Keynote Speakers

(in alphabetical order, continuously updated)

Bai, Jiang-Bo

Bai, Jiang-Bo

Beihang University, China

Jiang-Bo Bai is Associate Professor of School of Transportation Science and Engineering at Beihang University in China. He received his B.Sc degree (2007). In Engineering Mechanics, M.Sc.(2009) degree in Aircraft Design and a Ph.D.(2012) in Vehicle Operation Engineering from Beihang University. Then he has been working in the Airworthiness Engineering of School of Transportation Science and Engineering at Beihang University until now.

His research interests include composite mechanics, composite process mechanics, deployable composite structures, flexible composite skin, morphing aircraft, woven and braided composites, multi-objective optimization, etc. He has led the team to develop a series of novel composite structures, some of which have been applied in industrial fields. He has presided over more than 50 national, provincial and industrial funded scientific research projects in the composite field. He has published nearly 30 top journal papers (e.g. Composite Structures, Composites Part B, International Journal of Solids and Structures, Acta Astronautica etc.) in the field of composite and 1 academic monograph and 1 monograph chapter and has been granted 25 invention patents. His postgraduate students won two gold prizes in the National Machinery Industry Design Innovation Competition, Nomination Award for Excellent Doctoral Dissertation of China Aviation Society, etc.

Deployable Flexible Composite Structures

Colao, Annamaria

Colao, Annamaria

University of Naples Federico II, Italy

Full Professor of Endocrinology at the Department of Clinical Medicine, Surgery, Federico II University of Naples. Coordinator of national and international research projects with a scientific activity characterized by the publication of over 900 original articles in international journals (Hirsch Index 117). He has published over one hundred treatises, manuals, book chapters and monographs. She is at the top of the list of Top Italian Scientists and is Italian Top Woman Scientist. Responsible for Italy of the European network ENDO-ERN (European Reference Network) for the study of rare endocrine pathologies in adults of which she is coordinator of the regional center at the Federico II University where she is also responsible for the European center of excellence ENETS (for the study of neuroendocrine tumors), of the center of excellence for the diagnosis and treatment of obesity CIBO (accredited with SIO and EASO). She was president of the National Council of Scientific Research Guarantors at the Ministry for University and Research. President of the European Society of Neuroendocrinology for the two-year period 2016-2018. President of the Italian Endocrinology Society for the two-year period 2021-2023 (first woman in the history of the Society). Founder and President until June 2021 of Campus Salute Onlus (www.campussalute.it), a non-profit association dedicated to health. Founder and President of the Foundation for Research in Medicine (FO.R.ME). Chairholder of the Unesco Federico II Chair "Health Education and Sustainable Development".

De Stefano, Mario

De Stefano, Mario

University of Florence, Italy

Prof. Mario De Stefano obtained the Degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Naples Federico II in 1986, the Master of Science from the University of California at Berkeley in 1990 and the PhD from the University of Naples Federico II in 1992. He is full professor of Construction Techniques at the Department of Architecture (DIDA) of the University of Florence. He held the position of Director of the Department of Construction and Restoration from April 2010 to December 2012. He has carried out research activities in international cooperation with the University of California at Berkeley, the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and the State University of New York at Buffalo. Currently, he is the Coordinator of Working Group 8 (Seismic behavior of irregular and complex structures) of the European Association of Earthquake Engineering. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Italian National Association of Earthquake Engineering and of the Board of Directors of the Italian Section of the American Concrete Institute. He has been Scientific Responsible for numerous research projects funded by the Civil Protection Department, the MIUR, the Tuscany Region, the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, the CNR and other scientific institutions. He is the author of over 100 scientific papers, many of which published in international journals; he has organized national and international scientific events; he has been a member of the scientific committees of national and international conferences and has been invited to hold scientific seminars at national and foreign universities, including the University of California at Berkeley, Columbia University, the State University of New York at Buffalo and the Technion -Israel Institute of Technology.

