The Jury

The President of the Jury

Antonio Damasio

Antonio Damasio is Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience, Psychology and Philosophy, and Director of the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

As both neurologist and neuroscientist, Damasio has made seminal contributions to the understanding of brain processes underlying emotions, feelings, and consciousness. His work has made a major impact in neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy. He is regarded as one of the most eminent psychologists of the modern era.

Damasio has received numerous prestigious prizes and honorary doctorates. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His most recent book is The Strange Order of Things: Life, Feeling, and the Making of Cultures.

In 2003 he received the Nonino Prize as Master of Our Time; the Prize was delivered by Peter Brook.  In 2005 he was awarded the Asturias Prize in Science and Technology.

Adonis

Syrian poet and essayist naturalized Lebanese, Adonis contributed to release Arab poetry from its traditional schemes. He won the International Nonino Prize in 1999, the LericiPea Prize in 2000 and the Goethe Prize in 2011.
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John Banville

Irish novelist and journalist. Well known for his clear and disenchanted prose. He was awarded the International Nonino Prize in 2003, the Booker Prize in 2005 and the Prince of Asturias Award in 2014.
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Luca Cendali

Architect and Professor of History of Design at IED in Venice, Luca Cendali designed the decanters of the Nonino Collection ÙE® Cru Monovitigno Picolit. He has been the Nonino Prize Secretary since 1998.

Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie

He is considered one of the most important modern French historians. Director of the École pratique des hautes études in Paris, Professor of History of Modern Civilization at the Collège de France and General administrator of Paris’ Bibliothèque Nationale. He was awarded the Nonino Prize in 1992.
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James Lovelock

English chemist, independent scientist, writer and environmental researcher. He formulated the Gaia Theory. Professor of Chemistry at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, member of the Royal Society since 1974, winner of the Nonino Prize in 1996 and Companion of Honour in 2003.
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Claudio Magris

Italian writer and Germanist, President of the Jury until 2005. He dedicated important studies to the culture of Middle-Europe and, more in general, to the crisis of contemporary literature. He received the prestigious Prince of Asturias Award in Literature in 2004. He has been a member of the Accademia dei Lincei since 2006.

Norman Manea

Romanian writer naturalized United States citizen. He taught European and Jewish Literature at the Bard College in New York. He was awarded the International Nonino Prize in 2002; he has been a member of the Royal Society of Literature since 2012.
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Edgar Morin

French sociologist and philosopher. He became interested in human sciences, taking inspiration from the theses of Hegel, Marx and Freud. Knight of the Legion D’honneur, in 1994 he was awarded the Premio Internacional de Catalunya. He won the Nonino Prize in 2004.

Suad Amiry

Palestinian writer and architect, founder of the Riwaq Centre for Architectural Conservation in Ramallah, where she resides. Born in Damascus, she has lived between Amman, Damascus, Beirut and Cairo. She currently moves between Ramallah, New York and Umbria. Suad Amiry has written, among the others, Sharon and my mother-in-law (2003), which was followed by Se questa è vita (2005), Nothing To Lose But Your Life: An 18-Hour Journey with Murad (2009), Golda has slept here (2013) and My Damascus (2016) with Feltrinelli and in 2020 History of an English dress and a Jewish cow Mondadori. Nonino Rist d'Aur Prize – Gold Vine Shoot in 2014.
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Mauro Ceruti

Philosopher and theorist of complex thought. Professor of Philosophy of Science and Director of the PhD School for Communication Studies at IULM University in Milan. Today he is Member of the Scientific Committee of the Association Européenne Modélisation de la Complexité (MCX); of the WWF Scientific Community; of the Italian Association of Systemic Medicine and Health (ASSIMSS), and of the Scientific Committee of the Reflection Group on Franco-Italian Creative Industries of the French - Italian Observatory of IULM University of Milan and Université Sorbonne Nouvelle. Nonino Prize ‘Master of our time’ 2022
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Jorie Graham

One of the most celebrated poets of the American postwar generation. She is the author of 15 collections of poetry. Since 1996 she has been the Boylston Professor at Harvard, a position previously held by Seamus Heaney - the first woman to hold this position. Nonino International Prize 2013
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Amin Maalouf

After studying political economy and sociology, following in his father’s footsteps, he becomes a journalist. Thus, he has the opportunity to travel around sixty Countries and to experience several events, from the Vietnam war to the Iranian revolution. At the outbreak of the war in Lebanon Maalouf chooses exile and moves to Paris. On June 23, 2011 he was elected to the Académie Française, where he holds the chair that had been Lévi-Strauss’s. Nonino International Prize 1998
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