Position/Role

Full professor of Pharmacology, Deputy Pro-ReRector, Pro-Rector delegated to the coordination and promotion of Research, University of Milan. President of the Foundation Filarete, Milan.

Professional career

After graduating in Pharmacy at the University of Milan in 1979, she continued her studies through a specialization in Experimental Toxicology at the same university in 1984. In 1988 she obtained a PhD in Experimental Medicine in Rome. During her studies Maria Pia Abbracchio spent periods of training abroad: in 1980 she was Postdoctoral fellow of the Department of Pharmacology of the University of Texas of Houston, in 1992 she is "Honorary Research Fellow" of the London College University. At the same time she continued her training and research, first as a researcher, then as an assistant professor of Neuropsychopharmacology and finally in 1998 as an associate professor of Pharmacology at the University of Milan. Since 2002 she has been an extraordinary professor and since 2005 she has been a full professor of Pharmacology at the same university. She is currently responsible for a research group consisting of 12 young scientists at the same university.

Scientific results

Her scientific interests focus on the physiopathological roles of purines, universal signaling molecules that regulate growth, survival and cell differentiation. She identified a new purinergic receptor involved in the differentiation of stem cells still present in the adult brain and in the heart, and she is developing new therapeutic approaches that can, through this receptor, enhance the repair of damage present in acute degenerative diseases (stroke and brain trauma, myocardial infarction) and chronic (Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis). In 2015, in an international study, Maria Pia Abbracchio and colleagues discovered how the anti-inflammatory drug for asthmatics "Montelukast" can stimulate neurogenesis and therefore help in cases of cognitive decline. Starting from previous studies that showed the greatest probability for patients with systemic infections of getting Alzheimer (a disease characterized by brain inflammation), the research group discovered a receptor (GPR17) present in stem-like cells of the brain that produce myelin, a substance that covers the nerves. The discovery of this receptor can also extended to the hippocampus (area of ​​the brain involved in the learning and memory process), and the research group showed that the administration of the anti-asthmatic drug, experienced on elderly mice, improves learning ability. Research on the GPR17 purinergic receptor offers hope even to patients with multiple sclerosis. While the drugs currently available intervene to block the progression of the disease, administer them with drugs that restart the damage repair action would cause the nervous system to produce new myelin and, sustaining nerve extensions with the growth substances present in myelin, the neuro-degeneration, that is typical of progressive forms and generates disabilities, could finally be avoided.

Editorial work and publications

She is the author of about 180 scientific publications, including:

(2016) Vigan F, Schneider S, Cimino M, Bonfanti E, Gelosa P, Sironi L, Abbracchio MP, Dimou L. GPR17 expressing NG2-Glia: Oligodendrocyte progenitors serving as a reserve pool after injury. Glia, 64(2):287-99.

(2015) Marschallinger J, Schäffner I, Klein B, Gelfert R, Rivera FJ, Illes S, Grassner L, Janssen M, Rotheneichner P, Schmuckermair C, Coras R, Boccazzi M, Chishty M, Lagler FB, Renic M, Bauer HC, Singewald N, Blümcke I, Bogdahn U, Couillard-Despres S, Lie DC, Abbracchio MP, Aigner L. Structural and functional rejuvenation of the aged brain by an approved anti-asthmatic drug. Nature Communications, 6:8466.

(2015) Fumagalli M, Bonfanti E, Daniele S, Lecca D, Martini C, Trincavelli ML, Abbracchio MP. The ubiquitin ligase Mdm2 controls oligodendrocyte maturation by intertwining mTOR with G protein-coupled receptor kinase 2 in the regulation of GPR17 receptor desensitization. Glia, 63(12):2327-39.

(2014) Zaratin P, Battaglia MA & Abbracchio MP. Nonprofit foundations spur translational research. Trends in Pharmacological Sciences, 35, 552–5.

(2011) Ceruti S, Villa G, Fumagalli M, Colombo L, Magni G, Zanardelli M, Fabbretti E, Verderio C, van den Maagdenberg AM, Nistri A, Abbracchio MP. Calcitonin gene-related peptide-mediated enhancement of purinergic neuron/glia communication by the algogenic factor bradykinin in mouse trigeminal ganglia from wild-type and R192Q Cav2.1 Knock-in mice: implications for basic mechanisms of migraine pain. Journal of Neuroscience, 31:3638-49.

(2011) Fumagalli M, Daniele S, Lecca D, Lee PR, Parravicini C, Fields RD, Rosa P, Antonucci F, Verderio C, Trincavelli ML, Bramanti P, Martini C, Abbracchio MP. Phenotypic changes, signaling pathway, and functional correlates of GPR17-expressing neural precursor cells during oligodendrocyte differentiation. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 286:10593-604.

(2009) Ceruti S, Villa G, Genovese T, Mazzon E, Longhi R, Rosa P, Bramanti P, Cuzzocrea S, Abbracchio MP. The P2Y-like receptor GPR17 as a sensor of damage and a new potential target in spinal cord injury. Brain. 132:2206-18.

(2009) Di Virgilio F, Ceruti S, Bramanti P, Abbracchio MP. Purinergic signalling in inflammation of the central nervous system. Trends in Neurosciences, 32:79-87.

(2006) Abbracchio MP, Burnstock G, Boeynaems JM, Barnard EA, Boyer JL, Kennedy C, Knight GE, Fumagalli M, Gachet C, Jacobson KA, Weisman GA. International Union of Pharmacology LVIII: update on the P2Y G protein-coupled nucleotide receptors: from molecular mechanisms and pathophysiology to therapy. Pharmacological Reviews, 5:281-341.

(2006) Ciana P, Fumagalli M, Trincavelli ML, Verderio C, Rosa P, Lecca D, Ferrario S, Parravicini C, Capra V, Gelosa P, Guerrini U, Belcredito S, Cimino M, Sironi L, (2006) Tremoli E, Rovati GE, Martini C, Abbracchio MP. The orphan receptor GPR17 identified as a new dual uracil nucleotides/cysteinyl-leukotrienes receptor. EMBO Journal, 25:4615-27.

Awards and prizes

Among the many awards received, she was nominated "Highly cited scientist" by Thomson Reuters, a definition based on the number of citations obtained in the international scientific literature that identifies scientists who are authors of the most influential publications in the world in their field (less than 0.5% of all researchers). In 2014 she was awarded the title of Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. In 2016 she was appointed "in the name of her Majesty" Filippo VI Foreign Member of the Royal Academy of Pharmacy of Spain, and since the same year she has also been member of the Academia Europea.

Position/Role

Head of the Laboratory of Vascular Biology and Angiogenesis at IRCCS MultiMedica. Scientific Director of the Fondazione Multimediaca Onlus. Professor of General Pathology at the University of Milan Bicocca.

Professional career

After graduating in organic chemistry at the University of Genoa in 1979, Adriana Albini specialized in oncology both in Italy and abroad. She worked at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Munich and for the American Institute of Health. Back to Italy she directed the scientific laboratory of Molecular Oncology of the National Institute for Cancer Research, where she was then Scientific Vice Director and Director of the Department of Translational Oncology. In 2002 she obtained the suitability for university teaching and was head of the "Research and Statistics Infrastructure" Department of the Santa Maria Nuova Arcispedale in Reggio Emilia.

Today Adriana Albini is the manager of the Vascular Biology and Angiogenesis Laboratory of IRCCS MultiMedica, in Sesto San Giovanni (MI) and is Scientific Director of Fondazione MultiMedica Onlus. She is also a lecturer in General pathology at the University of Milan Bicocca. 

Adriana Albini has never stopped conducting scientific research, her main fields of interest are: vascular biology, invasion and metastasis, angiogenesis, microenvironment, chemoprevention, immunopathogenesis linked to AIDS and associated tumors to AIDS and gene therapy with cytokines (polypeptide mediators that allow communication between the immune system and cells of other organs).

Scientific results

Adriana Albini has devoted most of her scientific and educational career to Experimental Oncology. Through translational research (a particular discipline that allows scientific findings to be converted into applicative therapies) she succeeded in developing new therapies in the field of angiogenesis. The "test tube metastasis" technique, which still allows new discoveries all over the world, has her name. Her interests do not stop just at translational research, in fact she is also involved in issues such as the prevention in the context of chronic degenerative diseases, including through her role as President of the Scientific Committee of the Women's Health Observatory. 

Editorial work and publications

Adriana Albini is a member of the editorial board of the most important international oncology journals, including Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Cancer Research and Carcinogenesis. She is involved in scientific communication and is enrolled in the journalists’ association. She is the author of more than three hundred scientific publications, including:

(2016) Albini A, DeCensi A, Cavalli F, Costa A. Cancer Prevention and Interception: A New Era for Chemopreventive Approaches. Clinical Cancer Research, 22:4322-7.

(2015) Albini A, Cavuto S, Apolone G, Noonan DM. Strategies to Prevent "Bad Luck" in Cancer. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 107.

(2014) Dallaglio K, Bruno A, Cantelmo AR, Esposito AI, Ruggiero L, Orecchioni S, Calleri A, Bertolini F, Pfeffer U, Noonan DM, Albini A. Paradoxic effects of metformin on endothelial cells and angiogenesis. Carcinogenesis, 35:1055-66.

(2014) Bruno A, Ferlazzo G, Albini A, Noonan DM. A Think Tank of TINK/TANKs: Tumor-Infiltrating/Tumor-Associated Natural Killer Cells in Tumor Progression and Angiogenesis. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 106.

(2012) Albini A, Tosetti F, Li VW, Noonan DM, Li WW. Cancer prevention by targeting angiogenesis. Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology, 9:498-509.

(2010) Cammarota R, Bertolini V, Pennesi G, Bucci EO, Gottardi O, Garlanda C, Laghi L, Barberis MC, Sessa F, Noonan DM, Albini A. The tumor microenvironment of colorectal cancer: stromal TLR-4 expression as a potential prognostic marker. Journal of Translational Medicine, 8:112.

(2010) Albini A, Pennesi G, Donatelli F, Cammarota R, De Flora S, Noonan DM. Cardiotoxicity of anticancer drugs: the need for cardio-oncology and cardio-oncological prevention. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 102:14-25.

(2010) Albini A, Noonan DM. The 'chemoinvasion' assay, 25 years and still going strong: the use of reconstituted basement membranes to study cell invasion and angiogenesis. Current Opinion in Cell Biology, 22:677-89.

(2007) Albini A, Sporn MB. The tumour microenvironment as a target for chemoprevention. Nature Reviews Cancer, 7:139-47.

(2007) Albini A, Benelli R. The chemoinvasion assay: a method to assess tumor and endothelial cell invasion and its modulation. Nature Protocols, 2:504-11.

Awards and prizes

Adriana Albini has received numerous prizes and awards:

In 1984, International "Max Buerger" Prize awarded by the German Society of Gerontology for the best unpublished work on ageing.

In 1985, "Doernkamp Zbinden" International Prize from the John Hopkins Institute in Baltimore for the development of an in vitro test to assess the metastatic potential of tumour cells.

In 2000, "Firenze Donna" Prize for scientific research. 

In 2004, "Amelia Earhart" Prize.

In 2007, "Berlucchi" Prize for scientific research. 

In 2010, "Ippocrate" Prize, "Il Ricercatore" section. 

In 2013, "ITWIIN" (Italian Association of Women Inventors and Innovators) Award for the "Best Woman Inventor and Innovator" in the High Education category.

In 2014, "Women who made it" Award assigned by the Brescia Equal Opportunities Councillor.

In 2015, "EUWIIN" (European Network of Women Inventors and Innovators) Award.

In 2016, "Luigi Castagnetta" Award for oncological research.

In 2016, she was included among the "Top Italian Women Scientists", for her commitment and high number of citations in biomedical research.

In 2021, she was included by the BBC in the list of the "100 most influential women in the world in 2020", for leading change in the year of the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak. 

Position/Role

Staff researcher for INFN (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare), Section of Padua (Italy).

Professional career

After completion of her Physics Diploma at the University of Padua in 1992, she pursued a PhD in Physics in 1996. Immediately after she wins a grant for continuing her studies as a post-doctoral scientist at the INFN Section in Padua. In 2008, 2012 and 2014 is awarded several grants for collaboration as a Scientific Associate at the CERN laboratory in Geneva(CH) and the Fermilab National Laboratory in Chicago (USA). Currently she is leading studies for the prospects physics measurements in the context of future projects for new particle colliders to be realised after the end of the LHC. 

Scientific results

In 1996, as a member of the CDF collaboration, observes for the first time the decay of the top quark (the heaviest fundamental particle in the Standard Model) and measures its production rate and and mass developing original analysis methods of background estimate from real data. In 2004 becomes a member of the CMS collaboration at the LHC of CERN laboratory in Geneva (CH). She has participated to the discovery of the Higgs boson in the role of responsabile of the data quality to be used for the analysis. Throughout her career Patrizia Azzi has focused her interest on particle physics and their properties to explain the fundamental law of physics. Azzi has been also coordinating several research projects: from 2002-2004 she has been leading the Top physics group for the CDF collaboration at Fermilab to plan and realise the measurements of the top quark properties during the Run 2 of the Tevatron collider, coordinating a group of about 200 physicist from all countries. As a member of the CMS experiment she has been coordinating various groups, among which the "Physics Performance and Dataset" that insured the data quality for physics in 2012/2013 and the physics group "B2G" that focuses on searches for new physics beyond the Standard Model in 2014/15. Currently she is leading the physics group that studies the future prospects for the project High Luminosity LHC that will start in 2024. 

Patrizia Azzi is also an active proponent of the Future Circular Collider project (FCC) where she studies in particular the potential for the most precise measurement of the top quark mass at a new lepton collider.

Editorial work and publications

She is author of vaste number of publication national and international, we quote here some of the most relevant: 

(2016) CMS Collaboration, Khachatryan S, [...] Azzi P, et al. Search for vectorlike charge 2/3 T quarks in pp collisions at √s=8 TeV.Physical Review D, 93:012003. 
(2014) CMS Collaboration. Search for top-quark partners with charge 5/3 in the same-sign dilepton final state.Physical Review Letters, 112:171801. 
(2014) Bicer M, [...] Azzi P, et al. First Look at the Physics Case of TLEP. The Journal of High Energy Physics, 01:164. 
(2012) The CMS Collaboration. Observation of a new boson at a mass of 125 GeV with the CMS experiment at the LHC.Physics Letters B, 716:30-61. 
(2009) CMS Tracker Collaboration, Adam W, [...] Azzi P, et al. Performance studies of the CMS Strip Tracker before installation.Journal of Instrumentation, 4. 
(1999) CDF Collaboration, Abe F, [...] Azzi P, et al. Measurement of the top quark mass with the Collider Detector at Fermilab.Physical Review Letters, 82:271-276. 
(1997) CDF Collaboration, Abe F, [...] Azzi P, et al. First observation of the all hadronic decay of t pairs. Physical Review Letters, 79:1992-1997. 
(1995) CDF Collaboration, Abe F, [...] Azzi P, et al. Observation of top quark production in p collisions. Physical Review Letters, 74:2626-2631. 
(1994) CDF Collaboration, Abe F, [...] Azzi P, et al. Evidence for top quark production in pcollisions at √s = 1.8 TeV.Physical Review Letters, 73:225-231. 
(1994) Amidei D, Azzi P, et al. The Silicon Vertex Detector of the Collider Detector at Fermilab. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A, 350:73-130.

