News

With deep sorrow, we have learned the decease of Dr. Ernesto Illy, one of the most emblematic personalities of the world of coffee. At this place, we would like to underline his immeasurable contribution to coffee science, leaving to others the task of relating his carrier of entrepreneur. His vast curiosity and scientific knowledge went far beyond the limit of coffee domain. Above all, however, the power of his convictions was the strength that allowed him to make coffee knowledge progress in all different aspects. All his life, this capacity to convince could be seen in his indefatigable activity of every moment.

The foundation of ASIC was one of his strokes of genius. He largely contributed to establish and promote this association as a means to develop scientific knowledge on coffee and, above all, to give an opportunity to scientists from the different parts of the world to share this knowledge. His never-ending effort to support coffee quality and confer to it a positive image will remain a model for us.

Coffee Academy is a project launched by CONFIDEA USA, economic and financial consultants in New York, with a view to encouraging rigorous economic research on coffee, through the creation of a research center based in New York. Envisioned as a joint effort between industry experts, major corporations, coffee organizations and universities from around the world, the mission of the Coffee Academy is twofold:

   a) Foster interest among university students (at both the undergraduate and Masters’ level) in the investigation of economic issues related to coffee as part of their thesis, facilitate their research efforts and prepare them for a career in the coffee industry,
   b) Enable major coffee companies and associations to direct economic research towards issues that are usually neglected in mainstream market analyses due to their complexity.

The main benefits to participating sponsors will be a) a more organized strategy to identify and select talent for their organizations; b) an opportunity to achieve a deeper understanding on how their business market works through results arising from the sponsored research; c) an increase in their worldwide visibility within the academic community thanks to an extensive advertising campaign of the initiative in several universities around the world.

All participating sponsors will be required to make a financial contribution based upon the number of students endorsed or their interest in supporting the project for brand promoting purposes. For more information, please contact Mr. Giulio Polimeni at coffeeacademy@confidea.com.

The organisers of the recent 21st ASIC conference on coffee science have been rewarded by the remarkable success of the event. In the long series of ASIC conferences, ASIC 2006 has set a record in terms of the number of scientific communications (over 250) and participants (350, from 37 countries).

An important feature of the conference was the workshop devoted to informing the participants and representatives of the media on the current knowledge of the interactions of coffee with human health. International experts reported on the beneficial of coffee on such diseases as diabetis II, cancer, Parkinson disease. In the days following the conference, the information presented during that session has been published in various media of the French and international press.

The Proceedings of ASIC 2006 conference has been issued and can be ordered from this site.