Inaugurated photo exhibition "There is a light that never goes out" by Silvia Panarello (IQAC)

On April 23, the photo exhibition "There is a light that never goes out" by Silvia Panarello was inaugurated, Predoctoral Researcher at the Advanced Chemistry Institute of Catalonia (IQAC). Photographs are the day to day of his work. As well as chemistry must be the day to day of your life.

The title of the exhibition is based on a song. So Silvia suggests that you feel free to associate the title of other songs or a part of the lyrics to the photo that inspire you. Markers and post-its are available next to the photos. It is also possible to add more than one song to the same photo, whatever the language or musical genre.

A virtual access to the Exhibition

Press article, written by Silvia Panarello, on a dissemination website. (link)

About Silvia Panarello

I started to study Chemistry in Messina, my hometown. After the Bachelor degree, I realized that the branch of chemistry that particularly fascinated me was the Organic and Biomolecular area. I was interested in the synthesis of increasingly complex molecules, the understanding of reaction mechanism as well as its stereoselectivity.

One of the best and most challenging Graduate program in Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry was in Rome and I enrolled at “Sapienza” University. I was honored to have the opportunity to be part of the research team of Dr. Marco Bella, a former postdoc of KC Nicolaou and KA Jorgensen who started in Rome his independent career.

After Master degree I’ve been employed as API scientist and developer at Corden Pharma Latina (former Bristol – Myers Squibb Company) for three years. This work experience in a pharmaceutical company has given me the opportunity to learn many things from the point of view of science that organizational. As a process developer I learned to increase the scale factor from a few grams to multi-kilograms. As a team member I realized how important is to interact with other people working in the same field and, at the same time, able to work individually.

I loved working at Corden Pharma Latina and I still had a lot to learn but I realized that, if I really wanted to have a job with more responsibility, I needed to enhance my ‘know-how’. I wanted to get other skills not only for future jobs but for myself. I wanted to work with people from other countries, to learn from conferences and to interact with other scientists in a stimulating international environment.

For these reasons I wished to start a PhD project in an excellent department as that of Medicinal Chemistry at the Institute of Advanced Chemistry of Catalonia (IQAC-CSIC) under the supervision of Dr. Amadeu Llebaria Soldevila, director of the MCS group. I like working under Amadeu Llebaria’s guidance for my PhD, because I think that working with him and his team makes me feel part of an important scientific community. What I find really attractive in working in his group is that the research is understood in a way that the discoveries should be applicable to solve real issues in everyday life.

And in the daily research of innovative therapeutics and tools using light I’ve found raw materials to grow that passion that I could not yet give the right time and study photography.

Granddaughter of two grandparents both photographers, I grew up submerged by an innumerable quantity of photos. I liked looking at those photos because every picture told something. Each photo has a story. And that is why, with these photos, I tell you a story, a part of my daily life as a chemist in an organic chemistry laboratory.

I'm not a professional photographer but I love the feeling of being able to communicate to all of you the awareness of a two-way relationship between art and chemistry.

Silvia

"I photograph what happens every day in a chemistry lab, what happens to any chemist, but aware of the beauty that one can notice and how it can be captured. I show one of the many forms, my point of view, what my eyes find with the light that allows me to exalt the beauty of what I do, and that once found, I will never lose."

Date: 23/05/2019 - 03/06/2019
Place: Centre d'Investigació i Desenvolupament (CID-CSIC)
            Passadís del Pont (al lado de la Sala d'Actes)
            C. Jordi Girona, 18-26 - 08034 Barcelona