Seismic response analysis of irregular building structures

El Hachemi, Mohamed

El Hachemi, Mohamed

Luxembourg Institute of Science Technology, Luxembourg

Dr. Mohamed EL HACHEMI, a senior research & technology associate, at Luxembourg Institute of Science Technology(LIST), which is a research technology organisation in Luxembourg. He conducts research as principal investigator/coordinator of industrial, national, and European, research projects, to develop a world class capability to model and simulate electromagnetics problems using multiscale approach and design new generation of nanostructured materials known as Metamaterials. Previously, he was working as principal scientist at Advanced Technology Centre(ATC), BAE SYSTEMS, United Kingdom, He led research work for defence industry, and He was participating in many European research projects; FLAVIIR jointly funded by BAE SYSTEMS and EPSRC, to develop technologies for a maintenance free, low-cost UAV, and HIRF-SE an FP7 project with European aeronautics industry to develop a computational framework for electromagnetic aspects of the airframe design process. After receiving His PhD from University of Metz France, He joined the Zienkiewicz Centre for Computational Engineering at Swansea University, as Research Officer to develop a time domain code for very large-scale computations and parallel mesh generation capability, with high quality requirement for electromagnetic and fluid dynamic simulations for aerospace applications with partners: BAE Systems, US Army, and AIRBUS.

Esposito De Falco, Salvatore

Esposito De Falco, Salvatore

Sapienza University of Rome, Italy

Salvatore Esposito De Falco, born in Naples on 06/06/1968, is Full Professor of Economics and Business Management (disciplinary sector SECS-P08), in the Management Department of the Faculty of Economics of the University of Rome "Sapienza". He teaches:

-       Corporate Governance;

-      Corporate Governance in Family Business (in english).

In his scientific and academic career he has published over 110 papers in national and international journals of which 12 with impact factor, 8 indexed by ISI-WOS and 7 in class A, 7 monographic works. He was also guest editor of four Special issues on international journals and was the winner of 3 Best Paper Awards. He is Editor-in-chief of the following journals: Corporate Governance and Organizational Behavior Review, Corporate Governance and Sustainability Review”, Corporate Governance And Research & Development Studies. He was Visiting Scholar at: Baruch College New York; New York University Stern School of Business; Northern Illinois University and Universidad de Huelva, Spain. He is currently President of the Board of the Degree Course in "Business Management" of the University of Rome "Sapienza". He has been project manager of more than 30 ministerial research programs. Finally, he is a PhD, Chartered Accountant and Statutory Auditor. He is also Grant Office Manager of some important business groups. His main research interests are: Corporate Governance, Executive Compensation, Family Business, Shareholder right e Shareholder Engagement, Strategic Management, Sustainable Development e Environmental Social Governance (ESG).

Environmental, Social and Governance disclosure and sustainability in small and medium enterprises

Fraternali, Fernando

Fraternali, Fernando

University of Salerno, Italy

Fernando Fraternali is Professor of Structural Mechanics in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Salerno (Diciv), Italy. He received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Salerno, and a Ph.D. in Multiscale Mechanics from King's College London. F. Fraternali has participated as a PI or co-PI in various research projects funded by the Italian National Research Council, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Italy-USA scientific cooperation), and US research agencies. He is PI of the Research Project of National Relevance “Multiscale Innovative Materials and Structures” granted by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research for the years 2019 –2022 (MIUR Prin project 2017J4EAYB). In the University of Salerno, Prof. Fernando Fraternali serves as Rectory Deputy to Graduate Programs for the Scientific Area; as Coordinator of the PhD Course on “Risk and Sustainability in Civil, Architecture and Environmental Engineering Systems”; and as  Delegate to Research and Doctorate Affairs of Diciv. Most of his research work concerns multiscale modeling and simulation of solids and structures, the nonlinear dynamics of materials and structures, and the design and engineering of sustainable materials at multiple scales. Prof. Fraternali was awarded a Fulbright Research Scholarship for the academic year 2005/06 and has been Visiting Professor at the Graduate Aerospace Laboratories of the California Institute of Technology since September 2005 (several periods), and the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, San Diego, USA. Prof. Fraternali is Associate Editor of Mechanics Research Communications (Elsevier, ISSN: 0093-6413), Frontiers in Materials (Frontiers Publishing, ISSN: 2296-8016) and Ingegneria Sismica - International Journal of Earthquake Engineering (Patron Editore, ISSN: 0393-1420). He is also on the Editorial Advisory Board of Curved and Layered Structures (De Gruyter Open, ISSN: 2353-7396), Science and Engineering of Composite Materials (De Gruyter Open, ISSN: 2191-0359), and the World Journal of Engineering (Emerald Publishing, ISSN: 1708-5284). 