Awards and prizes

2013 European Physical Society "High Energy and Particle Physics" Prize, for an outstanding contribution to High Energy Physics, awarded to the ATLAS and CMS collaborations, “for the discovery of a Higgs boson, as predicted by the Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism”.

Position/Role

Co-founder MIPU

Professional career

Giulia Baccarin was born in 1981 in Dueville, Vicenza.  After getting a Master Degree in Biomedical Engineering and discovering her passion for predictive modelling, she spent the first years of her career in Japan working for a consultancy company and successfully completing the EU funded Executive Training Programme in Tokyo.  Back in Italy in 2008, she starts the Italian subsidiary of the engineering company I-care, today European Leader in Predictive Maintenance and Reliability. Meanwhile, pushed by a strong desire to promote and support the entrepreneurial spirit of young talents in Italy, she co-founded MIPU, a group of companies that bring artificial intelligence in Industry.

Scientific results

The solutions developed by MIPU focus on predictive analytics developed to optimize industrial processes and are today chosen by top companies in Italy and abroad.

Awards and prizes

Giulia won in 2016 the Gamma Donna award for youth and female entrepreneurship and in 2018 Fortune Italy award for “Most influent innovative women Under 40”. For over three years, Giulia is active in promoting a deep discussion about the role of ethics in artificial intelligence, diversity in programming communities and the jobless society on prestigious stages such as TedXRoma 2017, Wired Next Fest 2017, Wired Trends 2018, Wired Digital Days 2019, DIGITAL ITALY SUMMIT 2017.
 

Position/Role

Full Professor in Medicine. President of the National Study Centre on Gender Health and Medicine.  Member elected of the Scientific Board of the International Society of Gender Medicine www.isogem.com.

Professional career

After graduating in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Padua in 1972, she continued her training first by specialising in Endocrinology at the University of Pavia and then as a research fellow at the Ludolf Krehl Klinik of the University of Heidelberg (West Germany). She then specialised in Internal Medicine at the University of Padua. From 1980 to 1988 she was a confirmed researcher, first at the Chair of Gerontology and Rechargeable Diseases at the Institute of Clinical Medicine, and then at the Chair of Medical Pathology I at the Institute of Internal Medicine, University of Padua. Since 1987 she has been associate professor of Gerontology and Geriatrics at the two universities of Pavia and Padua, and from 1995 to 1999 she was full professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Sassari, where in 1996 she founded and directed the University's School of Specialty in Gerontology and Geriatrics. 

Since 1999, she has flanked her academic career with a clinical one, heading the Complex Operative Unit of General Medicine at the University of Padua Hospital until 2017.

In 2013, she was appointed by the University of Padua for "clear fame" to the position of full professor of Gender Medicine, where she is currently a non-tenured full professor.

In April 2020 she was appointed by the Head of Civil Protection, at the proposal of the Prime Minister, to integrate the Technical and Scientific Committee for the management of the Covid-19 emergency.

Editorial work and publications

Giovannella Baggio is founder and editor of theItalian Journal of Gender-specific Medicine; she is the author of 6 monographs and 270 scientific publications, including: 

(2016) Ostan R, Monti D, Gueresi P, Bussolotto M, Franceschi C, Baggio G. Gender, aging and longevity in humans: an update of an intriguing/neglected scenario paving the way to a gender-specific medicine. Clinial Science, 130(19):1711-25. 
(2015) Sergi G, Veronese N, Fontana L, De Rui M, Bolzetta F, Zambon S, Corti MC, Baggio G, Toffanello ED, Crepaldi G, Perissinotto E, Manzato E. Pre-frailty and risk of cardiovascular disease in elderly men and women: the Pro.V.A. study. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 65(10):976-83. 
(2015) Baggio G. Dalla medicina di genere alla medicina genere-specifica. From Gender medicine to Gender-specific Medicine. Italian Journal of Gender-Specific Medicine, 1:2-5. 
(2014) Toffanello ED, Sergi G, Veronese N, Perissinotto E, Zambon S, Coin A, Sartori L, Musacchio E, Corti MC, Baggio G, Crepaldi G, Manzato E. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin d and the onset of late-life depressive mood in older men and women: the Pro.V.A. study. The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences, 69(12):1554-61. 
(2013) Baggio G, Corsini A, Floreani A, Giannini S, Zagonel V. Gender medicine: a task for the third millennium. Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, 51(4):713-27. 
(2009) Bilato C, Corti MC, Baggio G, Rampazzo D, Cutolo A, Ilicato S, Crepaldi G. Prevalence, Functional Impact, and Mortality of Atrial Fibrillation in an Older Italian Population (from tha Pro.V.A. Study). American Journal of Cardiology, 104(8):1092-7. 
(2008) Capri M, Salvioli S, Monti D, Caruso C, Candore G, Vasto S, Olivieri F, Marchegiani F, Sansoni P, Baggio G, Mari D, Passarino G, De Benedictis G, Franeschi C. Human longevity within an evolutionary perspective: The peculiar paradigm of post-reproductive genetics. Experimental Gerontology, 43(2):53-60. 
(2007) Corti MC, Baggio G, Sartori L, Barbato G, Manzato E, Musacchio E, Ferrucci L, Cardinali G, Donato D, Launer LJ, Zambon S, Crepaldi G, Guralnik JM. White Matter Lesions and the risk of incident hip fracture in older persons: Results from the PRO.V.A. (PROgetto Veneto Anziani) Study. Archives of Internal Medicine, 167(16):1745-1751. 
(2006) Caselli G, Pozzi L, Vaupel JW, Deiana L, Pes G, Carru C, Franceschi C, Baggio G. Family clustering in Sardinian longevity: A genealogical approach. Experimental Gerontology, 41(8):727-736. 
(2002) Deiana L, Pes GM, Carru C, Ferrucci L, Franceschi C, Baggio G.The "Oldest Man on the Planet". Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 50:2098-9.

Position/Role

Full Professor in Linguistics at University School for Advanced Studies Pavia

Professional career

She trained in linguistics at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa. During her PhD, also obtained in 2007 at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, she undertook studies in neurolinguistics, conducting functional magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalography experiments on the understanding of verbal metaphor. In 2009, thanks to a grant obtained from the Region of Tuscany for the creation of a test to evaluate communicative disorders in pathology, she became a junior researcher. In 2011 she moved to the IUSS University School of Advanced Studies in Pavia, first as a senior researcher, then as an Associate Professor and, since 1st November 2022 Full Professor. As an adjunct or visiting lecturer, she has taught experimental neurolinguistics and pragmatics in various universities in Italy and abroad, including the University Vita-Salute S. Raffaele in Milan, the University of Pisa, the University of Verona, the University of Zurich, the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, and the University of Trondheim. At the IUSS School he coordinates the PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience and Philosophy of Mind, jointly with the University Vita-Salute S. Raffaele of Milan.

Scientific results

She works in the field of neuro-linguistics, with a focus on so-called 'pragmatic' communication skills, which enable us to communicate effectively and go beyond the literal meaning of words. Her scientific achievements mainly concern two main lines of research. The first one is focused on the neurophysiological mechanisms that allow the understanding of linguistic implicits, such as metaphors, irony and humorous jokes. These are very frequent phenomena, which on the one hand benefit communication (e.g. by making it more effective), but on the other hand increase the processing costs in our brains. In this area, he has carried out a neuroimaging study on the understanding of metaphors and several studies with electroencephalogram recording.

The second line of research concerns language disorders, in particular pragmatic language disorder. This disorder can occur in neurodevelopment (e.g. in the autistic spectrum) but also in adults suffering from neurological or psychiatric disorders. It leads to difficulties in having conversations that are appropriate to the context and in grasping the more colourful and emotional aspects of language, thus seriously affecting the individual's social sphere. In this research field, she coordinated a project funded by the Tuscany Region (2010-2013), which led to the creation of the APACS test ('Assessment of Pragmatic Abilities and Cognitive Substrates'). APACS has been used to describe pragmatic language disorder in various populations, including schizophrenia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, dyslexia, traumatic brain injury and Parkinson's disease. The APACS test is currently being adapted from Italian to other languages.

Since 2017, she has been coordinating the project "The interpretative brain", funded by MIUR and aimed at the creation of tools for the rehabilitation and promotion of pragmatic skills in pathology and across the lifespan. The project also deals with the study of the relationships between communication skills and social cognition skills (theory of mind), through behavioural and neurophysiological studies.

In 2017 she founded (together with F. Domaneschi) the network XPRAG.it (Experimental Pragmatics in Italy), which aims at providing an Italian forum to discuss - at an international level - pragmatics issues from an experimental perspective.

Editorial work and publications

She is the author of numerous scientific publications in national and international journals and volumes, including:

In Italian with a didactic/divulgative character:

[2017] Bambini V. Il cervello pragmatico. Carocci.

[2017] Bambini V. Dove risiede il linguaggio? Linguaggio, cervello e neurolinguistica.In Masini F, Grandi N (a cura di), Tutto ciò che hai sempre voluto sapere sul linguaggio e sulle lingue, Caissa Italia, 113-116.

[2013] Bambini V. La lingua di Dante entra in risonanza: contributi italiani allo studio dei correlati neurobiologici del linguaggio. In Maraschio N, De Martino D (a cura di), L’italiano dei saperi. Ricerca, scoperta, innovazione, Le Lettere, 7-23.

In English and of a specialised nature:

[2019] Canal P, Bischetti L, Di Paola S, Bertini C, Ricci I, Bambini V.  ‘Honey, shall I change the baby? – Well done, choose another one’: ERP and time-frequency correlates of humor processing.Brain and Cognition.

[2019] Bambini V, Canal P, Resta D, Grimaldi M. Time-course and neurophysiological underpinnings of metaphor in literary context. Discourse Processes, 56:77-97.

[2018] Lecce S, Ronchi L, Del Sette P, Bischetti L, Bambini V. Interpreting physical and mental metaphors: Is Theory of Mind associated with pragmatics in middle childhood?. Journal of Child Language.

[2018] Schaeken W, Van Haeren M, Bambini V. The understanding of scalar implicatures in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Dichotomized responses to violations of informativeness.Frontiers in Psychology, 9:1266.

[2016] Bambini V, Arcara G, Martinelli I, Bernini S, Alvisi E, Moro A, Cappa S, Ceroni M. Communication and pragmatic breakdowns in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients. Brain and Language, 153–154:1–12 .

[2016] Arcara G, Bambini V. A test for the Assessment of Pragmatic Abilities and Cognitive Substrates (APACS): Normative data and psychometric properties. Frontiers in Psychology, 7:70 

[2016] Bambini V, Bertini C, Schaeken W, Stella A, Di Russo F. Disentangling metaphor from context: An ERP study.Frontiers in Psychology, 7:559.

[2016] Bambini V, Arcara G, Bechi M, Buonocore M, Cavallaro R, Bosia M. The communicative impairment as a core feature of schizophrenia: Frequency of pragmatic deficit, cognitive substrates, and relation with quality of life. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 71:106-120.

[2014] Catani M, Bambini V. A model for Social Communication And Language Evolution and Development (SCALED).Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 28:165-171.

[2014] Weiland H, Bambini V, Schumacher P. The role of literal meaning in figurative language comprehension: evidence from masked priming ERP. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8:583.

[2011] Bambini V, Gentili C, Ricciardi E, Bertinetto PM, Pietrini P. Decomposing metaphor processing at the cognitive and neural level through functional magnetic resonance imaging, Brain Research Bulletin 86(3-4):203-216.

Position/Role

Lucia Banci is Professor of Chemistry at the University of Florence.

Professional career

She graduated in Chemistry at the University of Florence in 1978, and continued her training through various research periods abroad, mainly in the USA. She continued her academic career at the University of Florence, first as a researcher and in 1987 as Associate Professor. Since 1999 she is Full Professor of General and Inorganic Chemistry and, from 2011 to 2017, she has been Director of CERM (Magnetic Resonance Center) of the University of Florence. Lucia Banci is the Head of the Italian Core Center of the ESFRI Research Infrastructure Instruct-ERIC, and a member of the Instruct-ERIC Executive Committee and of the Council.

Scientific results

Lucia Banci has provided and is providing original and innovative contributions in structural biology and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) applied to biological systems. In particular, she has gained visibility as an international leader for the characterization of functional processes in living cells with atomic-level resolution. She applied and is applying this approach to the study of the processes responsible for the transport and use of metal ions, in particular copper and iron. She has developed innovative approaches for "in cell NMR", ie high resolution NMR in living cells, which allows the characterization of human proteins in living human cells at atomic resolution. Lucia Banci is contributing to the development and use of high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, a research field in which she has provided important theoretical and methodological advances. She has been active in research projects of structural genomics, in which she uses a "functional" approach, that is, she exploits the knowledge of the conformation of the biomolecules to understand their function and how it can be altered by mutations or other alterations. She has also been a pioneer in the development of an absolutely innovative approach for the rational design of highly effective vaccines, ie the structural vaccinology, based on the structural characterization of the antigens and their interaction with the antibodies.

Editorial work and publications

She has published about 400 research articles on peer reviewed journals with a total of 21.000 citations, including:

(2018) Luchinat E, Banci L. In-Cell NMR in Human Cells: Direct Protein Expression Allows Structural Studies of Protein Folding and Maturation. Acc Chem Res., 51, 1550-1557.

(2016) Nuttle X, Giannuzzi G, Duyzend MH, Schraiber JG, Narvaiza I, Camponeschi F, Ciofi-Baffoni S, Sudmant PH, Penn O, Chiatante G, Malig M, Huddleston J, Benner C, Stessman HAF, Marchetto MCN, Denman L, Harshman L, Baker C, Raja A, Penewit K, Tang WJ, Ventura M, Antonacci F, Akey JM, Amemiya CT, Banci L, Gage FH, Reymond A and Eichler EE. Emergence of a Homo sapiens-specific gene family and the evolution of autism risk at chromosome 16p11.2. Nature, 536:205-209.

