Historical and Commemorative Medals
Collection of Benjamin Weiss

RESEARCH MEDAL AWARDED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF MILAN

Nanitilio : Italy, 1981, Silver, 40 mm
Obv: Christ, seated, healing a beggar holding a staff   IMPOSUIT-MANUS-SUPER-OCULOS-EIUS-ET-COEPIT-VIDERE
Rev: ISTITUTO DE FARMACOLOGIA E DI TERAPIA DELL'UNIVERSITA' . MILANO.   To B. WEISS DEC.- 17- 1981
Signed: NANITILIO
The medal is housed in its original case of issue, which is inscribed: LORIOLI FRATELLI MILANO-ROMA
Ref:
Weiss BW694

The University of Milan (Università degli Studi di Milano), Milan, Italy, is one the largest universities in Italy, with over sixty thousand students. The university is a member of the League of European Research Universities.

Located in Lombardy in northern Italy, Milan is one of the largest cities in Italy and one of the major artistic, cultural and fashion centers of Europe. Its chief landmarks include the Duomo or Milan Cathedral, the most imposing building in Milan and the second largest cathedral in Italy, after St. Peter’s in Rome. Nearby the Piazza Duomo is the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, reputed to be the world's oldest shopping mall. And not far from that is La Scala (Teatro alla Scala), one of the most important opera houses in the world. The Castello Sforzesco is also a notable attraction as is the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, which contains drawings and notebooks by Leonardo da Vinci among its vast holdings of books, manuscripts, and drawings, and is one of the main repositories of European culture. Milan is also home to some of the finest art and art museums in the world, including the Pinacoteca di Brera, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Poldi Pezzoli, the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum and the Musei del Castello galleries, which host a great number of pictorial masterpieces. Leonardo Da Vinci's The Last Supper, one of his most famous paintings, is located in a museum next to the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie.

Besides great art and culture, Milan is the site of The Mario Negri Research Institute, (Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche), which, along with the University of Milan is one of the most important research institutes in Italy.

Benjamin Weiss (1937- ), the recipient of this Research Award Medal, did his undergraduate training at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science where he received a B.Sc. in 1958. He received a doctorate (Ph.D.) in 1963 from the same institution. His postdoctoral training was done from 1963 to 1968: initially at the National Institutes of Health, where he was awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship, and then at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, where he was a Research Associate. He later worked at the National Institute of Mental Health where he obtained the position of Chief of the Section on Neuroendocrinology. Weiss spent the remainder of his career at the Medical College of Pennsylvania, where he was Professor of Pharmacology and Psychiatry and Chief of the Division of Neuropsychopharmacology. His major areas of research were in the Neurosciences, particularly in Molecular Neuropharmacology. He is currently Emeritus Professor of Pharmacology and Physiology, Drexel University College of Medicine, where he was given the honor of having a Graduate Student Fellowship established in his name.

Dr. Weiss has edited two books and has published over 300 scientific articles on his research in the fields of Molecular Biology and Molecular Pharmacology, and in 1981 he was named as one of the Top One Thousand Most Quoted Scientists in the World. Among his several awards was a MERIT Award from the National Institutes of Health, an Outstanding Scientist Award from the China Bureau of Foreign Experts Affairs, Suzhou Medical College, Suzhou, China, and this silver medal from the University of Milan, Milan, Italy, awarded to Weiss for Excellence in Research.

Following his retirement Weiss spends his time woodworking, gardening and collecting and studying Historical and Commemorative Medals. This latter activity includes the development of a website Collection of Historical and Commemorative Medals and being the Webmaster of Medal Collectors of America.

Curriculum Vitae of Benjamin Weiss

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