Computational modeling of biomimetic seismic metaisolators

Gambardella, Carmine

Gambardella, Carmine

UNESCO Chairholder on Landscape, Cultural Heritage, and Territorial Governance

Prof. Carmine Gambardella UNESCO Chairholder on Landscape, Cultural Heritage, and Territorial Governance; President and CEO of Benecon SCaRL University Consortium - Research Centre on Cultural Heritage, Ecology, Economy (University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitell", Pegaso University, University Federico ll of Naples, University of Salerno, University of Sannio). Full Professor of Drawing at the Pegaso University. President of the International Forum "Le Vie dei Mercanti" since its first edition in 2003. Editor and Founder of the series "Surveying is/or Project", "Knowledge Factory" and "Architecture, Heritage and Design". Component of the Scientific Committee of International Class A Magazine Abitare la Terra/ Dwelling on Earth (Gangemi Editor International Publishing). He covered various roles for the University of Campania, including the Pro Rector of Institutions, Academic Senator, Director of the Department of Architecture and Industrial Design Luigi Vanvitelli, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture Luigi Vanvitelli, Director of the Department of Culture of Design, Director of Doctoral School in the Discipline of Architecture, Coordinator of the PhD in Protection, Safety and Representation of the Environment and Structures and Territorial Governance, Coordinator of the PhD Program in Surveying and Representation of Architecture and the Environment. He is author of numerous scientific international papers, publications and proceedings on surveying and representation of the built and natural heritage.

Analysis and visualization of Big Data for territorial governance

Lanzoni, Luca

Lanzoni, Luca

University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy

Luca Lanzoni is Associate Professor of Solid and Structural Mechanics in the DIEF - Department of Engineering “Enzo Ferrari” at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (UNIMORE, Italy) and Head of the “CRICT”, the Inter-departmental Research and Innovation Centre on Construction and Environmental Services.

He received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees, cum laude, in Civil Engineering from the University of Ferrara, a Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. He is member of the GNFM-INdAM (from 2010) and member of the board of the PhD School at UNIMORE.

He participated as Associated Investigator and/or Coordinator of research units in the framework of several national research projects funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MIUR), by the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (FAR “Mission Oriented”) and a project funded by GNFM-INdAM (Progetto Giovani). 

His research interests include mechanics of poro-visco-elastic materials, contact problems between films/coatings/beams/plates resting on elastic substrates, mechanical modeling of FRCs, analytic models for hyperelastic damaged materials in the framework of finite elasticity and homogenization of physical properties of advanced composite materials. 

Institutional website: http://personale.unimore.it/rubrica/dettaglio/llanzoni

Recent advances about homogenization problems for porous solids

Liu, Rui

Liu, Rui

Beijing Institute of Technology, China

Rui Liu, Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering at Beijing Institute of Technology, China since 2019. He received his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Politecnico di Milano in 2017. He worked as research associate at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore from 2013 to 2014, and as research assistant at Institute of Chemical Materials, China Academy of Engineering Physics, China from 2018 to 2019. His research interests focus on impact, shock compression and the reaction of energetic composite materials. These works have been published in over 20 peer-reviewed book chapters, journals and proceedings papers. He serves as editor member of International Journal of Structural Integrity, guest editor of several international journals.

Loja, Amélia

Loja, Amélia

Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa, Portugal

Amélia Loja is a member of the Mechanical Engineering Institute (IDMEC, IST, University of Lisbon) a research unit that integrates the Associated Laboratory of Energy, Transports and Aeronautics (LAETA), and coordinator of a recent research centre at the institution where she teaches (CIMOSM, ISEL). She is Assistant Professor at the Lisbon School of Engineering (ISEL, IPL) in Portugal, and teaches subjects in the areas of computational solid mechanics, mechanics of materials and reverse engineering in the Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering courses. She supervised or co-supervised more than thirty theses in the areas of Mechanical, Civil, and Biomedical Engineering.

Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering (IST,UTL) and Habilitation in Mechatronic Engineering focused on Computer Aided Structural Design (University of Évora). Her academic background includes a B.Sc. with honours in Marine Engineering from the Portuguese Nautical School, a B.Sc. in Computer Science, and an M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering (IST,UTL).

Her main interest research areas include topics on computational solid mechanics, advanced composite materials, smart structures, metaheuristic optimization, and reverse engineering, where she authored/co-authored more than seventy publications in international scientific journals and book chapters.

Chairperson of the ECCOMAS thematic conference SYMCOMP - International Conference on Numerical and Symbolic Computation: Developments and Applications, which goes in its sixth edition in 2023.

For some years now, she collaborates with different European Commission Research Agencies in the evaluation of project proposals whose scientific fields’ context is related to her expertise.

An overview of the influence of properties’ uncertainty on variable stiffness composites’ behaviour

Lesiuk, Grzegorz

Lesiuk, Grzegorz

Wroclaw University of Science and Technology

Grzegorz Lesiuk is a Professor who has been employed at the Wroclaw University of Science and Technology (Faculty of Mechanical Engineering) since 2009. He obtained his doctoral degree in technical sciences (Mechanics) in 2013 and habilitation (PhD DSc., Mechanical engineering) in 2020. His research activities are related to mechanics in a broad sense which includes, but is not limited to Fatigue and Fracture mechanics of materials and structures, as well as new materials and modelling of their durability under cyclic and static loads. He has more than 200 scientific papers published in national and international scientific and technical journals, as well as more than 100 conference papers and 1 patent in the field. Currently, Grzegorz Lesiuk is the chairman of the Polish Group of Fracture Mechanics. He is also a member of the Polish Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (PTMTS, also a deputy member of the central authorities) and ESIS (European Structural Integrity Society). His teaching activities include lectures and tutorials in courses on mechanics, the strength of materials, fracture mechanics, lightweight structures, dimensional analysis, fatigue and fracture of materials and structures. He is a co-author of an academic textbook on mechanics and co-author of a monograph (Springer) on degradation problems of materials and structures. He is also the supervisor and co-supervisor of nine doctoral dissertations in Poland, Portugal and Brazil. For years, he has cooperated intensively with foreign centres in Europe (mainly Porto, Coimbra - Portugal, Oviedo - Spain, Milan, Bologna - Italy, Brno, - Czech Republic, Lviv, Kiev - Ukraine, Chemnitz, Kaiserslautern - Germany, Trondheim - Norway, Nove Mesto - Slovenia) and outside Europe (Brazil - Sao Paulo, Federal University of Minas Gerais, China - Chengdu, USA - Michigan, Canada - Waterloo, Zabol - Iran, Boumerdes - Algeria). He is a co-organizer of many international and national scientific events, such as the 20th ICMFM (20th International Colloquium Mechanical Fatigue of Metals), the 18th and the 19th KKMP (National Conference on Fracture Mechanics), the 1st VCMF (Virtual Conference on Fatigue of Metals), the 9th Symposium – Layered Structures and the creator of a new initiative in the form of a Polish-Czech-German-Ukrainian winter school on degradation and fatigue and fracture. He was repeatedly awarded for his scientific activities: Admission as a member of the Academy of Young Scientists and Artists operating at the President of the City of Wroclaw, Poland (nomination received from the Mayor of the City of Wroclaw, 2018), Rector's Award of the Wroclaw University of Science and Technology (2018, 2020), International ESIS Merit Award - TC12 (2019) and 2 international TOP 1% Reviewers (Publons&Web of Science) awards - 2019, Literati Award (2019) - Emerald Journals Group. In 2021, Prof. Grzegorz Lesiuk was included in the TOP2% list of most cited scientists (prepared by Stanford University in cooperation with Elsevier Publishing). He is also the author of numerous expert papers and reviews, more than 95% are reviews performed for JCR journals number of reviews: 550 documented in Publons & WoS database.

Fatigue crack growth modeling in metallic materials – mean stress effect and energy approach

Luciano, Raimondo

Luciano, Raimondo

University of Naples Parthenope, Italy

Professor Raimondo Luciano is Full Professor in Structural Mechanics at the University of Naples Parthenope and he is a member of the Comitato nazionale dei garanti per la ricerca (CNGR).

