On Wednesday, 14 November 2012, Bellini received the award
from Dr. Cortada as part of the joint session held each term in which students from
different master's degree programmes in the Faculty of Dentistry present
clinical cases in their fields. Bellini won for his final project for the
master's degree programme, "Properties of Super-elastic Nickel-Titanium Wires
Used in Orthodontics: An In Vitro Comparative Study".

This was the first edition of the Dr. Cortada Award for Scientific
Excellence. The award aims to recognize scientific excellence and will be given
each year to the best final project for the master's degree programmes in the
UIC Faculty of Dentistry. The faculty currently offers four official master's
degree programmes and eight of its own master’s degree programmes, as well as
nine clinical internships.