(2015) Banci L, Ciofi-Baffoni S, Gajda K, Muzzioli R, Peruzzini R and Winkelmann J. N-terminal domains mediate [2Fe-2S] cluster transfer from glutaredoxin-3 to anamorsin. Nature Chemical Biology, 11:772-778.

(2011) Scarselli M, Aricò B, Brunelli B, Savino S, Di Marcello F, Palumbo E, Veggi D, Ciucchi L, Cartocci E, Bottomley M.J, Malito E, Lo Surdo P, Comanducci M, Giuliani M.M, Cantini F, Dragonetti S, Colaprico A, Doro F, Giannetti P, Pallaoro M, Brogioni B, Tontini M, Hilleringmann M, Nardi-Dei V, Banci L, Pizza M. & Rappuoli R, Rational design of a meningococcal antigen inducing broad protective immunity. Science Translational Medicine, 3:91ra62.

(2010) Banci L, Bertini I, Ciofi-Baffoni S, Kozyreva T, Zovo K & Palumaa P. Affinity gradients drive copper to cellular destinations. Nature, 465:645-648

Awards and prizes

During her career she has received prizes and awards, among which the IUPAC "Distinguished Women in Chemistry" award and the "Fiorino d’Oro della Città di Firenze" Gold Medal of the City of Florence in 2015. In 2017 she received the “Instruct Bertini Award” for Integrated Structural Biology and the Premio Scienza Madre in 2018. She is a member of EMBO (European Organization for Molecular Biology) and is the Italian delegate at the Council of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL).

Position/Role

Associate Professor in Forest Planning and Silviculture at the University of Tuscia (Viterbo, Italy).

Professional career

Associate Professor at DIBAF (Department for Innovation in Biological, Agro-food and Forest systems) of the University of Tuscia since 2016, she is currently Project Coordinator of the EU-funded project PREVAIL (PREVention Action Increases Large fire response preparedness), and Principal Investigator of the projects REFORM (Increasing resilience of forest mixtures) and FREShLIFE (Demonstrating Remote Sensing integration in sustainable forest management). From 2010 to 2016 Assistant professor at the Department for Innovation in Biological, Agro-food and Forest systems (DIBAF) of the University of Tuscia. 

She holds a Degree in Forest Science at the University of Florence (1996) and a Professional Master in “Remote sensing and natural resources evaluation” from the Istituto Agronomico per l’Oltremare (Florence) (1997); a PhD in Forest Economics and Planning from the University of Florence (2001) and a II level Master Degree in “Landscape ecology and environmental planning” from La Sapienza University of Rome (2007).

Scientific results

Her main research interests concern the application of (satellite and drone) remote sensing and forest sampling strategies to forest resources monitoring. As consultant for the UNECE/FAO Timber Section and European Environment Agency, she contributed to the development of the European Forest Types, a forest classification framework for reporting on indicators of sustainable forest management in Europe.

She has participated in three national and international research projects on the topic of wildfire management in the Mediterranean region, where she tested remote sensing technologies (multispectral optical data and LIDAR) for mapping forest fuel types, as a means to support fire behaviour modelling through computer-based simulators. She has also been working on understanding the relationships between frequency and recurrence of forest fires and fuel and landscape determinants of fire ignition and propagation, in order to support decision-making on forest fire risk prevention on a large-scale through fuel management interventions. Other recent research interests include the interactions between biodiversity (number of forest tree species and forest ecosystem structure heterogeneity), ecosystem services (wood and non-wood products, forest biomass, carbon sequestration, habitat provision) and forest resilience to climate change.

Editorial work and publications

She is the author of some 100 scientific and technical publications, among others:

[2018] Bagaram M.B.1, Giuliarelli D., Chirici G., Giannetti F., Barbati A. UAV Remote Sensing for Biodiversity Monitoring: Are Forest Canopy Gaps Good Covariates? Remote Sensing, 10, 1397.

[2018] Barbati A, Scarascia Mugnozza G, Ayan S, Blasi E, Calama R, Canaveira P, Cicatiello C, Collalti A, Corona P, del RíoM, DucciF, PeruginiL. Adaptation and mitigation. In: FAO and Plan Bleu. 2018. State of Mediterranean Forests 2018. Food and Agriculture Organization of theUnited Nations, Rome and Plan Bleu, Marseille: 128-146

[2015] Barbati A, Corona P, D’amato E, Cartisano R. Is Landscape a Driver of Short-term Wildfire Recurrence? LANDSCAPE RESEARCH, 40 (1): 99-108. 

[2014] Corona P, Ferrari B, Cartisano R, Barbati A. Calibration assessment of forest flammability potential in Italy. IFOREST, 7: 300-305

[2014] Barbati A, Marchetti M., Chirici G., Corona P. European Forest Types and Forest Europe SFM indicators: Tools for monitoring progress on forest biodiversity conservation.FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT, 321: 145-157

[2013] Chiriacò MV, Perugini L, Cimini D, D’Amato E, Valentini R, Bovio G, Corona P, Barbati A (2013). Comparison of approaches for reporting forest fire-related biomass loss and greenhouse gas emissions in southern Europe. THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF WILDLAND FIRE, 22(6): 730-738.

[2013] Barbati A, Chirici G, Corona P, Montaghi A, Travaglini D (2009). Area-based assessment of forest standing volume by field measurements and airborne laser scanner data. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF REMOTE SENSING, 30 (19): 5177-5194.

[2011] Corona P., Chirici G., McRoberts R.E., Winter S., Barbati A. Contribution of large-scale forest inventories to biodiversity assessment and monitoring. FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT, vol. 262, p. 2061-2069, ISSN: 0378-1127, doi: 10.1016/j.foreco.2011.08.044.

 [2008] Lamonaca A, Corona P, Barbati A. Exploring forest structural complexity by multi-scale segmentation of VHR imagery. REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT, vol. 112, p. 2839-2849, ISSN: 0034-4257.

Awards and prizes

Coordinator of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) Unit 8.02.01 - Key factors and ecological functions for forest biodiversity and Member of the Italian Academy of Forest Sciences since 2010.

Position/Role

Scientific Secretary of the IRCCS Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research and Research Coordinator, Bergamo and Ranica (BG) site.

Professional career

After obtaining a degree in Biological Science from the University of Milan, she received her Ph.D. from the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands. She spent time abroad training and was then awarded a doctoral fellowship at the Centre Regional de Transfusion Sanguigne in Strasbourg, at Guy’s Hospital in London and at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Her research group focuses on regenerative medicine and studies whether stem cells can be used to treat acute and chronic kidney diseases, and how the kidney can repair itself.

Scientific results

Her research focuses on understanding how kidney diseases develop and on the mechanisms of progression that damage the kidney and lead to renal function decline. In the field of transplant rejection, she was among the first to successfully apply gene therapy through viral vectors to prevent the rejection of solid organ transplants without the need of immunosuppressants.

Between 2007 and 2012 she was a consultant for the WHO for a multicentre observational study on the predictive uses of angiogenic factors for the diagnosis of pre-eclampsia. In connection with this study, she was made a Senior Fellow at the University of Oxford, Nuffield Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, in 2007. She took part of the Visiting Committee of AERES – Agence d’Évaluation de la Recherche et de l’Enseignement Supèrieur – to evaluate scientists at the Hôpital Necker in Paris. She has been a Program Committee Member at the two most important international nephrology meetings (the World Congress of Nephrology, 2015, Cape Town, South Africa and the 2016 American Society of Nephrology Meeting, Chicago, USA). Since 2017 she has been a member of the Innovation and Discovery Task Force of the American Society of Nephrology.

Editorial work and publications

Ariela Benigni has served on the editorial boards of international scientific journals: Associate Editor of Kidney International, Journal of Nephrology, International Journal of Artificial Organs, and also Academic Editor of Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Patents, PeerJ, PLoS One. Since January 2015, she has been Editor in Chief of the peer-reviewed Nephron. From 2017 to 2019, she was a member of the Innovation and Discovery Task Force Committee of the American Society of Nephrology. 

She is currently a member of the Examining Committee of Major Innovation Projects for the Dutch Kidney Foundation.

She is the author of over 320 scientific articles published in international scientific journals, among which:

(2016) Gagliardini E, Novelli R, Corna D, Zoja C, Ruggiero B, Benigni A, Remuzzi G. B7-1 is not induced in podocytes of human and experimental diabetic nephropathy. Journal of American Society of Nephrology, 27:999-1005. 
(2015) Morigi M, Perico L, Rota C, Longaretti L, Conti S, Rottoli D, Novelli R, Remuzzi G, Benigni A, Sirtuin 3-dependent mitochondrial dynamic improvements protect against acute kidney injury. The Journal of Clinical Investigation, 125:715-726. 
(2015) Trionfini P, Benigni A, Remuzzi G, MicroRNAs in kidney physiology and disease. Nature Reviews Nephrology, 11:23-33. 
(2014) Benigni A, Gagliardini E, Remuzzi G, Abatacept in B7-1-positive proteinuric kidney disease. The New England Journal of Medicine, 370:1261-1263. 
(2013) Parvanova A, van der Meer IM, Iliev I, Perna A, Gaspari F, Trevisan R, Bossi A, Remuzzi G, Benigni A, Ruggenenti P; for the Daglutril in Diabetic Nephropathy Study Group. Effect on blood pressure of combined inhibition of endothelin-converting enzyme and neutral endopeptidase with daglutril in patients with type 2 diabetes who have albuminuria: a randomised, crossover, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol, 1:19-27. 
(2013) Remuzzi G, Benigni A, Finkelstein FO, Grunfeld JP, Joly D, Katz I, Liu ZH, Miyata T, Perico N, Rodriguez-Iturbe B, Antiga L, Schaefer F, Schieppati A, Schrier RW, Tonelli M, Kidney failure: aims for the next 10 years and barriers to success. Lancet, 382:353-362. 
(2011) Mele C, Iatropoulos P, Donadelli R, Calabria A, Maranta R, Cassis P, Buelli S, Tomasoni S, Piras R, Krendel M, Bettoni S, Morigi M, Delledonne M, Pecoraro C, Abbate I, Capobianchi MR, Hildebrandt F, Otto E, Schaefer F, Macciardi F, Ozaltin F, Emre S, Ibsirlioglu T, Benigni A, Remuzzi G, Noris M, the PodoNet Consortium. MYO1E Mutations and Childhood Familial Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis. The New England Journal of Medicine, 365(4):295-306. 
(2011) Benigni A, Morigi M, Rizzo P, Gagliardini E, Rota C, Abbate, M Ghezzi S, Remuzzi A, Remuzzi G. Inhibiting angiotensin-converting enzyme promotes renal repair by limiting progenitor cell proliferation and restoring the glomerular architecture. American Journal Of Pathology, 179(2):628-38. 
(2010) Benigni A, Morigi M, Remuzzi G. Kidney regeneration. Lancet, 375(9722):1310-7. 

(2009) Benigni A, Corna D, Zoja C, Sonzogni A, Latini R, Salio M, Conti S, Rottoli D, Longaretti L, Cassis P, Morigi M, Coffman TM, Remuzzi G. Disruption of the Ang II type 1 receptor promotes longevity in mice. The Journal of Clinical Investigation, 119(3):524-30. 

Awards and prizes

In 2012 she received the Merit Award from Bergamo City Hall for her contributions to science.

In 2019, she was awarded the "Tomoh Masaki" International Prize and the "Trotula 2019" International Prize of the Nuova Scuola Medica Salernitana University.

In 2020 she was awarded the "A.R.M.R 2020 Prize" by the Foundation for Rare Disease Research.

In 2021, she was awarded the title of Cavaliere Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana by the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella.  

Position/Role

Reader (Associate Professor) in Applied Mathematics and Head of the Complex Systems and Networks group at Queen Mary University of London, UK

Turing Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute, London UK

Professional career

In 1998 Ginestra Bianconi obtained a Laurea in Physics (equivalent to BSc and MSc) at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and in 2002 she obtained a PhD in Physics at University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA. She has worked as Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Université de Fribourg, Fribourg, CH  (from 2002 to 2003) and at the International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy (from 2003 to 2009). In 2009 she was appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics at Northeastern University, Boston, USA. In 2013 she joined the School of Mathematical Sciences at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), London, UK where since 2015 she is Reader in Applied Mathematics. In 2018 she has been appointed Alan Turing Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute and Head of the Complex Systems and Networks group at QMUL.

Scientific results

Ginestra Bianconi’s research focuses on Network Theory,Applied Mathematics and Statistical Mechanics applied to Complex Systems. Networks describe the rich underlying structure of Complex Systems and are formed by the set of elements of the system (nodes) and the interactions among them (links). The most prominent examples of complex networks include the brain and social networks.

Ginestra Bianconi’s research activity in Network Theory is motivated by the urgent need to develop theoretical approaches that address the challenges posed by the complexity of real networks using innovative approaches at the frontier between Applied Mathematics and Statistical Mechanics. Among her most relevant results we mention the Bianconi-Barabási model. This model explains how networks such as the Internet or the World-Wide-Web evolve by establishing a map between the network evolution and the Bose-Einstein condensation, a quantum phenomenon occurring in a gas of Bose particles. Another notable research line of Ginestra Bianconi is the formulation of an information theory of networks based on entropy of network ensembles that can be used to solve inference problems. Recently the research activity of Ginestra Bianconi has focused on multilayer networks that describe systems formed by several interacting networks and on network geometry. Additonally, Ginestra Bianconi has several interdisciplinary collaborations with scientists in neuroscience and informatics and with economists.

Editorial work and publications

Ginestra Bianconi is the editorial manager of several scientific journals including Nature Scientific Reports and Annals of Physics. She is also the author of more than 100 publications, including: 

(2018) Bianconi, G, Multilayer Networks: Structure and Function (Oxford University Press)

(2014) Bianconi G, Dorogovtsev SN. Multiple percolation transitions in a configuration model of a network of networks. Physical Review E, 89(6):062814. 
(2014) Menichetti G, Dall'Asta L, Bianconi G. Network controllability is determined by the density of low in-degree and out-degree nodes. Physical review letters, 113(7): 078701. 
(2014) Boccaletti S, Bianconi G, Criado R, Del Genio CI, Gómez-Gardenes J, Romance M, Sendina-Nadal I, Wang Z, Zanin M. The structure and dynamics of multilayer networks. Physics Reports, 544(1):1-122. 
(2013) Bianconi G. Statistical mechanics of multiplex networks: Entropy and overlap. Physical Review E, 87(6):062806. 
(2010) Stehlé J, Barrat A, Ginestra Bianconi G. Dynamical and bursty interactions in social networks. Physical review E, 81(3): 035101. 
(2009) Bianconi G, Pin P, Marsili M. Assessing the relevance of node features for network structure. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(28):11433-11438. 
(2009) Kartik A, Bianconi G. Entropy measures for networks: Toward an information theory of complex topologies. Physical Review E, 80(4):045102. 
(2007) Bianconi G. The entropy of randomized network ensembles. Europhysics Letters, 81(2): 28005. 
(2001) Bianconi G, Barabási A-L. Competition and multiscaling in evolving networks. Europhysics Letter, 54(4):436. 
(2001) Bianconi G, Ginestra, Barabási A-L. Bose-Einstein condensation in complex networks. Physical review letters, 86(24):5632.

