decline syndrome, and since that time she has authored more than 20 scientific papers on this subject.

Dr Maria Saponari receives the award from the Undersecretary of State for Education, University and Research, Dr Vito De Filippo. Courtesy Associazione Guido Dorso.