Mr. Michelangelo Baracchi Bonvicini

President, Atomium Culture

Michelangelo Baracchi Bonvicini was born in London and grew up in Italy, where he completed his classical studies. He graduated in History at the University of Bologna.

After pursuing journalism within the field of foreign correspondence initiated at the age of eighteen, which brought him to Kosovo and Albania (1999), Israel and Palestine during the second Intifada (2002), Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran (2003), he dedicated himself to historical research, with special attention given to the European issues.

Scholar of European integration, his latest research on the subject is on the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe where the accounts of the private meetings with the President of the European Convention Valéry Giscard d’Estaing and with the Italian Vice President Giuliano Amato are included (2003-2004); a comparative study on the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe and the Constitution of the United States of America (2004); the reconstruction policy of Republican Italy,with special reference to the political -and European Policy- thinking of Alcide De Gasperi, where his interviews with the Italian Senator Giulio Andreotti are included (2005).

From April 2004 to December 2005 he planned an independent, supranational and non-profit organization for exchange and dissemination of research among different sectors (universities, media and businesses). In January 2006, Atomium – European Institute for Science, Media and Democracy was formally founded.

For three years from 2006, with the former President of France Valéry Giscard d’Estaing promoted and coordinated the start-up of Atomium – European Institute for Science, Media and Democracy that was kept confidential until the public launch on 27 November 2009, when they presented the Institute to the European Parliament in Brussels, during its first annual conference.

Baracchi Bonvicini and Giscard d’Estaing were awarded, in 2011, the medal “Plus Ratio QuamVis” from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow for “their contribution to the European academic community by founding Atomium”.

More recent publications include the appeal “For a European Consciousness, For a More Competitive Europe” signed in September 2012 together with V. Giscard d’Estaing and the former Prime Minister of Spain Felipe González Márquez, as new Chairman of the Advisory Board of Atomium – EISMD, during the negotiations regarding the EU budget for 2014-2020. The appeal was published by numerous European newspapers including Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, El País, Il Sole 24 Ore and The Irish Times.

From 2013, Baracchi Bonvicini has worked together with the computer scientist Massimo Marchiori (creator of Hyper Search that has been the first published technique to introduce link analysis for search engines), Chief Technology Officer of Atomium-EISMD, to design and set-up REIsearch, a non-profit European platfom co-funded by the European Commission, Nokia, Elsevier, and other Atomium partners. REIsearch intends to demonstrate how a technological tool, coupled to a broad network of leading media, research institutions, researchers, civil society organisations, and citizens, can help policy makers to make better use of current scientific research.

REIsearch launched on February 15, 2016. This platform is designed to connect citizens, researchers and policy makers on topics linked to scientific research and to societal challenges that Europe will face in the years to come.

Currently Michelangelo Baracchi Bonvicini is President of Atomium – European Institute for Science, Media and Democracy and Co-Chair of the Steering Committee of REIsearch, together Valéry Giscard d’Estaing.

(Italian version)