Gilberto Artioli is professor of Mineralogy at the University of Padua. His research activity is dedicated to a large extent to the combined use of diffractometric and spectroscopic techniques for the study of complex natural and synthetic materials. The application of these techniques is directed toward numerous industrial materials as testified by recent studies on the hydration and microstructure of binders and cement materials with the aim to link the atomic scale of such materials to the engineering one. In recent years, these techniques are applied fruitfully to cultural assets for the comprehension and interpretation of artistic and archeological materials.

Carlo Barbante is professor of Analytical Chemistry at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice. A climate scientist, he is one of the leading world experts of the empirical and analytical processes that allow reconstruction of past climates by studying the chemical composition of the air bubbles trapped in ice cores and sediments. He is known for the development of advanced analytical mass spectroscopy based methods for the determination of traces of chemicals incorporated in environmental and biological matrices. The applications concern long term paleoclimatology by analysis of the ice carrots obtained from glaciers all over the world: studies of the chemical composition of air trapped in ice core veins and cavities allowed Barbante to reconstruct climate patterns of the Quaternary from series of proxies.