It is with great sadness that we have to inform you that Professor Giuseppe (Pino) Della Gatta, former AICAT President and GICAT Coordinator, passed away on September 6th 2020. Pino graduated from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Turin in March 1961. The following year he started serving at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the same University as an Assistant Professor of General & Inorganic Chemistry, until 1982 when he became Associate Professor of Physical Chemistry; he became Full Professor of the same discipline in 2007. Pino was among the pioneering Italian researchers to measure the thermodynamic properties of organic compounds by DSC and was recognized as the leading Italian expert in the field. He was one of the founder of the Italian Association of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry (AICAT) and served as the first Chairman of this Association from 1979 to 1981 strongly contributing to the development of calorimetry in Italy. During the early eighties, thanks to his intense activity and to his dedication became a member of the ICTA (International Conference of Thermal Analysis) board. In 1989, together with other colleagues operating in the field of Calorimetry and Thermal Analysis, contributed to the foundation of the Interdivisional Group of Calorimetry and Thermal Analysis (GICAT) of the Italian Chemical Society for which he also served as a coordinator from 1992 to 1998. Over the years he strongly supported the use of thermal and calorimetric techniques in various fields with a special emphasis on the physico-chemical characterization of materials. The last part of his career was devoted to the study of ageing and deterioration of historical parchments. In the fifty-year of his research activity, he was coordinator and responsible of international and national research projects. In addition to his roles within AICAT and GICAT,  Pino has been very active within several national and international scientific organizations; he was among the co-founders of the Mediterranean Conference of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry (MEDICTA) and has been serving as Councilor of the International Confederation for Thermal Analysis (ICTA) and International Confederation for Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry (ICTAC), a Member of the IUPAC Commission on Thermodynamics, a Board Member of the Italian Association of Physical-Chemistry (AICF), a Member of the European Symposium on Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry (ESTAC) Committee, the Chairman of the ICTA/ICTAC Committee on Calorimetry, the Chairman of the ICTAC Liaison-International Relationship Committee. Pino greatly contributed to the success of leading Journals in the specific field: he was a Member of the Editorial Board of Thermochimica Acta, a Member Advisory Board of the Journal of Chemical Thermodynamics, the Associate Editor of the Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry. We all remember him as an excellent host of several national and international conferences; undoubtedly the 11th IUPAC Conference on Chemical Thermodynamics which Pino organized will remain in the memories of many of us. Pino was awarded the Honorary Medal “N.S. Kurnakov” by the Russian Academy of Sciences (1990), the Honorary Medal for the 50th Anniversary of the University of Łódź (1998) and the Mettler-Toledo Award of the North American Thermal Analysis Society (NATAS) (2003). His preparation and scientific intuitions have enriched the baggage of the numerous researchers who had the chance to work with Pino. His stylishness and savoir-faire were the icing on the cake of the social events of calorimetry and thermal analysis meetings. Pino’s loss will be difficult to fill.

Our thoughts and heartfelt condolences go to his Family and all the people who had the opportunity to share experiences with him.

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