12.05.2006 – 08:30

Università della Svizzera italiana

Tenth Dies Academicus event held by the Università della Svizzera Italiana (University of Lugano)

Lugano (ots)

Saturday 13th May 2006 from 10 a.m. to 12.15 p.m.

Great Hall (Aula Magna) on the University Campus in Lugano

The Università della Svizzera Italiana is 10 years
old! The Dies Academicus is an important opportunity to meet up and
exchange information about the development of the USI within the
context of our region and in its relations with both the Swiss
university system and the international academic community. The tenth
anniversary also offers an opportunity to take stock and to celebrate
the success of the university system we are building here in
Italian-speaking Switzerland.

The programme gets underway with an address made by the President
of the Università, Marco Baggiolini, who will be concluding his
ten-year term of office at the end of this present academic year.
Baggiolini will be expanding upon the most significant stages in the
growth of the USI, coming during one of the most eventful and
creative periods in history of the Swiss university system, during
which universities have had to face up to important challenges
offering a new University wonderful opportunities to develop.

The Federal Councillor Pascal Couchepin, head of the Department of
Home Affairs, an advocate and a close observer of university
education and research, will be presenting his thoughts about our
country's academic heritage and the opportunities for our future
which lie before it.

Two honorary doctorates will then be awarded.

Stephen A. Ross, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology will be honoured by the Faculty of Economics "for his
fundamental contribution to the theory of the valuation of financial
activities and the decisions made by companies".

Leslie Lamport, a scientific researcher from Microsoft Research in
California, will be honoured by the Faculty of Computer Science "for
his pioneering contributions to the theoretical foundations of
distributed computer systems". The programme closes with a greeting
from Piero Martinoli, a professor of Physics at the University of
Neuchâtel, who will be taking over the Presidency of the USI in
September.

The Dies Academicus ceremony is open to the public.

The honorary doctorate is granted to people who have distinguished
themselves through the excellence of their work in scientific and
professional fields. The honorary doctorate is awarded by the
University Board based upon a proposal made by a Faculty (article 38
of the USI Statutes). The proposals made by the Faculties of
Economics and of Computer Science were ratified by the University
Board at its meeting held on 24th February 2006.

So far the USI has awarded three honorary doctorates, to: John R.
Searle, a language philosopher and professor at the University of
California at Berkeley (May 2003), Robert F. Engle, a specialist in
financial econometrics and professor at New York University (November
2003) and Giuseppe Panza di Biumo, a major, highly innovative
collector of contemporary art who lives in Massagno (May 2005).

Interesting details: a few months after the decision to award the
USI's honorary doctorate, Professor Engle received the Nobel Prize.

Stephen A. Ross is Professor of Finance and Economics at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston as well as being
director and CEO of Compensation Valuation, a leading company in the
field of financial instruments. In the past he has taught economics
and finance at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and
then at Yale University. He is the author of over one hundred
scientific articles in the field of economics and finance and joint
author of a well-known introduction to finance. After receiving a
degree in physics, Ross was awarded a doctorate at Harvard University
(1970). He invented the "Theory of Arbitrage Pricing" and the "Theory
of Agency Costs" and he has contributed to the discovery of valuation
methods based on risk neutrality and to the creation of binomial
models for valuing derivatives. The models that he and his assistants
have developed in the field of interest rates and options have now
become standard methods used by the major banks. Ross has received
numerous prizes and acknowledgements, including the "Graham and Dodd
Award" for authors in the field of finance, the "Pomerance Prize" for
his research into the valuation of options, the "University of
Chicago's Leo Melamed Prize" for the best research carried out in a
business school and, in 1996, the "Financial Engineer of the Year
Award". He was chairman of the American Finance Association and is a
member of both the econometrics society and the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences. He has been an adviser to investment banks, to
major companies and to US Government Departments, such as the
Treasury and the Department of Trade. He has been chairman of the
American Express Advisory Panel, director of the General Re and of
the CREF and he is currently chairman of the board of IV Capital in
London, a member of the boards of Freddie Mac and of the California
Institute of Technology.

Leslie Lamport, a scientific researcher from Microsoft Research in
California is one of the best-known computer researchers in the
world. He received a doctorate in mathematics from Brandeis
University in 1972 with a dissertation on singularities in analytic
partial differential equations, a subject which led him on to a
brilliant career as a researcher working for major research centres
at Computer Associates in Massachusetts, Digital and Compaq. He has
made a fundamental contribution to the development of the theoretical
bases of distributed computer systems and with the TLA+ (the Temporal
Logic of Actions) language he has developed a logic used to specify
and reason on reactive and concurrent systems, which defines "an
attempt to overcome engineers' antipathy towards mathematics".

Lamport has received numerous honours including honorary
doctorates from the Federal Polytechnic in Lausanne and the
Universities of Rennes and of Kiel. He won the "IEEE Piore Award" in
2004 for his contribution in the computer data sector, which is seen
to be highly significant for the progress of science and for
improving society. He is also famous as the author of LaTeX, a text
formatting system which is widely used in research and professional
publishing.

Contact:

Servizio comunicazione e media
Università della Svizzera italiana
Via Lambertenghi 10A
6904 Lugano

Tel. +41/58/666'47'92
Mobile +41/79/292'38'24
Fax +41/58/666'46'19
E-Mail: press@unisi.ch
Internet: http://www.unisi.ch