He was the Coordinator of the Faculty Activities of Civil and Environmental Engineering of University of Cassino and Southern Lazio. He has been involved in many research activities since 1991 as assistant professor at the University of Cassino. He has been the local coordinator of several research projects. He has more than 170 publications on national and international journals and conferences. His h-index is equal to 38. He has collaborated with distinguished scientists, such as prof. John R. Willis of the University of Cambridge UK, prof. Sia Nemat Nasser of the University of San Diego (USA), prof. Ever J. Barbero of the University of West Virginia (USA), Prof. Hota Gangarao and prof. Roberto Lopez Anido of the University of Maine (USA) and many others. He was the President of the National Committee of the MIUR for the PRIN Grants 2015 (http://prin.miur.it/). He was one of the four professors in the National Committee for Italian national qualification (ASN of MIUR) for Full and Associate professors in 08/B2 competitive sector. He collaborates for the realization of the Italian Design Guidelines CNR DT/200 and many others for the use of composite materials in Civil Engineering. Over 20 consultancy projects in structures in Italy (mainly), diagnosis and strengthening design of bridges and buildings.

Nano-Scale Mechanical Systems: Recent Trends in Nano-Structural Mechanics

Montemurro, Marco

Montemurro, Marco

École Nationale Supérieure d'Arts et Métiers, France

Prof. Dr. Montemurro is Full Professor at Arts et Métiers Sciences and Technologies and he develops his research at the I2M Laboratory in Bordeaux since September 2013. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanics in 2012 at Sorbonne Universités (UPMC Paris VI) in France for his work entitled “Optimal Design of Advanced Engineering Modular Systems through a New Genetic Approach”, where a new meta-heuristic, dealing with optimisation problems with a variable number of design variables, was developed. In 2012-2013 he was assistant professor at the Université de Lorraine. Moreover, since 2021, he is Head of Joint Research Laboratory COSiMS (Conception, Optimisation et Simulation des Matériaux et Structures) between I2M Laboratory and CEA (Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique). His research activities focus on the development of: (a) multi-scale optimisation strategies for composites, (b) topology optimisation algorithms based on NURBS hyper-surfaces, (c) multi-scale global/local modelling strategies for anisotropic structures, (d) development of theoretical models based on tensor invariants for anisotropic materials and structures. Currently, he is coordinator, or in charge for the I2M laboratory, of ten French and European (H2020) projects focusing on new topology optimisation methods for additive manufacturing and on new multi-scale optimisation approaches for variable stiffness composites. Dr. Montemurro is co-author of 157 research works including papers in international peer reviewed journals, chapters in books and international referenced conference proceedings. In 2019 he was awarded the Prix Daniel Valentin by French Society of Composite Materials (Association pour les MAtériaux Composites) in recognition of his outstanding works on the multi-scale design and optimisation of composite structures. In 2022, he was ranked among the top 2% of scientists in the world by Stanford University. He serves as associate editor for Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimisation, International Journal on Interactive Design and Manufacturing, Mathematical and Computational Applications, Mechanics of Advanced Materials and Structures, Aerotecnica Missili & Spazio, Advances in Mechanical Engineering, Symmetry, Cogent Engineering. 

A topology optimisation algorithm based on non-uniform rational basis spline hyper-surfaces: recent developments and new challenges

Nanni, Francesca

Nanni, Francesca

University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy

Prof. Ing. Francesca Nanni master in Chemical Engineering, PhD in Materials Engineering, Associate Professor in Materials Science and Technology, (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0484-8637). She is expert in Multifunctional and Sustainable Composite and Nanocomposite Materials, polymers and elastomers, engineering polymers (PEEK, PEI), 3D and 4D printing of multifunctional polymers. She works in Technology Transfer of innovative materials for construction, naval, automotive, railway and aerospace applications. Director of the labs for materials and coating manufacturing, synthesis and characterization (www.materiali.ing.uniroma2.it). She is author of 111 papers in peer-review journal, 5 patents and co-founder of the spin-off Tecnosens srl. She is/was principal investigator or participant to 12 European, National and Regional research projects and of more than 70 industrial research projects directly founded by private companies. She is associate editor of 3 scientific journals and author of 2 chapters in books. She is member of the Board of Directors of ECNP- European Center for Nanostructured Polymers, fellow of the Fondazione Tor Vergata where she is the coordinator of the “Raw Material Observation Group”, member of INSTM (Italian Interuniversity Consortium in Material Science and Technology) and AIMAT (Associazione Italiana Ingegneria dei Materiali). In 2019 She was awarded by AIRI (Italian Industrial Research Association) of the Oscar Masi prize for Technology Transfer for her activity in the field of 3D printing of multifunctional engineering polymers.

