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L’Ateneo ricorda Gianna Paglia Lombardini

Unimore honours Gianna Paglia Lombardini
Gianna Paglia Lombardini recently passed away. She was a prominent figure in the Reggio Emilia com-
munity and the widow of industrialist Franco Lombardini, under whose leadership, in the 1970s and 1980s,
Lombardini Motori established itself as a leading company in Europe and the third largest manufacturer
of small and medium diesel engines in the world. The Lombardini family has always had close ties to the
city and the university. In 1979, Franco Lombardini had promoted the establishment of a Research and
Development Centre within Lombardini Motori. The Lombardini family then decided to donate a substantial
contribution of 250,000 euros, which enabled a laboratory, named after Franco Lombardini, to be set up in
the Department of Science and Methods for Engineering, together with the establishment of a scholarship
fund for deserving young graduates in Mechatronics Engineering, to encourage them to continue on to the
next master’s degree. Over time, this donation has enabled its researchers to participate in regional and
European tenders. Remembering Gianna Paglia Lombardini on these pages of Focus means expressing the
gratitude of the entire university to a figure who accompanied the rise and development of the Reggio Emilia
campus of Unimore over time.

l 29 luglio scorso è venuta a mancare, Succeduto, nel 1964, nella direzione al padre
all’età di 94 anni, Gianna Paglia Lom- Adelmo, fondatore dell’azienda nel 1933 insieme
bardini, figura di spicco della comunità ai fratelli Rainero e Alberto, Franco Lombardini
reggiana e vedova dell’industriale Fran- diede subito respiro internazionale all’impresa,
Ico Lombardini, sotto la cui guida, negli aprendo filiali in Francia, Spagna e Germania,
anni 1970/80, la Lombardini Motori si impose concentrando ricerca e produzione sui motori di

come impresa leader in Europa e terzo costruttore piccola cilindrata e realizzando nel 1970 il primo
al mondo di motori diesel di piccola e media po- motore diesel di piccola cilindrata a iniezione di-
tenza. retta: nel 1980, data della sua improvvisa scom-

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