International Journal of Food Studies

 This issue of the International Food Studies Journal is dedicated to Prof Fabio Napolitano – 1963-2022 

Fabio Napolitano was full Professor at the School of Agriculture, Food, Forestry and Environmental Sciences (University of Basilicata, Italy) since December 2021 and Coordinator of the PhD course in Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences. At the same University, Fabio started his academic career as researcher in 1995. He was involved in several projects concerning animal behaviour (regional and national level) and animal welfare (national and international level), and in particular on Mediterranean Italian buffaloes.  

He was nominated member of the scientific committee of external reviewers by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) for the period 2009-2011 and contributed to draft the external reviews of the quality of the scientific outputs of EFSA. He was a nominated member of the working group on sheep welfare by EFSA in 2013 and contributed to draft and publish a “Scientific Opinion on the welfare risks related to the farming of sheep for wool, meat and milk production” and a Technical Report titled: “Outcome of a public consultation on the Draft Scientific Opinion of the EFSA Panel on Animal Health and Welfare on the welfare risks related to the farming of sheep for wool, meat and milk production”. He was a nominated member of the working group on Animal-based measures (ABMs) gap analysis and contributed to draft and publish a Technical Report titled: “The use of animal-based measures to assess animal welfare in EU - state of the art of 10 years of activities and analysis of gaps. 

He was a nominated expert evaluator for thecalls of the Societal Challenge of Horizon 2020. 

He was member of the editorial board of the journals “Animals” (MDPI), “Journal of Food Quality” (Hindawi), and “International Journal of Food Studies” (ISEKI_Food Association), and editor in chief of the “Journal of Buffalo Science” (LifeScience Global). 

In 2021 he was included in the "career" and "single year" categories of the "Updated science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators", published by Stanford University. He was author of 150 indexed scientific articles, with 3,150 citations and an h-index of 33. 

Fabio was a recognized an expert on animal welfare and behaviour, as well as, in sensory sciences. He had the gift of conversing to everyone as an equal, Fabio was not a man who put on airs or thought he was superior to others.We will miss his smiles, cheerful advices, availability and scientific expertise. His way of approaching life will be impressed in our minds for ever.  

We will miss you, 

Colleagues from University of Basilicata and the Editorial Team of IJFS