Sustainable and Multifunctional Smart Materials in engineering applications: the role of ecodesign

Nicolais, Luigi

Nicolais, Luigi

University of Naples, Federico II, Italy

Luigi Nicolais, chemical engineer, graduated from the University of Naples "Federico II". He was Full Professor of Polymer Technology and Materials Science at the same University, Director of the Department of Materials and Production Engineering, founder and President of the degree program in Materials Engineering and founder and President of the PhD school in Biomaterials, member of the Academic Senate and President of the Science and Technology Center. From 1969 to 1971 he was in the United States where in 1971 he obtained a Master of Science from Washington University in St. Louis (MO) and from 1981 to 2003 he was Adjunct Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the "University of Washington" (Seattle) and from 1986 to 2004 Adjunct Professor at the Institute of Materials Science - University of Connecticut at Storrs. In 1988 he was elected Chairman of Gordon Research International Conference on “Composite Material” which was held in Ventura (CA- USA). He was founder and Director of the Institute for Composite and Biomedical Materials of the National Research Council (CNR). He founded and chaired the Technological District on Engineering of Polymeric and Composite Materials and Structures (IMAST). He has obtained numerous national and international awards including that of the Society for the Advancement of Materials and Process Engineering (SAMPE). Prof. Luigi Nicolais was appointed fellow at the American Institute for Medical and Biomedical Engineering (AIMBE), and fellow of Biomaterials Science and Engineering (BSE); in the same year, he received the George Winter award from ESB, European Society for Biomaterials. In 2003 he was included in the ranking of the Top Italian Scientists and he has been President of the “2003 Group”. He has been a member of the Scientific Committee of numerous institutions including Federchimica, Confindustria, Alenia, Swedish Institute of Composites, ENEA, CIRA. He is part of numerous national and international professional societies including the American chemical society, the British society of rheology, the American Institute of chemical engineering, the Italian chemical society, from which in 2006 he received the gold medal "Sebastiano De Luca". Prof. Luigi Nicolais has written 7 scientific monographs, several chapter books, over 700 publications in international journals and he has filed over 80 patents (Italian and International) in the sector of advanced materials. He has been, also, invited speaker in several conferences with lectures that covered several branches of scientific research (material engineering, food science, biomaterial, medicine, chemistry...), but also talks on research policies, technological transfer, innovation.
He was President of the City of Science in Naples and the Regional Agency for Technologies and Innovation at the Puglia Region. From 2000 to 2005 he was Regional Councilor of the University, Scientific Research and Technological Innovation and New Economy, at the Campania Region. From 2006 to 2008 he was Minister for Reforms and Innovations in the Public Administration of the second Prodi government (XV legislature). Between April 2008 and February 2012, he was member of the Italian Parliament and Vice-President of the Culture Commission of the Chamber of Deputies. He was President of the CNR from 2012 to February 2016. Since 2012 he has been President of the COTEC (Foundation for Technological Innovation). The President of the Italian Republic is the Honorary President of COTEC Italy. He is co-founder and President of MATERIAS s.r.l., an early stage combined accelerator, since July 2016. In 2016 he was awarded the honor of Knight of the Grand Cross to the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. In September 2016 he was appointed President of the Real Sito di Carditello Foundation by the Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism (MiBACT). From 2018 to 2022 he was President and member of the Steering Committee of the Campania Digital Innovation Hub. In 2017 Prof. Luigi Nicolais was Chief Scientific Advisor of the Italian Minister of Education, Universities and Research. In the same year he was appointed as Italian Representative at European Science Advisors Forum (ESAF) and he took part to the works of the Expert Group on Innovation Policy Management as a representative of Italian Ministry of University and Research on the definition of recommendations for the European Innovation Ecosystem. From 2021 until 2022, he has been Research Policy Advisor of Minister of University and Research. In November 2021 he was invited by the Directorate-General for Research & Innovation EU to join the European Innovation Council Forum and the Working Groups on Innovation Policy. He was Counselor for Research Policies of Minister Letizia Moratti (2005-2006), of Minister Valeria Fedeli (2017-2018), of Minister Cristina Messa (2021-2022) and since November 2022 he has held the same role for Minister Anna Maria Bernini.

