Italian Mensan Anna Maria Roncoroni has been named the Mensa Foundation's 2013 winner of the International Award for Benefit to Society for her work as an advocate of gifted children's programs, both in Italy and internationally. Anna Maria joined Mensa in 1999, and with the aid of another Mensan, helped found Mensa Italy's Gifted Children Program in 2002.
After receiving her master's degree in psychology and being accepted to a Ph.D. program, Anna Maria founded the Laboratory for Gifted and Talented Students at the University of Pavia in Italy. In 2010, she left the Department of Psychology at the University of Pavia to create the Italian Association for Gifted and Talented Children. Soon thereafter, she was integral in developing the Ulysse Network with three European universities, Mensa Italia and Giù le Mani dai Bambini. Additionally, she helped establish an agreement with the Italian Institute of Statistics and received recognition from the Italian Ministry of Education.
Earlier in 2013, she and others formed and agreement with MIT's Edgerton Center to expand the Lego DNA series into Europe for the first time.