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Daikin is well-known for the effort they make to positively impact society and the world we live in. That is possible thanks to the development of sustainable and efficiency-oriented technology, but that isn’t the only way the company pursues this goal.
This year, the 7th in a row, Daikin Applied Europe has supported research with the Daikin Prize for Biodiversity Conservation, partnering up with Sapienza – University of Rome, to support scientific research in the field of Biodiversity Conservation.
The Daikin Prize for Biodiversty Conservation
The Daikin Prize for Biodiversty Conservation, springs from the desire to support research in the field of Biodiversity, rewarding the work of young researchers who are creating a conversation around the subject-matter, aiming to make a positive impact on society through knowledge.
The prize is now a well-established award in the field. “It was something totally new in the field of biodiversity in Italy, as there was no such a thing before Daikin Applied Europe and La Sapienza University started partnering up 7 years ago” (Moreno di Marco – Research Fellow – Department of Biology and Biotechnologies, Sapienza University of Rome (Italy).
This year’s winner
This year Daikin is pleased to announce the new award winner – Manuele Bazzichetto.
He is a vegetation ecologist. The research he is currently conducting aims to quantify the impact that extreme climatic events have on the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. In 2013 he obtained a bachelor's degree in Ecology at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, while in 2015 I received a master's degree in Biodiversity and Ecosystem Management at the University of Roma Tre. Finally, in 2019 he received the title of PhD in Sciences, technologies and biotechnologies for sustainability (University of Tuscia), presenting a thesis on the integration of floristic data collected in the field and data derived from remote sensing for the monitoring of plant diversity in coastal dune systems.
The winning project
The research work Manuele Bazzichetto has been awarded for, analyzed a series of applications of data derived from remote sensing (aerial photos, LiDAR data) for the study, monitoring and conservation of dune vegetation. In a nutshell, by crossing data derived remotely with data on dune vegetation collected in the field, he was able to study the effects of anthropogenic (urbanization, tourism) and semi-natural (coastal erosion) phenomena on the configuration of the plant diversity of our Mediterranean coastal dunes. The focus was on dune vegetation as it ensures the proper functioning of the coastal ecosystem.
The common background between Daikin and researchers' work
Manuele Bazzichetto said: “Daikin's mission fully follows the goal of every researcher, regardless of his or her area of specialization. This prize certainly makes a positive impact on the world of research supporting researcher’s activities, and strengthens the collaboration between the academic world and private companies – which is desirable as it can favour the concrete application of basic research.
I know there is a fruitful exchange between institutions such as the Sapienza – University of Rome and Daikin. Such a collaboration has the potentiality to evolve in shared research and development plans, which can certainly produce knowledge and technologies society can benefit from – especially from the environmental conservation stand points”.