From Research to Business

Pavlou, Dimitrios

Pavlou, Dimitrios

University of Stavanger, Norway

Dimitrios Pavlou is Professor of Mechanics at University of Stavanger in Norway, and Elected Academician of the Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences. He has had over twenty-five years of teaching and research experience in the fields of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Fracture Mechanics, Finite and Boundary Elements, Structural Dynamics, Anisotropic Materials, and their applications in Engineering Structures. Professor Pavlou is the author of the books "Essentials of the Finite Element Method" (Elsevier), "Composite Materials in Piping Applications" (Destech Publications), "Advanced Mechanics of Solids and Structures" (to be published) and guest co-editor of several international Special Issues of journals and conference proceedings. His research portfolio includes over 120 publications in the areas of Applied Mechanics and Engineering Mathematics. In most of them he is the single or first author. Since January 2020 Prof. Pavlou joined the Editorial Board of the journal "Computer-Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering" (IF=11.775, 1st of 134 journals in Civil Engineering – 2020 Journal Citation Reports). He is also Associate Editor of the journal “Maritime Engineering” (IF=5.952), Associate Editor of the journal “Nondestructive Testing and Evaluation” (IF=2.098), Academic Editor of the journal “Advances in Civil Engineering” (IF= 1.843), Associate Editor of the Journal of “Aerospace Technology and Management” (IF= 0.713), Editorial Board member of the “International Journal of Structural Integrity”, Topic editor of the Journal “Dynamics”, Editorial board member of the “International Journal of Ocean Systems Management”, Honorable Editor of the journal “Aeronautics and Aerospace Open Access Journal”, Editorial board member of the “Journal of Materials Science and Research”, etc. He has been conference chair and has participated as a plenary speaker and session chair in many international conferences. In 2015-2019 Prof. Pavlou was the Discipline Leader for "Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science" and Study Program Leader for the MSc program "Constructions and Materials", the BSc program "Mechanical Engineering", and the double MSc degree program "Offshore Field Development". In the same period, he was the coordinator of the Norwegian module of the TWIN program in Mechanical Engineering of the European Consortium of Innovative universities (ECIU).

Mesh Reduction Methods in Fracture Mechanics: Applications to dissimilar materials containing interfacial cracks under singular loading sources

Rozza, Gianluigi

Rozza, Gianluigi

International School for Advanced Studies, Italy

Gianluigi Rozza is professor in Numerical Analysis and Scientific computing at International School for Advanced Studies -SISSA, Trieste, Italy. Phd in Applied Mathematics at EPFL in 2005, MSc in Aerospace Engineering at Politecnico di Milano in 2002, post-doc at MIT. At SISSA he is the coordinator of SISSA mathematics area, lecturer in the master in High Performance Computing, in  the master degree in Mathematics with the University of Trieste, and in the master degree in data science and scientific computing. He is  SISSA Director’s delegate for Valorisation, Innovation, Technology Transfer and Industrial Cooperation. His research is mostly focused in numerical analysis and scientific computing, developing reduced order methods. Author of more than 130 scientific publications (editor of six books and author of two books). Co-advisor of 30 master thesis, co-director/director of 20 PhD theses  since 2009.  Principal Investigator of the European Research Council Consolidator Grant (H2020) AROMA-CFD and  PoC ARGOS (HE), as well as for the project FARE-AROMA-CFD funded by Italian Government. Within SISSA mathLab he is responsible of several  industrial projects with companies such as Danieli, Electrolux, Wartsila and Fincantier. He is member of the Applied Mathematics Committee of  European Mathematical Society. More:http://people.sissa.it/grozza

