In memory of Professor Salvatore Foti
Memories of Members of the Academy also belonging to the School of Agronomy of the University of Catania
Abstract
On December 27, 2016, Professor Salvatore Foti, one of the main author of the success of the Faculty of Agriculture of Catania University in both national and international scientific context, was died. He was born in Acireale on August 26th 1928, and on March 8th 1952 graduated in Agricultural Sciences with 110/110 votes and praise. In the academic year 1960-61, he obtained his teaching in General Agronomy and Herbaceous Cultures. On February 1st 1965, he was appointed an extraordinarily professor of Horticulture and Floriculture of Catania University, in August 1971 an managing director of the 'Institute of General Agronomy and Herbaceous Crops' of the same University and in March 1972 also to the direction of the Center for Early Cultivation Studies in the CNR of Sicily. To the institutions he has directed has ensured high efficiency and considerable enhancement of human and material resources. In teaching, which has covered many disciplines, he has consistently re-focused on the content and tasks attributed to Agronomy by Emanuele De Cillis and Amedeo Jannaccone. His lessons were characterized by scientific rigor, extreme clarity and rich experimental findings. He reserved a large part of its effort in the research. The most investigated sectors concerned the cultivation technique of old and new species in Mediterranean agriculture, genetic improvement, quality of agri-food products, ecophysiology of agricultural crops, erosion control, biomass crops for energy, agrometeorology and modeling, ‘low-input' crop systems. The results achieved were disseminated through conferences, communications to Italian and foreign conferences and congresses and scientific publications. He was vice-rector of Catania University, president of the Italian Society of Agronomy and the Catania Academy Gioenia, a member of some national and international scientific Academies and Societies.
