Martino Diez has been the scientific director of the Oasis International Foundation since January 2009. A graduate in Oriental languages and civilisations, he holds a PhD in Oriental Studies from Ca' Foscari University in Venice (2007). He has been a sessional lecturer at Milan’s Catholic University (Arabic Language) and lecturer at the Studium Generale Marcianum in Venice since 2008. Among his publications: Introduzione alla lingua araba. Origini, storia e attualità, Vita e Pensiero, Milano 2012, Abû l-‘Alâ’ al-Ma‘arrî, L'epistola del perdono. Il viaggio nell'Aldilà, Einaudi, Torino 2011, (The Epistle of Forgiveness: The Voyage to the Afterworld) Turin: Einaudi, 2011, Abû t-Tayyib al-Mutanabbî, L'emiro e il suo profeta. Odi in onore di Sayf ad-Dawla al-Hamdani (The Emir and his Prophet. Odes in Honour of Sayf ad-Dawla al-Hamdani), Milan: Ariele, 2009 and Georges Anawati, L'ultimo dialogo. La mia vita incontro all'Islam (The Ultimate Dialogue. My Life: an Encounter with Islam), Venice: Marcianum Press 2010. He also collaborated to the revision of the Arabic translation of the catecheses of Benedict XVI on Saint Paul (Bûlus ar-Rasûl, al-Maktaba al-Bûlusiyya / Marcianum Press, Jounieh - Venezia 2010), and on prayer (Rabbi, ‘allim-nâ an-nusallî, al-Maktaba al-Bûlusiyya / Marcianum Press, Jounieh - Venezia 2012). He has been working with Oasis since 2004.