Awards and prizes

Ginestra Bianconi is member of the Network Science Society, the European Complex Systems Society, the London Mathematical Society, the European Physics Society and the European Women in Mathematics Society.

Position/Role

Full Professor of Anesthesiology at the University of Parma and Director of the Complex Operative Unit at the University Hospital of Parma.

Professional career

Graduated in 2000 in Medicine and Surgery at the University of Milan, in 2004 she achieves the Specialization in Anesthesia and Intensive Care at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University. In the same year she begins her career as a Medical Director at the Department of Anesthesia and Cardiosurgical Intensive Care at the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, becoming, in 2017, director UOC (Complex Operative Unit) at the Azienda Ospedaliera-Universitaria di Parma.

In addition to the clinical practice she does academic and research activity: she is a professor in the theoretical and practical course "Cardio-Protction" in 2007 and she begins the activity of correlator for the degree and specialization theses. Since 2011 she has been a contract professor at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University for the School of Specialization Anesthesia and Intensive Care and Cardiac Surgery. In January 2014 she obtains the national scientific qualification, as second-level teacher and, in March 2017, the qualification for the first band. In December of the same year she becomes professor of Anesthesiology at the University of Parma.

Scientific results

Elena Bignami's research activity is mainly focused on Cardio-anesthesia, investigating the factors that can influence the outcome of the patient undergoing cardiac surgery, in particular renal, cardiac and respiratory protection. During her career, which has always supported clinical and academic activities, she participates in numerous international projects, including: The effect of isoflurane on myocardial infarction and mortality in cardiac and non-cardiac surgery. A metaanalysis of randomized controlled studies (2008), Role of endogenous Ouabaina as marker of renal damage in cardiac and vascular surgery (2015), CPBVent (Mechanical Ventilation during cardiac surgery) multicenter randomized controlled trial (2015), Expiratory flow limitation and mechanical ventilation during cardiopulmonary bypass in cardiac surgery (2016), Driving Pressure and EFL in Adult Cardiac Surgery (2017).

Editorial work and publications

Elena Bignami has contributed to the realization of the following anesthesia and intensive care therapy manuals:

Kirby, Taylor, Civetta (eds), Manual of Intensive Therapy, Italian edition edited by G. Torri, Delfino Editore, Rome, 2002; Church, Melissano, Zangrillo (eds), Thoraco-Abdominal Aorta Surgical and Anesthetic Management, Springer, 2010; De Gaudio, Romagnoli (eds), Neuromuscolar Blocking Agents, Springer, 2017.

She is the author of more than 150 scientific publications in national and international journals, including:

(2019) Bellini V, Petroni A, Palumbo G, Bignami E. DATA QUALITY AND BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY. Anaesth Crit Care Pain Med. 2019 Jan 8.

(2018) Bignami E, Saglietti F, Di Lullo A.Mechanical ventilation management during cardiothoracic surgery: an open challenge. Ann Transl Med. 2018 Oct;6(19):380

(2018) Bignami E, Bellini V.Do We Need Specific Certification to Use Anesthesia Information Management Systems? Anesth Analg. 2018 Oct 30.

(2016) Bignami E, Guarnieri M, Saglietti F, Belletti A, Trumello C, Giambuzzi I, Monaco F, Alfieri O. Mechanical ventilation during cardiopulmonary bypass. Journal of cardiothoracic and vascular anesthesia, 30(6):1668-1675.

(2013) Bignami E, Casamassima N, Frati E, Lanzani C, Corno L, Alfieri O, Gottlieb S, Simonini M, Shah KB, Mizzi A, Messaggio E, Zangrillo A, Ferrandi M, Ferrari P, Bianchi G, Hamlyn JM, Manunta P. Preoperative endogenous ouabain predicts acute kidney injury in cardiac surgery patients. Critical care medicine, 41(3) 744.

(2010) Bignami E, Landoni G, Biondi-Zoccai, Boroli F, Messina M, Dedola E, Nobile L, Buratti L, Sheiban I, Zangrillo A. Epidural analgesia improves outcome in cardiac surgery: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of cardiothoracic and vascular anesthesia, 24(4): 586-597.

(2009) Bignami E, Biondi-Zoccai G, Landoni G , Fochi O, Testa V, Sheiban Im Giunta F, Zangrillo A. Volatile anesthetics reduce mortality in cardiac surgery. Journal of cardiothoracic and vascular anesthesia, 23(5): 594-599.

Awards and prizes

In December 2017, she was honoured with the "Mimmo Mileto e Salvatore Filocamo" prize for research and scientific innovation. In 2015 she won as Principal Investigator the ESA Research Project Grant in 2016, with the project "VENTilation during Cardio Pulmonary Bypass (CPBVENT 2014) for cardiac surgery: a multicenter randomized controlled trial (N ° clinical trials NCT 02090205)".

The project "The effect of isoflurane on myocardial infarction and mortality in cardiac and non-cardiac surgery. A metanalysis of randomized controlled studies "of which she was Principal Investigator was the winner of the AIFA 2008 Notice for independent research on drugs.

In 2006, she won the prize "Lab Avant Garde How To Do A Research Today: FROM ANESTHESIA TO INTENSIVE THERAPY: WHAT TOMORROW?" with the project: "Effect of moderate hemodilution in Extra-Body Circulation on postoperative outcome in cardiac surgery patients".

Position/Role

Professor of Chemistry at Politecnico di Torino, where she is the Contact person for the Batteries @ Polito task force

Professional career

After graduating in Chemistry at the University of Turin, she got PhD in Material Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano. University researcher in Chemical Foundations for Technology, since 1995 and Associate Professor in the same SSD since 2015. She carries out her activity in the Department of Applied Science and Technology of the Polytechnic of Turin where she coordinates a research group made up of 15 young people, researchers, grant holders research and doctoral students.
The teaching activity is mainly carried out within the basic chemistry courses. In addition, she carries out numerous educational activities in the electrification masters and from next year in the new course of electrochemical energy storage systems.
She is also launching of the new European Master on Energy Storage.
Leader of the "education" activities in the European initiatives Battery2030+ (battery2030.eu) and in the ETIP Batteries Europe.
Since its starting in 1995, she has been the referent for the chemistry teaching laboratories and since 2018 she has been the referent for the chemistry courses of the Politecnico di Torino.
She is also responsible for the energy storage laboratories at the Energy Center Lab interdepartmental laboratory.

Scientific results

Silvia Bodoardo's main research activity is in the Electrochemistry group of the Politecnico di Torino.
Over the years, her research has focused on various lines of research in the field of physical chemistry and in particular of electrochemistry, studying and designing in particular new materials for different types of electrochemical energy generators.
The main themes studied are: structural characteristics and electrochemical properties of manganese dioxide as an active substance in alkaline batteries, lead-acid accumulator, electrode materials for lithium ion cells, high-capacity materials as anode for lithium ion cells, high potential materials as cathode for lithium ion cells, electrodes and electrolytic materials for lithium-sulfur cells, electrodes and electrolytic materials for lithium air cells, characterization of industrial cells for lithium ion batteries, hybrid electrochemical systems: high energy / high power
 
She has participated in numerous projects funded by the European community (coordinator of the STABLE project) and also in national and regional projects. She is currently the only Italian researcher who participates in the Large Research initiative Battery2030 + (battery2030.eu) in which he deals with smart batteries. She is also cochair in WG3 on Advanced Materials in the ETIP BatteRIes Europe technology platform. Silvia has organized numerous conferences and seminars on materials with electrochemical application and was chair woman at the launch of the Horizon Award on innovative batteries.
She is also an evaluator for the European community of ERC projects and in the NMP and ICT area, LCBAT.
National evaluator of FIRB and PRIN projects, for Faraday and for the Norwegian research council.
 
Recently she has started a new research line on new battery designs by publishing a new international patent and for which she won two Proof of Concept projects.

Editorial work and publications

[2019] Giai Pron, Vittorio; Versaci, Daniele; Amici, Julia; Francia, Carlotta; Santarelli, Massimo; Bodoardo, Silvia, Electrochemical Characterization and Solid Electrolyte Interface Modeling of LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4-Graphite Cells, Journal of Electrochem Soc. 166(10) 2255 doi: 10.1149/2.0941910jes
[2019] Zubair, Usman; Amici, Julia; Crespiera, Sandra Martinez; Francia, Carlotta; Bodoardo, Silvia, Rational design of porous carbon matrices to enable efficient lithiated silicon sulfur full cell, Carbon doi10.1016/j.carbon.2019.01.005
[2019] J. Amici, S. Romanin, M. Alidoost, D. Versaci, C. Francia,F .Smeacetto, S. Bodoardo, UV-cured methacrylate based polymer composite electrolyte for metallic lithium batteries, Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, 837 (2019) 103–107.  DOI:10.1016/j.jelechem.2019.02.027
[2018] J. Amici, M. Alidoost, F. Caldera, D. Versaci, U. Zubair, F. Trotta, C. Francia, S. Bodoardo,  PEEK-WC / nanosponge membranes for lithium anode protection in rechargeable Li-O2 batteries, ChemElectroChem 5, 1599–1605. DOI: 10.1002/celc.201800241R1
[2018] Bodoardo, S.; Zubair, Usman; Serrapede, M.; Amici, J.; Zaccagnini, P.; Versaci, D.; Francia, C.; Pirri, C.; Lamberti, A. Dispositivo elettrochimico a commutazione automatica per l’accumulo ad alta energia e ad alta potenza P2952PC00  - PCT/IB2019/053525
[2017] U. Zubair, A. Anceschi, F. Caldera, M.  Alidoost, J. Amici, C. Francia, M. Zanetti, F. Trotta, S. Bodoardo, N. Penazzi.  Dual confinement of sulphur with rGO wrapped microporous carbon from ß-cyclodextrin nanosponges as a cathode material for Li-S batteries, Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry, 21(12), 3411. DOI: 10.1007/s10008-017-3664-6
[2017] D. Versaci, R. Nasi, U. Zubair, J. Amici, M. Sgroi, M.A. Dumitrescu, C. Francia, S. Bodoardo, N. Penazzi, New ecofriendly low-cost binders for Li-ion anodes, Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry, 21(12), 3429-3435. DOI: 10.1007/s10008-017-3665-5
[2016]J. Amici, M. Alidoost, C. Francia, S. Bodoardo, S. Martinez Crespiera, D. Amantia, M. Biasizzo, F. Caldera, F. Trotta O2 selective membranes based on a dextrin-nanosponge (NS) in PVDF-HFP polymer matrix for Li-Air Cells, Chem. Commun., 52, 13683—13686. DOI: 10.1039/c6cc06954a
[2001] S. Bodoardo; N. Penazzi; P. Spinelli; M. Arrabito Influence of aluminium doping on the electrochemical behaviour of manganese dioxide J. Power Sources 94(2) 194 doi: 10.1016/S0378-7753(00)00586-3
[1998] Bodoardo S.; R.Chiappetta; B. Onida; F.Figueras; E.Garrone Ammonia interaction and reaction with Al-pillared montmorillonite: an IR study Microporous and Mesoporous Materials20,187
[1997] Fubini B; Mollo L; Bodoardo S.; Onida B; Oberson D; Lafuma C. Evaluation of  the surface acidity of some phillosilicates in relation to their activity toward the enzyme human leucocyte elastase Langmuir 13 919
[1995] Bodoardo S. Maja M., Penazzi N. Processes involving gases in valve-regulated lead/acid batteries. J. Power Sources 55 (2) 183 doi:10.1016/0378-7753(95)02188-M
 

Awards and prizes

Professor Bodoardo has received numerous invitations from the European Community to present the results of the research: for example, she partecipated in the consultation day on battery-related issues promoted by DG Connect (10 January 2018), and she presented the activities on the subject of lithium air during the FET day (Brussels, 10 January 2018) and was rapporteur of the mobility table.
 
She was sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bolivia for a course on lithium systems from 16 to 22 May 2010.
 
Silvia Bodoardo was invited to present scientific papers at numerous international conferences.

She is an active member of the scientific committee of the Telios Foundation.

Position/Role

Professor in the area of Computing Systems at Politecnico di Milano, delegate for International Relationship with the Far East Asia, Vice-chair for Computer Science and Engineering in the Information Technology PhD Program.

Professional career

After graduating in Electronic Engineering from Politecnico di Milano in 1993, pursues a PhD in Automation and Computer Science Engineering in 1997. She became Assistant Professor in 1999, Associate Professor in 2003 and since 2015 is Professor in the area of Computing Systems at Politecnico di Milano.

Since 2016 she is Vice chair for Computer Science and Engineering in the Information Technology PhD Program, and is a member of the Committee since 2014. Since June 2017 she is a rector's delegate for International Relationship with the Far East Asia.

Scientific results

Cristiana Bolchini's scientific profile is two-fold as she started her research career in the Computer Architecture area, working within the field of Embedded System Design and Design Methodologies, and later extending her interests also to the Data Management area, with a focus on context-awareness.

More precisely, her main research activity has always focused on dependability aspects in computing/embedded systems, by defining methodologies and tools to implement and analyse systems able to autonomously detect the occurrence of hardware

faults and possibly tolerate their effects. While in the past this area of research was mainly attractive for highly (safety) critical environments (e.g., space and health), today dependability has become a major challenge also for traditional contexts, because of the pervasiveness of embedded/computing systems, playing an important role, together with performance and power consumption. As such, cutting edge research seeks solutions to implement systems able to autonomously adapt these aspects based on the working context and the requirements. These issues have been the main focus of an European funded project Cristiana Bolchini co-ordinated and successfully concluded in August 2016.

Sustainability in energy consumption is the other research area, achieved by monitoring and controlling buildings and managing the collected data, to identify how energy is used towards an increased user awareness, a key element for our society.

Editorial work and publications

She co-authored more than 140 scientific publications, among which:

[2017] C. Bolchini, A. Geronazzo, E. Quintarelli, Smart buildings: a monitoring and data analysis methodological framework. Elsevier Building and Environment, 121: 93-105.

