The TechnoHeritage 2024 Congress is promoted by the Spanish Network for Science and Technology for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage, coordinated by CiQUS Principal Investigator Massimo Lazzari.
This scientific event will take place from September 25 to 27 in the University's Paraninfo, in the Faculty of Geography and History, a perfect setting for the exchange of knowledge and ideas, with particular emphasis on chemistry and technology for Heritage Conservation, serving as an inspiration and unparalleled framework for discussions on Science and Art.
The congress is organized jointly by the three Galician universities, specifically by USC researchers Patricia Sanmartín (CRETUS) and Massimo Lazzari, Principal Investigator of CIQUS and national coordinator of the network; by Santiago Pozo, from UVigo, president of the Congress; and by Jorge Sanjurjo, from the University of A Coruña. It also has the collaboration of the president of the GEQP-RSEQ and professor at the University of the Basque Country, Maite Maguregui.
Among the invited speakers to give talks on relevant topics in the field of heritage conservation is José Delgado, who carried out much of his research at the National Laboratory of Civil Engineering in Lisbon and will share his vision on the development of the science of cultural heritage conservation over the last five decades, or Francesca Cappitelli, from the University of Milan, who will address the role of microorganisms in the state of conservation of heritage. Silvia Prati, from the University of Bologna, will focus on the development of ecological cleaning materials, and Matija Strlič, from the University of Ljubljana and University College London, will reflect on the importance of the olfactory experience in exhibition spaces such as museums.
The presence of 180 researchers from Europe, America, Asia and Africa is expected, mainly from Spain, Italy and Portugal, but also from the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, the United States, Mexico, Ecuador, Brazil, Peru, Saudi Arabia or Singapore. The high participation allowed for the development of a program that contains as many contributions in the form of oral presentations and posters.
In addition to the universities, the event is sponsored by the Xunta de Galicia, the Royal Spanish Society of Chemistry, the research centers CiQUS and CRETUS, and CINTECX of UVigo, as well as companies in the sector such as KBYO biological Clyde HSI, Antares instrumentation, or TESELA. For the organizers, "the support received from the business sector indicates the need to create this type of forums in which advances in methodologies and technologies aimed at conserving and restoring tangible cultural heritage are made visible".