Ventre, Giorgio

Ventre, Giorgio

University of Naples Federico II, Italy

Giorgio Ventre is Full Professor of Computer Networks at the Department of Information and Electrical Engineering of the University of Napoli Federico II. He owns a Laurea Degree in Electronic Engineering and a PhD in Computer Engineering, both from the University of Napoli Federico II.
From 1991 to 1993 he was Postdoctoral Fellow with the Tenet Group at the International Computer Science Institute e the University of California at Berkeley. Since 1993 he leads the research group on networks and multimedia communications at Federico II ( www.comics.unina.it ).
In 2000 he co-founded ITEM, the National Research Laboratory in Multimedia Communications of the Italian University Consortium on Informatics (CINI – www.consorzio-cini.it ), that he directed from 2000 to 2004 and from 2013 to 2015. From 2003 to 2011 he was President and CEO of the Consorzio Campano di Ricerca per l’Informatica e l’Automazione Industriale (CRIAI), one of the few examples of public-private partnership in Southern Italy in industrial research.
From his research he co-founded several start-ups: Tipic, Meetecho, NM2, RISLab. In partnership with Finmeccanica (now Leonardo) and Esaote he contributed to create two research labs in the areas of Software for Mission Critical Applications (COSMIC) and of Advanced Medical Imaging (ESALAB).
From January 2016 to December 2021 he has been Chair of the Department of Information and Electrical Engineering of the University of Napoli Federico II (DIETI). With more than 170 academics, 8 undergraduate Corsi di Laurea (degree courses), 7 postgraduate Corsi di Laurea Magistrale (master degree courses), three PhD programs and with almost 8.000 students, DIETI is one of the largest dept. in Italy in the area of Information and Electrical Engineering and it is ranked among the best in both teaching and research. Recently, DIETI was selected within the “Dipartimenti di Eccellenza” initiative by the Italian Ministry for Education, University and Research with a project on ICT for Health who was ranked in the top 10% of the proposals.
Giorgio Ventre is Scientific Director of the Apple Developer Academy ( www.developeracademy.unina.it ), a partnership between Federico II and Apple to form the App developers and professionals of the future. He is also CEO of Campania NewSteel, a start-up incubator born as a partnership between Federico II and Città della Scienza, the largest Science Museum and Innovation Center in Italy. He is also leading two co-innovation hubs located at the University of Napoli Federico II, with CISCO and with TIM.
From 2014 to 2017 he coordinated Programma il Futuro, an initivative between CINI and the Italian Ministry for Education, University and Research to bring coding and computational thinking inside Italian schools. During the 2016 International Hour of Code, thank to Programma il Futuro Italy was the first nation in the world for number of events, with more than 1.400.000 students participating. Recently he was appointed by the Minister of Education, University and Research in the National Scientific Committee for Primary and Secondary Schools.
He is author of more than 250 research publications in the area of Computer Networks, Multimedia Systems, Distributed Computing and has served as Conference Chair or member of the Organizing and Scientific Committees for several international conferences in these areas. He also served as Editor for research journals. He has served as and is member of several Scientific Committees and seats in the Board of public and private entities such as Fondazione Ugo Bordoni and the Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte.

The role of Universities in Innovation Ecosystems

Zhang, Jianxun

Zhang, Jianxun

Xian Jiaotong University, China

Dr. Jianxun Zhang is currently an Associate Professor (tenured) in the School of Aerospace Engineering, Xian Jiaotong University in China. Dr. Zhang has rich expertise in analytical, experimental and numerical investigations of plastic behavior and impact response of lightweight cellular structures, such as plastic yield criteria, static plastic and indentation behavior, static bending failure mechanism, low-velocity impact response, blast impact response, splitting and curling behavior. Dr. Zhang has so far published 76 papers in SCI journals, of which 64 papers included in SCI have been authored as the first or corresponding author in top journals in the area of solid mechanics and composite materials. Dr. Zhang has authorized 2 invention patents and 1 software copyright, wrote one chapter of an English book (as the first author).

Failure behavior of a sandwich beam with GLARE face-sheets and aluminum foam core under three-point bending