Pictured: Dr. Carbone with fellow award winners ceremony guests, from left to right: Dante Ferretti, Jonathan Bober, Michele Carbone, Nicola Piovani, Francesca Lo Schiavo, Jhumpa Lahiri, Paolo Nespoli, Gianni de Gennaro, President, “Centro Studi Americani”, and Judge Mario Ali, President, Italian Academy of Arts.
By UH Med Now
A Renaissance palace in the heart of Rome was the setting for international awards conferred this month on an astronaut, a Pulitzer Prize winner, several Oscar winners — and a University of Hawaiʻi scientist.
At the Palazzo Antici-Mattei, Dr. Michele Carbone, the William & Ellen Melohn Chair in Cancer Biology and Director of Thoracic Oncology at the UH Cancer Center and John A. Burns School of Medicine was presented the Pair Award for Science and Technology. The Pair Awards, in their third year, are given jointly by the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and the U.S. Embassy in Italy. Pair winners come from culture, science, law and politics and represent those whose achievements promote positive relations between Italy and the United States.
Carbone was in illustrious company. Others recognized included astronaut Paolo Nespoli, musician and Oscar winner Nicola Piovani, three-time Oscar winning art directors Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo, Pulitzer Prize winning writer Jhumpa Lahiri and Jonathan Bober, curator and head of “Old Master Prints” at the National Gallery of Arts in Washington, D.C.
The ceremony was attended by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, Jr., whose spouse read a message from the White House, and hosted by Italian journalist and politician Gianni Letta. It took place December 13 at the former palace which now serves as the American Studies Center.
About Dr. Carbone
Carbone is considered a leading scientist in the study of the devastating disease of mesothelioma. His team identified a gene, BAP1, that when mutated caused an epidemic of mesothelioma, and eye melanoma, in certain families (Testa JR, el al., Nat Genet, 2011). He named this inherited condition “The BAP1 Cancer Syndrome” characterized by the development of mesothelioma, uveal melanoma, and other cancers. He is a Knight of the Republic of Italy and was a National Institutes of Health Fogarty Fellow. Read more about him.