In memory of Monica Montefalcone

[postm...@aioss.info]

Today, Italian Association of Scientific Divers must sadly share tragic news. Monica Montefalcone, a member of our Technical-Scientific Committee, has passed away, along with her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, Muriel Oddenino, a research fellow, Federico Gualtieri, a master's degree holder in Marine Biology and Ecology, and diving guide Gianluca Benedetti.

 

There are people for whom the sea is not just a workplace, but a constant question. A threshold to be crossed each time with the profound curiosity that drives those who have chosen to dedicate their lives to knowledge.

Monica Montefalcone belonged to this community of people: researchers who are not content to simply observe the world from afar, but feel the need to delve into it, to observe, understand, measure, and tell stories. For a marine biologist, exploration is not an accessory: it is part of the profession itself, almost an inner necessity. It is the way we build knowledge, but also the way we restore value to the fragile beauty of the organisms and environments we study.

Her passing leaves behind grief, dismay, and many questions, leaving an unfillable void. Some answers may come with time. But what will remain, beyond all circumstances, is the true meaning of her scientific life: her passion for the sea, that curiosity born of wonder, the gentle courage of exploration, the desire to understand and protect what often remains invisible to the eyes of many. Because those who dedicate their lives to understanding the sea always leave a mark: in the data, in the students, in the colleagues, in the places studied, and in that part of us that continues to believe that understanding nature is also a way to love it.

It is this image we want to preserve of Monica, her daughter, and her colleagues. In their sea, in that research that is made of rigor, beauty, hard work, and wonder.

Goodbye, Monica. May your love for the sea live on in your work and in the memories of those who had the privilege of knowing you.

 

The board of directors and the technical-scientific committee

 

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Associazione Italiana Operatori Scientifici Subacquei - AIOSS

Presidente: Prof. Massimo Ponti

Vice-presidente: Prof. Carlo Cerrano

c/o Centro Interdipartimentale di Ricerca per le Scienze Ambientali in Ravenna, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna

Via S. Alberto 163, 48123 Ravenna (Italy)

C.F.: 92072600395

e.mail: in...@aioss.info - postm...@aioss.info

sito web: http://www.aioss.info/

 

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