Antonella Polimeni took up the position of Rectress on December 1, 2020. Her message to the University community
On Tuesday, December 1, 2020, Antonella Polimeni officially took over as Rectress for the period 2021-26, succeeding the Rector Eugenio Gaudio, in office from 2014.
The Rectress sent the Sapienza community a message of greeting: "We will work together to consolidate Sapienza as an increasingly modern, inclusive, supportive and efficient University. We will contribute effectively to the achievement of the objectives of our Republic by carrying out the functions assigned to us in the best possible way. My door will always be open to all of you, and I know that yours will be just as open, to help me define more precisely the objectives that are today the heritage of our community and search for the best tools to achieve them".
Read the Rectress's full message
Dear all,
On the day of my assignment as Rectress of our University, I do not want to hide the emotion I feel in taking on this prestigious position. It is a mixed emotion, involving responsibility, commitment and a desire to place myself at the service of the whole community, aware of the difficulties we will have to face, but without any fear of the future. My desire to be everyone's Rectress- Students', Professors' and Staff's - will take the form of active listening, extensive and in-depth collaboration, attention to big and apparently smaller issues concerning our Institution and all the people who make it up.
You have rewarded the programme that I have proposed to you, and the contribution of many of you has fed that. The success in the first round, with 60.8% of the votes, is a demonstration of this ability to share that Sapienza has been able to build in the last six years. I thank you for the trust you have shown in me and in the ideas I have proposed. To achieve them, I will need participation and support. I will need your intelligence, your experience, your sensitivity, your excellence. I will need all of you. We will work together to consolidate Sapienza as an increasingly modern, inclusive, supportive and efficient University. We will contribute effectively to the achievement of the objectives of our Republic by carrying out the functions assigned to us in the best possible way. My door will always be open to all of you, and I know that yours will be just as open, to help me define more precisely the objectives that are today the heritage of our community and search for the best tools to achieve them".
Thank you in advance for your commitment over the next six years, because only together can we cross borders and permeate the future.
Antonella Polimeni
The Rectress addressed our students through a video message.
The academic community elected the Rectress at the first round of elections held from November 10 to 13, 2020, obtaining 60.7% of the vote.
Voting participation, which took place online for the first time, was very high: a total of 74.5% of those entitled to vote.
Antonella Polimeni, physician and dentist, Professor of Dental Diseases, is the first Rectress of Sapienza, after having been the first female Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry for the three-year academic period 2018-21; among the most recent academic appointments, she has coordinated the PhD in Skeletal and Orofacial Diseases since 2014 and the Specialisation School in Pediatric Dentistry since 2018; she is also Director of the Interfaculty Advanced Professional Course in Integrated Health and Safety Management in the Evolution of the World of Work.
She has directed the Complex Operating Unit of Paediatric Dentistry and Odontostomatology since 2003 and the Head-Neck Integrated Activity Department at Policlinico Umberto I General Hospital in Rome. From 2013 to 2018 she was a member of the University's Board of Directors; previously she was Department Director and member of the University Evaluation Committee. Rector Polimeni has a scientific production of over 470 publications published in international and national journals, more than 100 congressional proceedings, national and international, 6 manuals, one of which is published in English, 2 monographs. She has also edited the Italian edition of one atlas text and two manuals, as well as guidelines published by the Ministry of Health.