2020 Leroy Award to Giovanni Bittante

EAAP Council proclaimed the 2020 Leroy Award winner: Prof Giovanni Bittante from the University of Padova. He had manifold contributions to animal science for he has been very influential in Italy as a scholar, mentor and leader in the field of animal production, with emphasis in breeding and genetics. In today world of specialization, Giovanni Bittante is one of the few persons viewing animal breeding as part of a system representing not only genetic and environmental variables, but also rural sociology, product quality and overall sustainability. He has been extremely relevant training hundreds of students in animal breeding, a mentor of scholars, contributing to the development of an Italian network of researchers. He is a prolific researcher with hundreds of papers in refereed journals resulting in a very high h-index in Google Scholar. Giovanni has been EAAP Council member and he directed Departments and Institutes and has been also Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Padova, where Galileo observed the world and taught.