Today we gather to bid farewell to Glauco, a man who left an indelible mark on our Association.
Glauco Gambetti graduated in chemistry from the Ettore Molinari Institute in Milan. After several short work experiences, he joined Ormonoterapia as a technician responsible for the control and management of the freeze-drying plant used in pharmaceutical processes (1957–1959).
From 1960 to 1964, he was sales manager for the vacuum division of Officine Galilei in the Lombardy region. In 1965, with the vision of working with international companies, he joined Balzers Italia, where he assumed the role of Technical Sales Manager. In 1974 came the turning point: he founded “his” company, Glauco Gambetti Kenologia S.r.l., with the mission of supplying vacuum components and systems from many international manufacturers, while providing customers with careful and professional support during installation and maintenance phases.
Glauco was curious, intelligent, and gifted with an innate ability to look toward the future with an international vision. Anticipating, interpreting, and innovating are rare qualities, and Glauco possessed them all. A man of great sensitivity, he always placed human relationships first. He enjoyed engaging with everyone, showing admirable courtesy and elegance, never imposing himself but always favoring logic and reasoned discussion. A man of outstanding scientific and technological expertise, he spoke about nanotechnologies long before they entered common language. He did not simply sell products: he designed scenarios, envisioned futures, and suggested paths and solutions. Deeply connected to the Italian scientific community, he was known in every corner of our country where innovation was pursued: universities, public and private research institutions, and high-technology companies. Always a point of reference and a source of vision, Glauco served on the AIV Board of Directors for thirty years, from 1978 to 2008.
In 2004, during the opening ceremony of the 16th International Vacuum Conference (IVC-XVI) at the Palazzo del Cinema in Venice, before an audience of more than one thousand researchers from all over the world, AIV awarded him honorary membership with the following motivation: “For his long-standing contribution to the advancement of vacuum technology in Italy.” His passionate and deeply moving acceptance speech remains vivid in the memory of all of us.
At the beginning of the 2000s, the emergence of the converging sciences perspective (nano-bio-info) also involved AIV. As a natural consequence, during the 2007 National Conference in Florence, the General Assembly approved, upon proposal of the Board of Directors, the change of the Association’s name and statute. Glauco was among the strongest supporters of this new direction.
We are certain that the recent registration of AIV in the Italian National Register of the Third Sector as an “Association for Social Promotion” would have made Glauco very proud, given how deeply he believed in the role of science and technology, and in their support and promotion for the benefit of humanity and the protection of the environment.
