Son of health educator Anna Bove and dentist Alfredo Pinotti, José Aristodemo Pinotti, or Ari as he was called by his family, was born into a favorable environment to follow his vocation in the medical field. All his grandparents came from Italy. His paternal grandparents were from Veneto, while his maternal grandparents from the Amalfi region.

He visited Italy for the first time in 1961, and from then on created deep professional and friendship links there. So much so that his medical training was improved during the period he spent taking internships in hospitals in Florence and Rome and in Paris (France), right after finishing his course at the University of São Paulo School of Medicine. Finally, he stayed in Milan, at the then Istituto dei Tumori, where he met a young breast surgeon named Umberto Veronesi, with whom he had a deep friendship and professional partnership that yielded many fruits for the Brazilian mastology.

At that time, he was already aiming for a university career. Invited by Prof. Bussâmara Neme, his professor of Medicine and also a professor at the Medical Sciences College of the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp), to establish the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics of that college, he realized the great opportunity to start his main purpose: to become a university professor of medicine.

In the 1970s and 1980s he made important contributions to ensure better possibilities of cure and quality of life for women with breast cancer, pioneering research on adjuvant chemotherapy with his partner in profession and life Prof. Dr. Luíz Carlos Teixeira. In the 1980s he published with Prof. Henrique Benedito Brenelli, Prof. Maurício Knobel, and Prof. Ricardo Baroudi an important work on immediate post-mastectomy breast reconstruction that was transformative in our conduct. That was also when he started the conservative surgery protocols with cytohistological evaluation of the surgical margins, which currently allow us to use the mammoplasty techniques.  

His entire academic career was carried out at Unicamp, where he took the exams that led him to the position of full professor. Also through exams, he achieved the same position at the USP School of Medicine. He served as Principal of the School of Medicine, and Dean of UNICAMP when he built and founded the Center for Comprehensive Attention to Women’s Health (Centro de Atenção Integral à Saúde da Mulher, CAISM) that today bears his name(Prof. José Aristodemo Pinotti Women’s Hospital) and that is recognized throughout Brazil.  

Her relevant scientific contribution has been translated into 82 books and 1,860 scientific papers published in renowned international journals, many of which are award-winners. 

In the 1960s he assembled a team to establish his first private medical clinic aimed at providing integral care to women’s health conditions.

As a public manager, he expanded the concept of universalization and health integration into his extensive work: he was dean of Unicamp (1982-1986), State Secretary of Education and Health(1986-1991), federal deputy for three legislatures, member of the National Academy of Medicine (chair 22), municipal secretary of Education of São Paulo (2005-2006), the only Brazilian elected president of the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (1986-1992), and the first one to receive the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Bologna, the oldest in the world, in recognition of the importance of his work on behalf of women.

In 1966 he married the artist and professor of the Institute of Arts at Unicamp, Suely Pinotti, with whom he built his family that always supported him and cooperated in all his projects. He had three children: Marianne (doctor), André (architect) and Mirella who passed away at the age of 19. He had five grandchildren: Anna, Gaia, Ari, Enrica, and Mirella.

An admirer and enthusiast of literature, music, and theater, he published two books of poems. He lived in close contact with artists all over the world, such as the poet and writer Hilda Hilst and José Antônio de Almeida Prado, a great contemporary classical music composer, among others.

A free thinker and avid reader, with an immense capacity for synthesis and generous dissemination of ideas and utopias, he conciliated his scientific vocation with his intensely humanistic character.

The José Aristodemo Pinotti award is given to the best paper presented during BBCS. Initially, we cover the author’s flight tickers, lodging and registration to San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, in Texas (USA). However, with the pandemic and the event going online, the 2021 edition awarded the prize in cash. The 2022 edition will follow the same format.