[2017] M. H. Haghbayan, A. Miele, A. M. Rahmani, P. Liljeberg, A. Jantsch, C. Bolchini, H. Tenhunen, Can Dark Silicon Be Exploited to Prolong System Lifetime?. IEEE Design & Test, 34(2): 51-59.

[2017] C. Bolchini, L. Cassano, A Fully Automated and Configurable Cost-Aware Framework for Adaptive Functional Diagnosis. IEEE Design & Test 34(2): 79-86.

[2016] C. Bolchini, L. Cassano, A Novel Approach to Incremental Functional Diagnosis for Complex Electronic Boards. IEEE Trans. on Computers, 65(1): 42-52.

[2015] C. Bolchini, L. Cassano, P. Garza, E. Quintarelli, F. Salice, An Expert CAD Flow for Incremental Functional Diagnosis of Complex Electronic Boards. IEEE Trans. on Computer Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems, 34(5): 835-848.

Awards and prizes

Cristiana Bolchini received two gifts from Cisco University Research Program Fund of Silicon Valley Community Foundation do finance her research on functional diagnosis of complex circuits. She served as an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computing and the IEEE Transactions on Computers journals.

Position/Role

Professor Emerita of Plant Biology, University of Torino Italy.

Professional career

After graduating in Biological Sciences from the University of Turin in 1970, Paola Bonfante continued her training with a scholarship at the Centro di Studio sulla Micologia del Terreno (CSMT) of the CNR in Turin. Since 1973 she has been a Researcher at the CNR, an activity she carried out until 1985. From that date she was Full Professor of Plant Biology at the University of Turin until 2017. From 1995 to 2009 she was Head of the Turin Section of the CNR Plant Protection Institute. From 2006 to 2011 she is Director of the Department of Plant Biology at the University of Turin, and then, until 2013, she is Coordinator of the PhD course in Biology and Biotechnology. Until 2017, she coordinates the Plant-Microorganism Interactions laboratory. Today, she is Professor Emerita and combines her residual research activity with an intense work of science dissemination.

Scientific results

Paola Bonfante Professor Emerita of Plant Biology at the University of Turin has dedicated her scientific activity to plant-microorganism interactions, a field in which she is considered a pioneer and which is relevant both for the environment and for its impact on society. In particular, with her research group she has focused since 1975 on the study of the biology of symbiotic associations and the taxonomy of fungi, investigating the intimate interactions between fungi and plants and between bacteria and fungi. Applying the techniques of genetic investigation, in the early 1990s she made important contributions to our knowledge of mycorrhizae (symbiotic associations between soil fungi and plant roots) found both in nature and in agroecosystems. Paola Bonfante discovered a group of endobacteria that live within mycorrhizal fungi, in a process of symbiosis within symbiosis, and that can modulate some of the functional traits of their fungal hosts. Using Next Generation Sequencing techniques, her research group has sequenced genomes of mycorrhizal fungi and continues to study the cellular and molecular basis of plant-fungus interactions: by investigating their genetic determinants, she aims to define their biodiversity and communication modes. The ultimate aim of the research is to assess the impact and application of the so-called plant microbiota to natural and agricultural ecosystems, in the light of the sustainability recommendations of the New Green Deal. 

Editorial work and publications

Paola Bonfante was editor of Environmental Microbiology from 2013 to 2022, member of the Editorial Board of several international scientific journals such as the ISME Journal and New Phytologist. She performs review activities for Plant Cell, Plant Journal, Plant Physiology, Planta, Fungal Biology & Genetics, PNAS and for the American and European National Science Foundation (NSF). He performs evaluation tasks for numerous European and international institutions. She has written a book for Il Mulino (Una Pianta non è un'isola, 2021) in which she discusses the scientific topics that fascinate her most.

She is the author of more than 300 international scientific publications, listed on Google Scholar.

Awards and prizes

In 2010 Paola Bonfante received two prestigious awards: the Plant Biology Prize from the Accademia dei Lincei and the French Food Spirit Prize in the Science section. 
From 2012 to 2016 she is a member of the Scientific Committee of the CNR; from 2014 to 2018 of the Scientific Committee for the research activities of the Province of Trento; since 2020 of the General Council of the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation. 
She is a member of numerous Academies, including the Accademia delle Scienze di Torino, and the Accademia dei Lincei, has received international awards, including the Kondorosi Award (2021), and is Commendatore della Repubblica for scientific merit (2019). She was among the Highly Cited Researchers 2017, 2018, 2020 (Clarivate Analitcs), and is on the list of Top Italian Scientists. 

Position/Role

Full Professor of Electronic Bioengineering at Cagliari University and President of the Center for Advanced Studies, Research and Development in Sardinia (CRS4)

Professional career

After graduating in Physics at the University of Genova in 1991 and a PhD in Bioengineering at the Politecnico di Milano in 1996, she pursues a scientific career in the field of Bioelectronics, with a focus on the realisation of electronic devices for sensor systems by organic semiconductor materials, with applications ranging from biomonitoring with wearable sensors, genomic sensors, cellular sensors for drug testing, brain-machine interfaces, robotics. In 1996 she joins the University of Cagliari, first as a Researcher, then as an Associate Professor of Electronics and finally as a Full Professor in Electronic Bioengineering. From 2015 to 2017, she is appointed as ViceRector for Innovation and Territorial Strategies at the University of Cagliari. Since 2014, she is in the Board of Directors of CRS4 (Center for Advanced Studies, Research and Development in Sardinia), becoming President in 2017, first woman since the foundation (1990).

Scientific results

Since 2001, she has worked at the realization of organic electronic devices for biomonitoring systems, aimed at exploring the human body at different dimensional scales (down to the single cell and to the detection of signals produced by biological micromolecules). Her group  of research has been among the very first in the world to work and publish on the development of organic electronic sensors on unconventional substrates as paper, plastics, fabrics. She developed and patented a method for fabricating conductive fibers and fabrics. Starting from this method, her group realized wearable devices and systems, including systems integrated in garments and skin-like devices as electronic tattoes for detecting the biopotentials generated by the human body (as, for instance, cardiac and muscle signals). At the same time, this kind of technology can also be used for realizing advanced sensing systems for environmental monitoring. AB is author of 12 patents focussed on the use of organic semiconductor devices for biomonitoring. She has been the coordinator of several research projects, both at the international and national level. 

Editorial work and publications

Annalisa Bonfiglio is the author of more than 150 scientific papers published on scientific journals and conference proceedings, including:

[2020] Casula G, Lai S, Matino L, Santoro F, Bonfiglio A, Cosseddu P, Printed, Low‐Voltage, All‐Organic Transistors and Complementary Circuits on Paper Substrate. Advanced Electronic Materials, 6(5): 1901027

[2018] Pani D, Achilli A, Bonfiglio A, Survey on textile electrode technologies for ECG monitoring, from metal wires to polymers. Advanced Material Technology, 1800008:1-14.

[2017] Lai S, Zucca A, Cosseddu P, Greco F, Mattoli V, Bonfiglio A, A38  Ultra-conformable Organic Field-Effect Transistors and circuits for epidermal electronic applications. Organic Electronics 46:60-67

[2017] Sollai G, Melis M, Pani D, Cosseddu P, Usai I, Crnjar R, Bonfiglio A, Tomassini Barbarossa I, First objective evaluation of taste sensitivity to 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP), a paradigm gustatory stimulus in humans. Scientific Reports 7:40353.

[2017] Pani D, Usai I, Cosseddu P, Melis M, Sollai G, Crnjar R, Tomassini Barbarossa I, Raffo L, Bonfiglio A, An automated system for the objective evaluation of human gustatory sensitivity using tongue biopotential recordings. PLoS ONE, 12(8):e0177246.

[2017] Lai S, Cosseddu P, Basiricò L, Fraboni B, Bonfiglio A, A Highly Sensitive, Direct X-Ray Detector Based on a Low-Voltage Organic Field-Effect Transistor. Advanced Electronic Materials, 3(8):1600409. 

[2016] Gualandi I, Marzocchi M, Achilli A, Cavedale D, Bonfiglio A, Fraboni B, Textile Organic Electrochemical transistors as a platform for wearable biosensors. Scientific Reports 6:33637.

[2015] Spanu A, Lai S, Cosseddu P, Tedesco M, Martinoia S, Bonfiglio A, An organic transistor-based system for reference-less electrophysiological monitoring of excitable cells. Scientific Reports, 5: 8807.

[2015] Pani D, Dessì A, Saenz-Cogollo J-F, Barabino G, Fraboni B, Bonfiglio A, Fully textile, PEDOT:PSS based electrodes for wearable ECG monitoring systems. IEEE Transaction on Biomedical Engineering, PP (99), DOI: 10.1109/TBME.2015.24659362015.

[2013] Lai S, Demelas M, Cosseddu P, Casula G, Barbaro M, Bonfiglio A, Ultra-low voltage, OTFT-based sensor for label-free, direct DNA detection. Advanced Materials, 25: 103-107.

[2012] Cosseddu P, Lai S, Barbaro M, Bonfiglio A, Ultra-low voltage, organic thin film transistors fabricated on plastic substrates by a highly reproducible process. Applied Physics Letters, 100: 093305:1-5.

[2011] Mattana G, Fraboni B, Malliaras G, Hinestroza J, Bonfiglio A, Organic electronics on natural cotton fibers. Organic Electronics, 12: 2033-2039. 

Awards and prizes

In 2016, she has been awarded with the Itwiin prize as "Best 2016 Italian Inventor" by Associazione Italiana Donne Inventrici e Innovatrici (Italian Association Women Inventors and Innovators). In 2017, she has been awarded with the “Tecnovisionary woman” prize by the Associazione Donne & Tecnologia (Italian Association Women & Technology).

Position/Role

Head of Particle Physics at the University of Oxford (September 2018-to present)

Professional career

Daniela Bortoletto graduated in Physics from the University of Pavia, Italy in 1982. She earned her MA (1986) and PhD (1989) from Syracuse University. In 1989 she joined the Faculty of Purdue University as Postdoctoral Research Associate (1989-1992), Assistant Professor (1992-1995), Associate Professor (1995-2001), and Full Professor (2001). She became the Edward M. Purcell Distinguished Professor of Physics in 2010. In 2013 she joined the University of Oxford where she is now the Head of the sub department of particle physics. Daniela is passionate about increasing female participation in Physics and other sciences. She has enabled efforts aimed at giving young women the resources, motivation, and confidence to pursue careers in Physics. This includes the creation of the Purdue Women in Physics Organization, the development of Purdue Sciencescape, and leadership in the APS Conference Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP). She has taken CUWiP in the UK where the conference has been extraordinarily successful.

Scientific results

She has made important contributions to heavy flavour physics at CLEO (Cornell, USA) and CDF (Fermilab USA). She is a co-discoverer of the Higgs boson (CERN, 2012) and the top quark (CDF, Fermilab, 1995). She is currently studying the properties of the Higgs boson and searching for new physics at the LHC with the ATLAS experiment at CERN. She is also searching for new physics in very rare decays of muons with the mu3e experiment at the Paul Sherrer Institut. Daniela played an important role in the construction of the muon system for the CLEO detector, the SVX II silicon system for CDF, and the CMS Forward Pixel detector.  She was the US CMS Upgrade coordinator for over 7 years and led the activities of over 40 US Universities for the phase 1 and phase 2 upgrade of CMS. She is currently participating in the construction of the ATLAS ITK for the High Luminosity LHC, high voltage CMOS sensors, and ultra-radiation hard silicon sensors. She is the Deputy Scientific Coordinator of the Advanced European Infrastructures for Detectors at Accelerators (AIDA 2020)

Editorial work and publications

Editor of Nuclear Instrument and Methods. Author of over 1500 publications, including:

(2015) Bortoletto D, How and why silicon sensors are becoming more and more intelligent?. Journal of Instrumentation, 10(08). 
(2015) Khachatryan V, Mousa J, Tumasyan A, Bortoletto D, et al. Search for dark matter, extra dimensions, and unparticles in monojet events in proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV. European Physical Journal C, 75(5):235. 
(2015) Khachatryan V, Mousa J, Tumasyan A, Bortoletto D, et al. Search for physics beyond the standard model in final states with a lepton and missing transverse energy in proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV, Physical Review D, 91(9). 
(2015) Khachatryan V, Mousa J, Tumasyan A, Bortoletto D, et al. Measurement of J/ψ and ψ(2S) Prompt Double-Differential Cross Sections in pp Collisions at √s=7 TeV. Physical Review Letters, 114(19):191802. 
(2015) Ad G, Abbot B, Abdallah J, Bortoletto D, et al. Combined Measurement of the Higgs Boson Mass in pp Collisions at √s=7 and 8 TeV with the ATLAS and CMS Experiments. Physical Review Letters, 114(19):191803. 
(2015) Khachtryan V, Mousa J, Tumasyan A, Bortoletto D, et al. Observation of the rare Bs0 →µ+µ− decay from the combined analysis of CMS and LHCb data. Nature, 522(7554). 
(2015) Adam W, Bergauer T, Dragicevic M, Bortoletto D, et al. Trapping in irradiated p-on-n silicon sensors at fluences anticipated at the HL-LHC outer tracker. Journal of Instrumentation, 11(04). 
(2015) Aaltonen T, Abazov VM, Abbott B, Bortoletto D, et al. Tevatron Constraints on Models of the Higgs Boson with Exotic Spin and Parity Using Decays to Bottom-Antibottom Quark Pairs. Physical Review Letters, 114(15). 
(2015) CDF Collaboration, Aaltonen T, Amerio S, Bortoletto D, et al, Measurement of the production and differential cross sections of W + W − bosons in association with jets in p p ¯ collisions at s = 1.96 TeV. Physical Review D, 91(11). 
(2015) CDF Collaboration, Aaltonen T, Amerio S, Bortoletto D, et al. Measurement of the top-quark mass in the t t ¯ dilepton channel using the full CDF Run II data set. Physical Review, D, 92(3).

Awards and prizes

She is a fellow of the American Physical Society (2004), American Association for the Advancement of Science (2013) and the Institute of Physics (2015). She has received the Purdue University Ruth and Joel Spira for Excellence in Undergraduate Education (2004). She was awarded the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship (1994), the Early Career Award of the US National Science Foundation (1997) and the US NSF Career Advancement Award (1994). She has been a member of the UK STFC grants panel (2018), the UK STFC Detectors Strategic Review Panel (2018), US Particle Physics Projects Prioritization Panel (P5, 2005-2007, 2008, 2010), the High Energy Physics Advisory Panel (HEPAP, 2005-2008) to the US DOE and NSF, and the Mathematical and Physical Science Advisory Committee (MPSAC, 2008-2014) to the NSF and the chair of the Fermilab Program Advisory Committee (2014-2017).

