Vision
The Department of Chemical Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainability integrates in a harmonious and synergistic framework the pivotal activities of University life: research - education - third mission. The interaction and collaboration among researchers and faculty with diverse and highly qualified expertise lays the foundation for innovative and integrated approaches to the great challenges facing the planet. Students in the Department's degree programs will have access to teaching taught by professors at the European and international level and will be able to take advantage of modern laboratories equipped for experiments covering research areas ranging from chemistry to biology to natural and geological sciences, for the study of matter and its transformations, living systems, and natural resources. Particular attention is paid to the use of environmental resources for sustainable development, with the aim of training a new generation of graduates who are responsible and attentive to the challenges of the new millennium.
Dissemination and technology transfer, the heart of the third mission, take advantage of the Department's rich and varied cultural environment to enrich citizenship, institutions, and the productive realities of the territory.
Mission
The Department has the ambitious goal of contributing to the advancement of knowledge of individual disciplines and inter- and multidisciplinary aspects to address the most relevant problems of modern society. Chemistry, earth sciences, life sciences, and biology in their many forms, up to and including agribusiness, will be declined to develop new methods and concepts towards environmental sustainability, in line with the statements of intent of the University of Parma Statute, in the awareness that there can be no sustainable economic development without respect for and maintenance of the environment based on knowledge of living and non-living components. Sustainability is one of the main pillars of the Department, and plays a cross-cutting role in the different research areas that include new materials, new "green" technologies, new investigative techniques and
models for predicting biological and geological systems. The Department aims to be a driving force for the economic activities of the area and among them those of the agro-industrial and food sector, as well as for activities related to energy production, waste cycle management, and the creation of new materials and devices for sensoristics.
The quality of the faculty members afferent to the new Department is the best guarantee of the level of research and training in facilities that include classrooms, laboratories, museums and technology transfer centers. The consolidation of research and teaching quality and visibility will be one of the Department's first goals, as will the promotion of a culture of communication to students and stakeholders. Given the presence in Parma of historical structures of great importance for teaching and research in the natural and environmental sciences, close proximity to the Botanical Garden and the Museums of Natural History, Paleontology and Mineralogy will be instrumental to the Department's mission. The Museum of Crystallochemistry will testify to the excellence of the Parma School in the field of crystallography.
The activities already underway in the Departments of the afferent faculty will see a natural continuity in the new structure and will find new impetus in cooperation with other groups and Courses of Study. The Ph.D.s will make a decisive contribution to the formation of excellence in the field of research.
The Department directs administrative action having as its purpose the assurance of quality in teaching, research and third mission, considering strategic for this purpose a direction towards the qualification of personnel also through the identification of performance objectives.
Chemistry at the University of Parma
Two short essays regarding the birth and development of Chemistry in our University are given: University Chemistry in Parma by Prof. Andrea Pochini, a documented historical-chronological excursus of Chemistry in Parma, and One Hundred Years of Chemistry in Parma by Prof. Alessandro Mangia, a historical account of the scientific instruments still existing at the Chemistry Complex, personalized by the author's recollections.
