Umberto Colombo

Past President

Chairman 1996-2000

Umberto Colombo (Livorno, 20 December 1927 – 13 May 2006) was an Italian scientist.

He wrote over 200 scientific works on material and energy resources, geochemistry and material sciences, scientific policy and technology. He was Minister for Universities and Scientific and Technological Research in the Ciampi government (May 1993–May 1994).

He graduated in physical chemistry in Pavia in 1950, and became an expert on energy and the environment working at the G. Donegani Research Institute (1954–1970) and at Montedison (1971–1978).

He was chairman of the following bodies and institutions:

  • OECD Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy (1971–1975)
  • CNEL
  • ENI (1982–1983)
  • ENEA (1983–1993)
  • Advisor to the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development (1984–1986)
  • European Science Foundation in Strasbourg (1991–1993)

Academic affiliations and awards

He was a member of the following academies:

  • Academy of the Arts of Drawing, in the liberal arts and sciences category
  • Lincean Academy (as of 1974)
  • National Academy of Sciences
  • Georgofili Academy
  • Academy of Europe
  • European Academy of Arts, Sciences and Humanities
  • Engineering Academies of Great Britain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States and Japan
  • New York Academy of Science

He was awarded the Legion of Honour of the French Republic (1987), the Order of Merit for Labour (1991) and made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (1994).

  • Legion of Honour
  • Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic

He was awarded three honorary degrees:

  • doctorate in science – Madras University (1991)
  • doctorate in engineering – Mendeleyev University in Moscow (1994)
  • doctorate in chemical engineering – Genoa University (1999)

For his scientific studies he received the following awards:

  • Conrad Schlumberger Prize (1958)
  • Roncaglia Mari Prize (1977)
  • Honda Prize for ecotechnology (1984)
  • Giulio Natta Medal of the Italian Chemical Society (1991)
  • International Science and Technology Prize of the People’s Republic of China (2000)