Position/Role

Research Fellow of the CNR-IRPI, Research Institute for Hydrogeological Protection, Section of Padua.

Professional career

After obtaining a bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering in 2007 and a Master's Degree in Environmental and Land Engineering in 2010 at the University of Padua, in the same year she joined as a fellow the Research Institute for Hydrogeological Protection of Padua.. Also at the Research Institute she has been a research fellow since 2013 and at the same time continues her education with a PhD, awarded by the University of Bologna in Civil, Environmental and Materials Engineering in 2015.

Scientific results

Giulia Bossi is an expert in land mechanics and landslides. She is involved, among other things, in statistical analysis of the error associated with simplifications of the stratigraphic profile in the numerical model of landslides; simulations of runout for debris flows and rock avalanches, with reconstruction of the dynamics of past events and risk scenarios; the study of possible mitigation interventions for landslides; finally, analysis of slope stability, landslide monitoring data and risk quantification. During the PhD she developed a research in which she shew a new approach in geotechnical modeling that is based on the stochastic generation of different distributions of soil layers, according to a Boolean logic. This method has been applied to the analysis of stability of landslides in two-dimensional and three-dimensional models. Within the CNR-IRPI of Padua she contributes to the definition of the dynamics of large landslides distributed between Veneto, Alto Adige, Friuli Venezia Giulia and Argentina and manages the monitoring activity for landslides in Italy. As part of European projects, she participated on behalf of the CNR in the training of volunteers for natural risk management. She collaborated with the Ca 'Foscari University of Venice in a project for the modeling of the risk for impacts between birdlife and airplanes near airports, for which it manages the spatial database and participates in the definition of the model.

Editorial work and publications

Giulia Bossi is reviewer for scientific journals Science of the total environment, Natural Hazard and Earth System Sciences, il Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment and Computers & Geosciences. 

She is the author of numerous national and international scientific publications including:

(2016) Bossi G, Mantovani M, Frigerio S, Schenato L, Marcato G, Pasuto A. A Monitoring Network to Map and Assess Landslide Activity in a Highly Anthropized Area. Geosciences (MDPI), 6, 40. 

(2016) Bossi G, Zabuski L, Pasuto A, Marcato G. Capabilities of Continuous and Discontinuous Modelling of a Complex, Structurally Controlled Landslide. Geotechnical and Geological Engineering, 1-11. 

(2016) Bossi G, Borgatti L, Gottardi G, Marcato G. The Boolean Stochastic Generation method - BoSG: A tool for the analysis of the error associated with the simplification of the stratigraphy in geotechnical models. Engineering Geology, 203:99-106. 

(2016) Brezzi L, Bossi G, Gabrieli F, Marcato G, Pastor M, Cola S. A new data assimilation procedure to develop a debris flow run-out model. Landslides, 13(5):1083-1096. 

(2015) Coccon F, Zucchetta M, Bossi G, Borrotti M, Torricelli P, Franzoi P. A land-use perspective for birdstrike risk assessment: The attraction risk index. Plos One, 10(6), e0128363. 

(2015) Bossi G, Cavalli M, Crema S, Frigerio S, Quan Luna B, Mantovani M, Marcato G, Schenato L, Pasuto A. Multi-temporal LiDAR-DTMs as a tool for modelling a complex landslide: a case study in the Rotolon catchment (eastern Italian Alps). Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 15:715-722. 

(2014) Cortes Arevalo VJ, Charrière M, Bossi G, Frigerio S, Schenato L, Bogaard T, Bianchizza C, Pasuto A, Sterlacchini S. Evaluating quality of data collected by volunteers for first level inspection of hydraulic structures in mountain catchments. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 14:2681-2698. 

(2014) Frigerio S, Schenato L, Mantovani M, Bossi G, Marcato G, Cavalli M, Pasuto A. A Web-based platform for automatic and continuous landslide monitoring: the Rotolon case study. Computers & Geosciences, (63):96-105. 

(2013) Bossi G, Frigerio S, Mantovani M, Schenato L, Pasuto A, Marcato G. Hazard assessment of a potential rock avalanche in South Tyrol, Italy: 3D modeling and risk scenarios. Italian Journal of Engineering Geology and Environment, 6: 221-227. 

(2012) Marcato G, Bossi G, Rivelli F, Borgatti L. Debris flood hazard documentation and mitigation on the Tilcara alluvial fan (Quebrada de Humahuaca, Jujuy province, North-West Argentina). Natural Hazards and Earth System Science, 12(6):1873-1882. 

Awards and prizes

In 2014 she was awarded the Ivo Rocchetti Award for the best presentation of a young researcher at the IX National Conference "GIT-Geosciences and Information Technologies" of Montefalco (PG), for the work Addressing ground lithological variability for numerical modeling through a stochastic approach: the Mortisa landslide case study. It is also a member of various scientific societies such as the International Association for Engineering Geology and the Environment (IAEG), the European Geosciences Union (EGU) and the Italian Association of Applied and Environmental Geology (AIGA).

Position/Role

Full professor of Physics at University of Milan and President of Italian Physical Society

Professional career

After graduating in Physics at University of Milan, she obtains the PhD in 1984 at University of Manitoba (Canada), which is one of the founding universities of TRIUMF of Vancouver (Canada), where she carries out her research in the field of experimental Nuclear Physics, with focus on gamma spectroscopy for nuclear structure. After returning to Italy as a researcher she spends several periods at the ORNL laboratory (USA) and the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark. In Milan she becomes a full professor in 2002. Between 2005 and 2011 she is president of the National Scientific Commission of Nuclear Physics of INFN. In 2011-2015 member of the INFN Board of Directors as MIUR representative and since January 2020 she is president of SIF. She has been member and often chairperson of several international scientific committees and of evaluation panels.

Scientific results

The research which was carried out during the years concerns the study of nuclear structure with experiments using gamma spectroscopy and light and heavy ions from accelerators. This research has focused on the collective excitations of nuclei, in particular that of electric dipole type. This excitation is a probe for nuclear  properties such as shape, coupling to complex excitations that have similarities in other manybody physical systems. More recently attention has been paid to dipole vibrations in unstable nuclei with an unnatural number of protons and neutrons. These nuclei are generated in stellar explosions, and some of them are produced in the laboratory as "radioactive beams".  Knowledge of dipolar oscillations in these nuclei offers the possibility to give relevant information for the nucleosynthesis patterns of heavy nuclei.  This research therefore concerns a chapter of nuclear physics that has implications in the field of nuclear astrophysics. 

In particular,  she is currently performing investigations of nuclear properties dealing with neutron oscillations at the surface of the nucleus;  their understanding is relevant to the description of neutron stars which are themselves sources of gravitational waves. 

Over the years she has also participated in the development and construction of new scintillation and of solid state detectors highly segmented for the measurement of gamma radiation. The new detectors were designed for highly  selective  measurements that made it possible to obtain new data relevant to the understanding of nuclei in uncharted regions which have astrophysical implications.  

Editorial work and publications

Angela Bracco is editor of  the Italian Physical Society journals,  supervisory editor of the Nuclear Physics A (Elsevier) e membro dello Steering Committee di EPJ (Springer and Nature).

She is author of vaste number of publications we quote here some of the most relevant: 

(2019) Bracco, A.; Lanza E. G.; Tamii, A. Isoscalar and isovector dipole excitations: Nuclear properties from low-lying states and from the isovector giant dipole resonance.PROGRESS IN PARTICLE AND NUCLEAR PHYSICS,106: 360-433.

(2018) Morales, A. I.; Benzoni, G.; Watanabe, H.; Bracco A. et al. Is seniority a partial dynamic symmetry in the first vg(9/2) shell? PHYSICS LETTERS B, 781:706.

(2017) Nakatsuka, N.; Baba, H.; Aumann, T.; A. Bracco et al. Observation of isoscalar and isovector dipole excitations in neutron-rich O-20, PHYSICS LETTERS B768: 387.

(2017) Leoni, S.; Fornal, B.; Marginean, N.; Bracco, A. et al. Multifaceted Quadruplet of Low-Lying Spin-Zero States in Ni-66: Emergence of Shape Isomerism in Light Nuclei. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 118 , 162502.

(2015) Ceruti, S.; Camera, F.; Bracco, A.; et al. Isospin Mixing in Zr-80: From Finite to Zero Temperature. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 115, 222502.

(2016) Bocchi, G.; Leoni, S.; Fornal, B.; Bracco A. et al. The mutable nature of particle-core excitations with spin in the one-valence-proton nucleus Sb-133. PHYSICS LETTERS B 760, 273. 

(2015) Bracco, A.; Crespi, F. C. L.; Lanza, E. G. Gamma decay of pygmy states from inelastic scattering of ions. EPJA 51, 99. 

(2014) Pellegri, L.; Bracco, A.; Crespi, F. C. L.; et al. Pygmy dipole resonance in Sn-124 populated by inelastic scattering of O-17. PHYSICS LETTERS B (2014) Volume: 738, 519.

(2013) Crespi, F. C. L.; Bracco, A.; Nicolini, R.; et al. Isospin Character of Low-Lying Pygmy Dipole States in Pb-208 via Inelastic Scattering of O-17 Ions.  PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS, 113, 1, 012501.

(2013) Bracco, A. Concluding remarks on the EMIS2012 conference. NIM 317, 810.

(2013) Larsen, A. C.; Blasi, N.; Bracco, A.; et al. Evidence for the Dipole Nature of the Low-Energy gamma Enhancement in Fe-56,  PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS, 111, 242504.

Awards and prizes

Member of the European Academy 

Member of the Committee on International Scientific Affairs (CISA) dell'American Physical Society (APS)

In 2011 she received the EnergyLab Foundation Award

In 2018 she received the GENCO membership award from the GSI Exotic Nuclei Community (GSI, Laboratory, Germany)

Position/Role

Chief of Medical Oncology Department, AUSL / IRCCS Institute of Neurological Sciences

Professional career

In July 1981 Dr Brandes graduated in Medicine at the University of Padova with the Title "Polychemotherapy in the treatment of ovarian cancer". She completed the fellowship in Medical Oncology with the dissertation titled "The chemotherapy and surgical combined treatment in small cell lung cancer” She was visiting physician at the Radiotherapy Department of Royal Marsden, London, at the Oncology Department, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, and at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York. Thereafter she became the Chief of the Neuro-Oncology Unit in the Azienda Ospedale-Università, Padova. Since 2006 she was the Chief of Medical Oncology Department, AUSL / IRCCS Institute of Neurological Sciences. She has been the global Principal Investigator in several clinical studies.

Scientific results

Dr Brandes is the Coordinator of the Italian Association of Medical Oncology guidelines for the treatment of brain tumors and provides an active contribution as an EMA Expert

She is Member of the Scientific Committee for the National Institute of the Cancer (INCa), for France, reviewer for oncology guidelines of Oncological Institute of Italian Switzerland (IOSI), Member of Response Assessment in Pediatric Neuro-Oncology (RAPNO), member of Immunotherapy Response Assessment in Neuro-Oncology (RANO), Member of the restricted group of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) for brain tumors.

She has been also National and International coordinator for research projects of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC)/National Cancer Institute of Canada (NCIC)

Since 2009 Dr Brandes serves as Referee and national expert for the national CME committee, evaluating scientific events and educations projects

Dr. Brandes was the Principal Investigator of the project "Role of MGMT methylation status at time of diagnosis and recurrence for patients with glioblastoma: exploratory analysis and clinical implications", funded by Fondazione Celeghin

She is a member of the regional group for rare tumors, member of the Oncology Committee of Emilia Romagna Region.

Dr Brandes is the clinical coordinator for the integrated care pathways for brain tumors for AUSL Bologna and is co-chair for the integrated care pathways for breast and lung cancers.

Editorial work and publications

Dr Brandes is the Author of many papers in peer reviewed international journals, including:

(2016) Baumert BG, Hegi ME, van den Bent MJ, von Deimling A, Gorlia T, Hoang-Xuan K, Brandes AA, Kantor G, Taphoorn MJ, Hassel MB, Hartmann C, Ryan G, Capper D, Kros JM, Kurscheid S, Wick W, Enting R, Reni M, Thiessen B, Dhermain F, Bromberg JE, Feuvret L, Reijneveld JC, Chinot O, Gijtenbeek JM, Rossiter JP, Dif N, Balana C, Bravo-Marques J, Clement PM, Marosi C, Tzuk-Shina T, Nordal RA, Rees J, Lacombe D, Mason WP, Stupp R. Temozolomide chemotherapy versus radiotherapy in high-risk low-grade glioma (EORTC 22033-26033): a randomised, open-label, phase 3 intergroup study. The Lancet Oncology. pii: S1470-2045(16)30313-8. doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(16)30313-8. [Epub ahead of print]. PMID: 27686946

(2016) Reijneveld JC, Taphoorn MJ, Coens C, Bromberg JE, Mason WP, Hoang-Xuan K, Ryan G, Hassel MB, Enting RH, Brandes AA, Wick A, Chinot O, Reni M, Kantor G, Thiessen B, Klein M, Verger E, Borchers C, Hau P, Back M, Smits A, Golfinopoulos V, Gorlia T, Bottomley A, Stupp R, Baumert BG. Health-related quality of life in patients with high-risk low-grade glioma (EORTC 22033-26033): a randomised, open-label, phase 3 intergroup study. The Lancet Oncology. pii: S1470-2045(16)30305-9. doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(16)30305-9. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 27686943

(2016) Schiffgens S, Wilkens L, Brandes AA, Meier T, Franceschi E, Ermani M, Hartmann C, Sandalcioglu IE, Dumitru CA. Sex-specific clinicopathological significance of novel (Frizzled-7) and established (MGMT, IDH1) biomarkers in glioblastoma. Oncotarget. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.10465. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 27409829
(2016) Wick W, Gorlia T, Bady P, Platten M, van den Bent MJ, Taphoorn MJ, Steuve J, Brandes AA, Hamou MF, Wick A, Kosch M, Weller M, Stupp R, Roth P, Golfinopoulos V, Frenel JS, Campone M, Ricard D, Marosi C, Villa S, Weyerbrock A, Hopkins K, Homicsko K, Lhermitte B, Pesce G, Hegi ME. Phase II Study of Radiotherapy and Temsirolimus versus Radiochemotherapy with Temozolomide in Patients with Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma without MGMT Promoter Hypermethylation (EORTC 26082). Clinical Cancer Research. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 27143690

(2016) Brandes AA, Finocchiaro G, Zagonel V, Reni M, Caserta C, Fabi A, Clavarezza M, Maiello E, Eoli M, Lombardi G, Monteforte M, Proietti E, Agati R, Eusebi V, Franceschi E. AVAREG: a phase II, randomized, noncomparative study of fotemustine or bevacizumab for patients with recurrent glioblastoma. Neuro Oncology, 18(9):1304-12. doi: 10.1093/neuonc/now035. PMID: 26951379 

(2016) Brandes AA, Carpentier AF, Kesari S, Sepulveda-Sanchez JM, Wheeler HR, Chinot O, Cher L, Steinbach JP, Capper D, Specenier P, Rodon J, Cleverly A, Smith C, Gueorguieva I, Miles C, Guba SC, Desaiah D, Lahn MM, Wick W. A Phase II randomized study of galunisertib monotherapy or galunisertib plus lomustine compared with lomustine monotherapy in patients with recurrent glioblastoma. Neuro Oncology, 18(8):1146-56. doi: 10.1093/neuonc/now009. PMID: 26902851

(2015) Okada H, Weller M, Huang R, Finocchiaro G, Gilbert MR, Wick W, Ellingson BM, Hashimoto N, Pollack IF, Brandes AA, Franceschi E, Herold-Mende C, Nayak L, Panigrahy A, Pope WB, Prins R, Sampson JH, Wen PY, Reardon DA. Immunotherapy response assessment in neuro-oncology: a report of the RANO working group. The Lancet Oncology, 16(15): e534-42.

