key people FRANK PARSONS Frank Parsons (1854-1908) is considered the father of guidance and counselling. His work, and several books he published, had an important impact on the eld of education and work. In 1908 he established the Vocational Guidance Bureau in Boston, the rst vocational guidance organisation ever. It helped people to identify their interests and abilities in order to nd a job that ts their needs best. He considered guidance as a way to match individuals with optimal careers based on their values, interests, personality, and abilities. His early theory involved the counsellor gathering information about the client, the occupational world, and the ways in which people could be matched to various types of work. This approach changed the way people think about careers. Parsons rmly believed in research and a scienti c approach to guidance and that understanding an individual s skills and features through testing and self-assessment could lead to better career choices, starting from guidance at schools, where students could focus on their future academic career. His work laid the foundations for studies on the social development of individuals. MAURICE HILLEMAN Maurice Ralph Hilleman (1919-2005) was one of the greatest microbiologists/vaccinologists of the last six decades. He played an unmatched role in developing various vaccines and he contributed to the development of: virology, epidemiology, immunology, and cancer research. How did he do that? He isolated the virus from his daughter, Jeryl Lynn, when she contracted mumps in 1963. By weakening the virus, he could make a safe and effective mumps vaccine. His precious work on vaccines against measles, mumps, hepatitis A and B, chickenpox, meningitis, and pneumonia helped millions of people around the world. Humanity owes him a lot as his achievements contributed to many changes in the world of medical research. NOAM CHOMSKY Noam Chomsky (1928-) is a linguist who revolutionised the world of linguistics by stating that people are pre-wired to learn a language. According to his research, language acquisition is inborn, and it is a subconscious natural process occurring in our brain s neural circuits. According to his theory, we learn, speak, and write a language thanks to our biologically-based cognitive ability rather than acquired through experiential learning as it was thought. According to him, humans acquire language by unconsciously storing information in the brain which can later be used for many types of written and oral communication. He also believes in the importance of children acquiring and developing effective language skills during early critical development stages because language helps the child to function in society, teaching them how to socialise and learn. inborn: innato 68 BODY AND MIND mumps: parotite (orecchioni) pre-wired: predisposto umatched: inarrivabile