Honoring Dr. Michael A. Schmidt & Dr. Caracciolo Giuseppe
We chose to honor two essential collaborators who helped build the Foundation to where it is now. The first of these was Giuseppe Caracciolo M.D., Ph.D., in recognition of his years of scientific and educational collaboration with our Foundation. As the Scientific Affairs & Operations Director at the Menarini Foundation in Italy, Dr. Caracciolo has collaborated with us over the past decade to produce a series of world-class seminars devoted to some of the most important problems in medicine. He is an experienced cardiologist with a rich history of working both in the clinical setting with patients and in the pharmaceutical industry. He has an impressive record of training in cardiology which includes research at world class institutions including the University of Messina, the Ichan School of Medicine, The Mayo Clinic and UC Irvine. In his leadership role at the Menarini Foundation, he was an integral part of the team which conceptualized the Menarini Foundation’s new House of Science, a building in Fiesole dedicated to the hosting of distinguished scientists from around the world who explore current topics of worldwide interest in biomedicine. His latest gift to us is his guidance and collaboration with our recent symposium in Florence, “Building a Space-faring Civilization: Advancing the Renaissance of Science, Medicine and Human Performance in Civilian Spaceflight.” The intellectual achievements of our own Foundation and the rest of the biomedical community have been in a very real sense immeasurably enriched by his gifts of advice and support to all of us.
Michael A. Schmidt, PhD, was our second honoree. He is one of the most interesting minds of our generation. He is a true polymath who brought to our Foundation the possibility of exploring what he has aptly termed the Third Renaissance of human endeavor: space travel. He is the Founder, CEO, and Chief Scientific Officer of Sovaris Aerospace, a company focused on the preparation of humans for survival not only in extremely challenging conditions on earth but for travel in the harsh and forbidding environment of space. Dr. Schmidt is one of the leaders of an elite community of scientists and engineers who are preparing men and women for the many challenges of leaving earth’s orbit and eventually, colonizing other celestial bodies. He has developed a system engineering approach to assess the precise composition of each individual person and to correlate the data with his/her ability to survive challenging environmental conditions. Each person’s fitness for life in a hazardous environment can then be improved with data-based solutions to correct or eliminate characteristics that militate against their safety and survival. Dr. Schmidt views the advent of space travel as one of the most important events in human history. Despite the many governmental, legal, political and social challenges that face us as we prepare to extend our civilization to other worlds, he remains supremely confident that the space enterprise will yield incalculable riches for all.
