ECIR 2016 will be hosted in the three sites of the University campus.
The venues are at walking distance one from each other and from hotels and accommodation. Moreover, TRAM stops and bus stops are close to the venues.
Scientific Campus: Workshop and Tutorial venue
Sunday 20th March 2016
Department of Geosciences
Via Giovanni Gradenigo 6, Padova (light blue mark on the map)
Historical Campus: Main Conference venue
Monday 21st March 2016
Botanical Garden (Orto Botanico)
Via Orto Botanico, 15, Padova (green mark on the map)
Historical Campus: Main Conference and Industry day venue
Tuesday 22nd and Wednesday 23rd March 2016
Palazzo Bo
Via VIII Febbraio 2, Padova (blue mark on the map)
The social events will take place at walking distance from the conference venues.
Welcome Reception, Sunday 20 March 2016: Department of Geosciences
Via Giovanni Gradenigo 6, Padova (light blue mark on the map)
Poster Session and Reception, Monday 21 March 2016: Caffè Pedrocchi, Sala Rossini,
Via VIII Febbraio, 15, Padova (orange mark on the map)
Social Dinner, Tuesday 22 March 2016: "San Gaetano" Cultural Centre,
Via Altinate, 71, Padova (purple mark on the map)
Geoscience Department: A little far on the one hand from ancient city walls and river harbor, on the other hand from the department of Information Engineering, the Department of Geosciences, built during the Sixties, is the perfect union of culture and science and a perfect place where the conference start.The entire building, designed by Giulio Brunetta, appears a little unusual thanks to the black façade and to the modular composition, based on a grid of 1.5 by 1.50 meters. The whole composition is resolved into two adjacent volumes: the teaching block of classrooms and the scientific block with laboratories, library and professor offices.
Botanical Garden: For the first day of spring, we decided to move the conference in a place which represents a triumph for spring but also a cradle of scientific method: the Botanical Garden, the oldest university garden in the world to have retained its original location and layout over the centuries. The ‘lettura dei semplici’, or study of medicinal plants, was taught in Padova by Francesco Bonafede from 1543. Following centuries of tradition based on ancient authors, Bonafede recognized a need for the direct observation of nature in this branch of learning. In those days, classical texts on the therapeutic use of herbs were routinely and dangerously misinterpreted and little trust could be placed in the honesty of apothecaries. Bonafede requested a public garden for the cultivation and study of medicinal plants and herbs – the so-called ‘semplici’ (medicamentum simplex). The request came before the Senate of the Venetian Republic, which on 1545 decreed that a suitable plot of land should be purchased.
As we can read in the Unesco document “The Botanical Garden of Padua... represents the birth of science, of scientific exchanges... It has made a profound contribution to the development of many modern scientific disciplines, notably botany, medicine, chemistry, ecology, and pharmacy”. In University of Padova, the introduction of empirical and experimental methods together with the teaching of theory marked the dawn of a golden age. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Padova became a workshop of ideas and the home to figures who changed the cultural and scientific history of humanity. They included Andrea Vesalio, who founded modern anatomy, as well as the astronomer Copernicus, and Galileo, who observed the skies here.
The structure of the Garden (a square within a circle) was enclosed by a wall in 1552 to combat the continual theft of plants, targeted for the rarity of their vegetal properties and the value of the medicines obtained from them. The botanical stock continued to grow, with plants brought in from all parts of the globe. Since September 2014, new areas representing the different climates across the Planet have opened to the public. The species in the Biodiversity Garden are about 1,300. They live in environments sharing the same humidity and temperature characteristics, simulating the climatic conditions of the planet's biomes, from tropical to sub-humid, temperate and arid zones.
Palazzo del Bo: The first academic documents about University of Padova go back to 1222 A.D. and this is considered as one of the oldest Universities in Europe, and can name, among eminent faculty and scholars, Galileo Galilei, Nicolaus Copernicus, Pope Sixtus IV, Ippolito Nievo, Giovanni Battista Morgagni and Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia, the world's first female graduate (1678), to mention just a few. So, we want to show you the main and more beautiful seat of our University, even if the University acquired full ownership only in 1539. In previous centuries, this palace was an hostel whose sign was an ox (Bo), since it was located near some butcher shops and from this sign descends the name of the palace, nowadays called “Palazzo Bo”.
Architecturally, the 16th century was the key period for the Palazzo Bo, enlarged and transformed by the architect Andrea Moroni. Also dating from the 16th century is the world’s first permanent anatomical theatre, inaugurated in 1595 and made by six elliptical wooden floors hosting 300 seats, rising around the anatomical table (first, since 1446, anatomical theatres made of wood were erected and dismantled as needed for public dissections). Here we can also visit the 14th-century Medicine Lecture Room, the desk of Galileo Galilei and the double courtyard by Moroni
In modern times, an important contribution to the aesthetic renewal of the University was made by Carlo Anti, rector from 1932 to 1943, who called in artists of great renown – architect Gio Ponti, sculptor Arturo Martini, and painter Massimo Campigli – to apply their skills and talent.