(2015) Pignata S, Lorusso D, Scambia G, Sambataro D, Tamberi S, Cinieri S, Mosconi AM, Orditura M, Brandes AA, Arcangeli V, Panici PB, Pisano C, Cecere SC, Di Napoli M, Raspagliesi F, Maltese G, Salutari V, Ricci C, Daniele G, Piccirillo MC, Di Maio M, Gallo C, Perrone F; MITO 11 investigators. Pazopanib plus weekly paclitaxel versus weekly paclitaxel alone for platinum-resistant or platinum-refractory advanced ovarian cancer (MITO 11): a randomised, open-label, phase 2 trial. The Lancet Oncolology,16(5):561-8. doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(15)70115-4. Epub 2015 Apr 14. PMID: 25882986 

(2015) Brandes AA, Bartolotti M, Marucci G, Ghimenton C, Agati R, Fioravanti A, Mascarin M, Volpin L, Ammannati F, Masotto B, Gardiman MP, De Biase D, Tallini G, Crisi G, Bartolini S, Franceschi E.New perspectives in the treatment of adult medulloblastoma in the era of molecular oncology. Critical Review in Oncology/Hematology, 94(3):348-59. doi: 10.1016/j.critrevonc.2014.12.016. Epub 2014 Dec 31. Review. PMID: 25600839 

(2014) Brandes AA et al. Pattern of care and effectiveness of treatment for glioblastoma patients in the real world: Results from a prospective population-based registry. Could survival differ in a high-volume center?. Neuro-Oncology Practice, 1(4):166-171.

Awards and prizes

In 2001 she was Knighted with the title of Cavaliere della Repubblica by the President of the Republic of Italy for her activities in oncology research.

In 2012was named the 2012 Michael Gruson Lecturer in Neuro-Oncology and came to Weill Cornell Medical Center to make the Grand Rounds lecture. Of note it was the first time that an Italian researcher was awarded for the scientific contributes in the field of neuro-oncology.

Position/Role

Full professor of Endocrinology at the University of Florence

Professional career

Graduated in Medicine and Surgery in 1977 at the University of Florence, she specialised in endocrinology in 1980 at the same university, and in 1988 she obtained a PhD in Molecular Biology at the University of Rome. In 2003 she became a full professor of Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases. In addition to her academic career, she has also worked as a clinician: since 1992 she has been in charge of the Reference Centre for Hereditary Endocrine Tumours at the Careggi University Hospital, where since 2007 she has also been Director of the Operative Unit of Mineral and Bone Metabolism Diseases. Since 2016, she has been coordinating two European Reference Networks on rare endocrine diseases and rare bone diseases at the above-mentioned hospital.

Scientific results

For years she has been committed to the prevention and treatment of skeletal diseases, not only as a physician and researcher of international standing, with over 650 publications in peer-reviewed journals, but also as a promoter, through her role as President of F.I.R.M. O (Raffella Becagli Foundation), which provides support for the prevention and treatment of skeletal diseases, she is also the promoter of an active awareness campaign, aimed at spreading knowledge of these pathologies, which are too little known yet widespread, beyond the circle of scientists and patients. It works to draw public attention to the problems of rare bone diseases, rare endocrine diseases and osteoporosis and to support communication and prevention campaigns.

Editorial work and publications

She is the author of numerous scientific publications, including: 

(1986) Brandi ML, Fitzpatrick LA, Coon HG, Aurbach GD. Bovine parathyroid cells: cultures maintained for more than l40 population doublings. Proceeding of the National Academy Society of the United States of America, 83:1709-1713. 

(1986) Brandi ML, Aurbach GD, Fitzpatrick LA, Quarto R, Spiegel AM, Bliziotes MM, Norton JA, Doppman JL, Marx SJ. Parathyroid mitogenic activity in plasma from patients with multiple endocrine neoplasia type I. The New England Journal of Medicine, 314:1287-1293. 

(1987) Sakaguchi K, Santora A, Zimering M, Curcio F, Aurbach GD, Brandi ML. Functional epithelial cell line cloned from rat parathyroid glands. Proceeding of the National Academy Society of the United States of America, 84:3269-3273. 

(1992) Gattei V, Bernabei PA, Pinto A, Bezzini R, Ringressi A, Formigli L, Tanini A, Attadia V, Brandi ML. Phorbol ester induced osteoclast-like differentiation of a novel human leukemic cell line (FLG 29.1). The Journal of Cell Biology, 116:437-447. 

(2001) Brandi ML, Gagel RF, Angeli A, Bilezikian JP, Beck-Peccoz P, Bordi C, Conte-Devolx B, Falchetti A, Gheri RG, Libroia A, Lips CJM, Lombardi G, Mannelli M, Pacini F, Ponder BA, Raue F, Skogseid B, Tamburrano G, Thakker RV, Thompson NW, Tommasetti P, Tonelli F, Wells SA Jr, Marx SJ. Guidelines for Diagnosis and Therapy of MEN Type1 and Type 2. The journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 86:5658-5671. 

(2004) Khosla S, Riggs BL, Atkinson EJ, Oberg AL, Mavilia C, Del Monte F, Melton LJ 3rd, Brandi ML. Relationship of estrogen receptor genotypes to bone mineral density and to rates of bone loss in men. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 89:1808-1816. 

(2004) Falchetti A, Di Stefano M, Marini F, Del Monte F, Mavilia C, Strigoli D, De Feo ML, Isaia G, Masi L, Amedei A, Cioppi F, Ghinoi V, Maddali Bongi S, Di Fede G, Sferrazza C, Rini GB, Melchiorre D, Matucci-Cerinin M, Brandi ML. Two novel mutation at exon 8 of the Sequestosome 1 (SQSTM1) gene in an Italian series of patients affected by Paget's disease of bone (PDB). The Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, 19:1013-1017. 

(2008) Luzi E, Marini F, Sala SC, Tognarini I, Galli G, Brandi ML. Osteogenic Differentiation of Human Adipose Tissue-Derived Stem Cells Is Modulated by the miR-26a Targeting of the SMAD1 Transcription Factor. The Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, 23(2):287-95. 

(2012) Luzi E, Marini F, Tognarini I, Galli G, Falchetti A, Brandi ML, The Regulatory Network Menin-MicroRNA 26a As a Possible Target for RNA-Based Therapy of Bone Diseases. Mulecular Therapy Nucleic Acids, 22(2):103-8. 

(2016) Brandi ML, Bilezikian JP, Shoback D, Bouillon R, Clarke BL, Thakker RV, Khan AA, Potts JT Jr. Management of Hypoparathyroidism: Summary Statement and Guidelines. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Jun101(6):2273-83.

Position/Role

Full Professor and former Vice Rector of Politecnico di Milano for the Como Campus.

Professional career

After obtaining a degree in Physics at the University of Milan in 1986, she continued her education with a PhD in Geodetic and Topographical Sciences that she obtained in 1991 at the Interuniversity Consortium of Milan, Turin and Pavia. From 1992 to 1994, she was Researcher at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, where she helped create the International Geoid Service (IGeS) of the International Geodesy Association (IAG) and became part of the IGeS Bulletin committee, becoming its chief editor. In 1994, she became a researcher at the Politecnico di Milano, and four years later an associate professor. In 1997, she founded and coordinated the Geomatics Laboratory at the Como Campus of the Politecnico di Milano. From 2006 to 2011, she was a lecturer of GIS at the Federal Polytechnic of Zurich (ETH). Since 2010, she has been Full Professor of Digital Mapping and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) at the Politecnico di Milano and from 2011 to 2016 she was Vice Rector of Politecnico for the Como Campus.

Scientific results

After obtaining a degree in Physics at the University of Milan in 1986, she continued her education with a PhD in Geodetic and Topographical Sciences that she obtained in 1991 at the Interuniversity Consortium of Milan, Turin and Pavia. From 1992 to 1994, she was Researcher at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, where she helped create the International Geoid Service (IGeS) of the International Geodesy Association (IAG) and became part of the IGeS Bulletin committee, becoming its chief editor. In 1994, she became a researcher at the Politecnico di Milano, and four years later an associate professor. In 1997, she founded and coordinated the Geomatics Laboratory at the Como Campus of the Politecnico di Milano. From 2006 to 2011, she was a lecturer of GIS at the Federal Polytechnic of Zurich (ETH). Since 2010, she has been Full Professor of Digital Mapping and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) at the Politecnico di Milano and from 2011 to 2016 she was Vice Rector of Politecnico for the Como Campus.

Editorial work and publications

Maria Antonia Brovelli is editor of the Applied Geomatics journal published by Springer, co-author of three textbooks on the statistical processing of data, of a volume on orthophotos, i.e. geometrically correct and georeferenced aerial and satellite imagery, and digital terrain models, and author of over 150 scientific publications including:

(2018) Brovelli MA, Zamboni G, A new method for the assessment of spatial accuracy and completeness of OpenStreetMap building footprints, ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information 7(8), 289.

(2016) Brovelli MA, Minghini M, Moreno Sanchez R, Oliveira R. Free anD Open Source Software for Geospatial Applications (FOSS4G) to support Future Earth. International Journal of Digital Earth, 1-19.

(2016) Brovelli MA, Minghini M, Molinari ME, Mooney P. Towards an automated comparison of OpenStreetMap with authoritative road datasets. Transactions in GIS. 

(2015) Brovelli MA, Molinari ME, Hussein E, Chen J, Li R. The First Comprehensive Accuracy Assessment of GlobeLand30 at a National Level: Methodology and Results. Remote Sensing, 7(4):4191-4212. 

(2015) Brovelli MA, Minghini M, Zamboni G. Public Participation GIS: a FOSS architecture enabling field-data collection. International Journal of Digital Earth, 8(5):345-363. 

(2012) Valentini L, Brovelli MA, Zamboni G. Multi-frame and multi-dimensional historical digital cities: The Como example. International Journal of Digital Earth, 7(4):336-350. 

(2011) Brovelli MA, Giori G, Mussin M, M. Negretti M. Improving the Monitoring of the Status of the Environment Through Web Geo-services: The Example of Large Structures Supervision. Transactions in GIS, 15(2), 173-188. 

(2008) Brovelli MA, Crespi M, Fratarcangeli F, Giannone F, Realini E. Accuracy assessment of high resolution satellite imagery orientation by leave-one-out method. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 63(4):427-440. 

(2004) Brovelli MA, Cannata M, Longoni UM. LIDAR Data Filtering and DTM Interpolation Within GRASS. Transactions in GIS, 8(2), 155-174. 

(1993) Knudsen P, Brovelli MA. Collinear and cross-over adjustment of Geosat ERM and Seasat altimeter data in the Mediterranean Sea. Surveys in Geophysics, 14, 4-5:449-459. 

(1993) Rummel R, Van Gelderan M, Koop R, Schrama E, Sansò F, Brovelli MA, Migliaccio F, Sacerdote F. Spherical Harmonic Analysis of Satellite Gradiometry. Publications on Geodesy, new series, number 39, Netherland Geodetic Commission, Delft, The Netherlands.

Awards and prizes

In September 2015 she was awarded the Sol Katz Award 2015 for her contribution to Free Software and Open Source Geospatial during the FOSS4G 2015 conference in Seoul, South Korea. Maria Antonia Brovelli was one of the Directors of OSGeo (International GIS Open Foundation). She is  Chair of the working group IV / 4 "Collaborative Crowdsourced Cloud Mapping (C³M)" of the International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS), member of UN-GGIM Italy, Chair of the "Capacity Building" working group of the United Nations "UN OpenGIS", Deputy chair and member of the International Task Team (single woman) with the task of supporting the United Nations for the geospatial aspects (UN-GGIM). She was co-organizer of the annual "Europa NASA World Wind Challenge" event, which involved students and professionals in developing applications based on the virtual globe of NASA. Finally, she is a member of ACEO, the Advisory Committee for Earth Observation (ACEO), which is the main interpreter of the views and needs of the European scientific community on access to space experimentation and data exploitation in Earth science programs.

Position/Role

Adjunct Full Professor of Internal Medicine at the Clinical and Experiment Medicine Department of the University of Pisa.

Professional career

After graduation in Medicine and Surgery and specialization in Digestive Diseases in 1984 and 1988 respectively at the University of Turin, she began her professional career in 1988  as full-time medical assistant and in 1993 medical associate at the Gastroenterology Division,  San Giovanni Battista Hospital of  Turin. In 1989 she obtained the specialization in Ultrasound Diagnostics in Internal Medicine at the University of Bologna. In 1998 she moved to Pisa as Medical Associate at the Gastroenterology Unit of Spedali Riuniti di Santa Chiara Hospital and in 2001 became its Acting Director.  From 1999 she is Director of the Reference Center  for Chronic Liver Disease and Cancer of the Tuscany Region. From 2003 she is Director of the Gastroenterology and Hepatology Unit and Laboratory of Liver Pathophysiology of the University Hospital of Pisa. From 2016 she is Adjunct Full Professor of Internal Medicine, Clinical and Experimental Medicine of the University of Pisa, and from 2020 Chair of the Medical Specialties Integrated Department of the University Hospital of Pisa. 

Scientific results

Maurizia Rossana Brunetto started her biomedical research activity in 1981 with a residency at the General Pathology Institute of the University of Turin and in 1982 with ab internship at the Laboratory of the Department of Biochemistry of Brunel University Uxbridge, GB studying peroxidative liver damage. Subsequently, she gets involved in the study of the pathogenesis and therapy of hepatitis B, and in 1989, Visiting Scientist at the Molecular Biology Laboratory of the Max Plank Institut fur Biochemie, Munich, Germany she isolated and characterized the Hepatitis B Virus mutant,  defective for the HBeAg secretion which causes the  HBeAg negative, anti-HBe positive form of chronic hepatitis B clinically defined at the Gastroenterology Division of the  San Giovanni BattistaHospital of Torino. In 1993 and 1994 she continues the study of the pathogenetic implications of viral heterogeneity of hepatitis viruses, HBV e HCV at the Department of  Virology I, National Institute of Health, Tokyo, Japan with a Fellowship of the Human Science Foundation of Japan. She contributed to the definition of the impact of interferon in the treatment of chronic hepatitis B and C  in relation to the risk of development of hepatocellular-carcinoma, the clinical usefulness of viral biomarkers such as HBsAg and HBcrAg in the management of HBV  carriers, and the national and international guidelines for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B. She contributed to the experimental design and\or conduction of the registration studies for major drugs used for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B, D, and C.

Editorial work and publications

(2021)  Brunetto MR, Carey I, Maasoumy B, Marcos-Fosch C, Boonstra A, Caviglia GP, Loglio A, Cavallone D, Scholtes C, Ricco G, Smedile A, Riveiro-Barciela M, van Bömmel F, van der Eijk A, Zoulim F, Berg T, Cornberg M, Lampertico P, Agarwal K, Buti M.  Incremental value of HBcrAg to classify 1582 HBeAg negative individuals in chronic infection without liver disease or hepatitis Aliment Pharmacol Ther.2021, Jan 19 doi:10.111/apt.16258

(2013) Brunetto MR, Marcellin P, Cherubini B, Yurdaydin C, Farci P, Hadziyannis SJ, Rothe V, Regep L, Bonino F. Response to peginterferon alfa-2a (40KD) in HBeAg-negative CHB: on-treatment kinetics of HBsAg serum levels vary by HBV genotype. J Hepatol. 2013 Dec;59(6):1153-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jhep.2013.07.017. Epub 2013 Jul 18. PubMed PMID: 23872601.

(2010) Brunetto MR, Oliveri F, Colombatto P, Moriconi F, Ciccorossi P, Coco B, Romagnoli V, Cherubini B, Moscato G, Maina AM, Cavallone D, Bonino F. Hepatitis B surface antigen serum levels help to distinguish active from inactive hepatitis B virus genotype D carriers. Gastroenterology. 2010 Aug;139(2):483-90. doi:10.1053/j.gastro.2010.04.052. Epub 2010 May 5. PubMed PMID: 20451520.

(2009) Brunetto MR, Moriconi F, Bonino F, Lau GK, Farci P, Yurdaydin C, Piratvisuth T, Luo K, Wang Y, Hadziyannis S, Wolf E, McCloud P, Batrla R, Marcellin P. Hepatitis B virus surface antigen levels: a guide to sustained response to peginterferon alfa-2a in HBeAg-negative chronic hepatitis B. Hepatology. 2009 Apr;49(4):1141-50. doi: 10.1002/hep.22760. PubMed PMID: 19338056.

(2007) Brunetto MR. Tailoring antiviral therapy in chronic hepatitis B patients with lamivudine resistance. J Hepatol. 2007 May;46(5):756-8. Epub 2007 Mar 9. PubMed PMID: 17383043.

(1998) Brunetto MR, Oliveri F, Koehler K, Zahm F, Bonino F and the International Interferon-alpha Study Group Effect of interferon-alpha on progression of cirrhosis to hepatocellular carcinoma: retrospective cohort study.  Lancet 1998;351:1535-9.

(1993) Brunetto MR, Giarin M, Saracco G, Oliveri F, Calvo P, Capra G, Randone A, Abate ML, Manzini P, Capalbo M, et al. Hepatitis B virus unable to secrete e antigen and response to interferon in chronic hepatitis B.Gastroenterology. 1993 Sep;105(3):845-50. PubMed PMID: 7689519.

 (1991) Brunetto MR, Oliveri F, Demartini A, Calvo P, Manzini P, Cerenzia MT, Bonino F. Treatment with interferon of chronic hepatitis B associated with antibody to hepatitis B e antigen. J Hepatol. 1991;13 Suppl 1:S8-11. Review. PubMed PMID:1960379.

(1989) Brunetto MR, Stemler M, Schodel F, Will H, Ottobrelli A, Rizzetto M, Verme G,  Bonino F. Identification of HBV variants which cannot produce precore derived HBeAg and may be responsible for severe hepatitis. Ital. J. Gastroenterol.1989;Jun 21(3):151-154. WOSA1989AK15100003; ISSN: 0392-0623.

(1989) Brunetto MR, Oliveri F, Rocca G, Criscuolo D, Chiaberge E, Capalbo M, David  E, Verme G, Bonino F. Natural course and response to interferon of chronic hepatitis B accompanied by antibody to hepatitis B e antigen.Hepatology. 1989 Aug;10(2):198-202. PubMed PMID: 2663695.

Awards and prizes

Maurizia Rossana Brunetto  achieved in 1989 the  «Young Investigator Award» della European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) in occasion of the  XXIV Annual Meeting of the EASL  in Munich (Germany) per for the discovery of the HBV variant, defective in the  secretion of HBeAg . In 2002 she obtained  the «Young Investigator Award» dell’ Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver (APASL) in  occasion of the   XVII Annual Meeting APASL in Kyoto (Japan) for the discovery of the HBeAg negative,  anti-HBe positive chronic hepatitis B and its etiologic cause, the HBeAg negative HBV variant. 

Position/Role

Researcher at the Cagliari Astronomical Observatory of the Italian National Intitute for Astrophysics (INAF)

Professional career

After graduating in Astronomy at the University of Bologna in 2000, Marta Burgay continued her studies at the same university where she obtained her PhD in 2004. A few months later she became a researcher at the INAF - Cagliari Astronomical Observatory, where she works on compact objects (studying ultra-dense stars). In particular she is an expert in observations and studies of radio pulsars (one of the manifestations of the compact neutron stars, so called because they are observed through pulses of radiation appearing at short regular intervals). Since 2012 she is part of the scientific  team operating the new 64-m Sardinia Radio Telescope. She is also a member of the European and the International Pulsar Timing Array experiments for the detection of gravitational waves from supermassive black holes, and of the GRAWITA (GRAvitational Wave Inaf TeAm) collaboration to search for the electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational wave events.

Scientific results

The scientific activity of Marta Burgay is focused mainly on neutron star studies and in particular on observations and investigations of pulsars. Her name is linked to the important discovery of the binary system J0737-3039A / B, the first and, to date, the only system formed by two pulsars. Thanks to its many peculiarities, thisdouble pulsar represents a unique laboratory in several fields (nuclear physics, plasma physics, relativistic gravity...): in the field of general relativity, for example, the study of the times of arrival of the pulses of the two stars allowed her team to test the validity of the theory of general relativity with a precision of 99.95%. Continued observations of this system, still underway, will allow to further improve this limit and to test alternative theories of gravity.
Since 2008 Marta Burgay has been part of the High Time Resolution Universe Survey project for pulsars and transients searches, and since 2013 of the SUPERB survey (Survey for Pulsars and Extragalactic Radio Bursts). Thanks to these projects almost 200 new pulsars have been discovered, including more than 30 extremely fast rotating millisecond pulsars, a magnetar (a different type of neutron star with a huge magnetic field) emitting radio waves, a pulsar with a "diamond" planet, and a new class of transient sources, the Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs), of yet unknown origin.

Editorial work and publications

Marta Burgay is (co-)author of 140 refereed articles published in international journals (including 4 in Nature and 5 in Science) that have received a total of more than 9000 citations. She is (co-)author of 22 telematic scientific communications (Astronomer's Telegram, GCN Circulars) and (co-)author of 58 conference proceedings. She is editor in chief of a volume of conference proceedings.

[2013] Thornton D, Stappers B, Bailes M, Barsdell B, Bates S, Bhat N D R, Burgay M, Burke-Spolaor S, Champion D J, Coster P, D'Amico N, Jameson A, Johnston S, Keith M, Kramer M, Levin L, Milia S, Ng C, Possenti A, van Straten W. A Population of Fast Radio Bursts at Cosmological Distances, Science, 341:53. 

[2013] Burgay M, Keith MJ, Lorimer DR, Hassall TE, Lyne AG, Camilo F, D'Amico N, Hobbs GB, Kramer M, Manchester RN, McLaughlin MA, Possenti A, Stairs I H, Stappers BW. The Perseus Arm Pulsar Survey, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 429:579. 

[2011] Bailes M, Bates SD, Bhalerao V, Bhat NDR, Burgay M, Burke-Spolaor S, D'Amico N, Johnston S, Keith MJ, Kramer M, Kulkarni SR, Levin L, Lyne AG, Milia S, Possenti A, Spitler L, Stappers B, van Straten, W. Transformation of a Star into a Planet in a Millisecond Pulsar Binary, Science, 333:1717. 

[2006] Kramer M, Stairs IH, Manchester RN, McLaughlin MA, Lyne AG, Ferdman RD, Burgay M, Lorimer DR, Possenti A, D'Amico N, Sarkissian J M, Hobbs G B, Reynolds J E, Freire PCC, Camilo F. Tests of General Relativity from Timing the Double Pulsar, Science, 314:97. 

[2006] McLaughlin MA, Lyne AG, Lorimer DR, Kramer M, Faulkner AJ, Manchester RN, Cordes JM, Camilo F, Possenti A, Stairs IH, Hobbs G, D'Amico N, Burgay M, O'Brien JT. Transient radio bursts from rotating neutron stars, Nature, 439:817. 

[2004] Lyne AG, Burgay M, Kramer M, Possenti A, Manchester RN, Camilo F, McLaughlin MA, Lorimer DR, D'Amico N, Joshi BC, Reynolds J, Freire PCC, A Double-Pulsar System - A rare Laboratory for Relativistic Gravity and Plasma Physics, Science, 303:1153L. 

[2003] Burgay M, D'Amico N, Possenti A, Manchester RN, Lyne AG, Joshi BC, McLaughlin MA, Kramer M, Sarkissian JM, Camilo F, Kalogera V, Kim C, Lorimer DR. An increased estimate of the merger rate of double neutron stars from observations of a highly relativistic system, Nature, 426:531.

Awards and prizes

Marta Burgay has received several awards, from the beginning of her career, in addition to covering important scientific and institutional roles. Her PhD thesis "The Parkes High-Latitude Pulsar Survey and the Discovery of the First Double Pulsar" received the 2005 Tacchini Prize of the Italian Astronomical Society (SAIt). In 2005 she also received the Descartes Prize for excellence in scientific collaborative research, as a member of the  group PulSE (Pulsar Science in Europe). In 2006 she was awarded with two important prizes, the Italian Society of General Relativity and Gravity Physics (SIGrav) Award for young researchers, and the International Union  for Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) Award for young physicists. In 2010 she won the Marsden Prize of the European Astrosky Network and the Vainu Bappu Award of the Astronomical Society of India. In 2011, the XXIII edition of the Marisa Bellisario Award dedicated to Women, Innovation and Human Capital assigned her a prize in the special awards section for young talents in research fields. In 2014 she was named "Chevalier de l'autonomie" of the Valle d'Aosta region and in 2015 she was designated "Sardinian woman of the year" by the Lyones Club of Cagliari. In 2017 the International Astronomical Union attributed to the asteroid n. 198634 the name Burgaymarta.

Position/Role

Full Professor of Gastroenterology and Delegate for Postgraduate Schools and Observatory for Postgraduate Specialist Training at the University of Padua. Head of the Multivisceral Transplantation Unit at the Hospital of University of Padua.

Professional career

Professor Burra obtained her medical degree at the University of Padua in 1984, followed by specialization in Gastroenterology and Endoscopy. Subsequently, she undertook an international research fellowship at the Liver Unit and Liver Research Laboratories at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, UK, before completing a PhD in Hepatology at the Padua University in 1993. She then joined the faculty at the Padua University as a Senior Registrar and Assistant Professor, Since 2004 Professor Burra is responsible of the “Regional center for cell therapy of metabolic diseases”. In 2010 she was appointed Head of the Multivisceral Transplantation Unit at the Padua University. In 2014, she became associate professor and in 2019 full professor of Gastroenterology at the University of Padua. From 2015 to 2021 she is pro-rector for Postgraduate Training at the University of Padua. From 2021 she will be Delegate to the Schools of Specialisation and to the Observatory for Postgraduate Training, at the same University. 

She is currently Secretary of the Italian Society of Gastroenterology (SIGE), President of the North Italian Transplant program (NITp), and elected Chair of the Public Affairs Committee of the United European Gastroenterology (UEG). She is also Honorary President of the European Board Transplant Medicine and Coordinator of the Permanent Transplant Commission of the Italian Association for the Study of the Liver (AISF). 

Scientific results

Patrizia Burra is interested in clinical and translational studies in the setting of liver transplantation, mainly regarding antiviral therapy for HCV recurrence, HBV prophylaxis after transplantation, acute alcoholic hepatitis as indication for liver transplantation, liver transplantation for NASH and NAFLD, adherence to medical treatments and quality of life of transplant recipients.

In the past, she has carried out studies on neurological function and regional cerebral flux by means of SPECT (single photon emission tomography) and has carried out quantitative studies on neurological function by PET (positron emission tomography) in subjects who are candidates for liver transplantation. In addition to clinical research, Patrizia Burra has been involved in basic research, mainly carrying out studies on primary cultures of human hepatocytes, receptors for thyroid hormones and stem cells from the umbilical cord and their differentiation into hepatocytes.

Editorial work and publications

Patrizia Burra is associate editor of Transplant International since 2009, of American Journal of Transplantation from 2010 to 2015 and of Digestive and Liver Disease since 2015. Since 2017 she is Special Section Editor of Journal of Hepatology and from 2018 she is co-chair of The Lancet–EASL Commission on liver diseases in Europe.

She has authored more than 290 articles in international peer-reviewed journals, including:

Manns MP, Burra P, Sargent J, Horton R, Karlsen TH. The Lancet-EASL Commission on liver diseases in Europe: overcoming unmet needs, stigma, and inequities. Lancet. 2018 Aug 25;392(10148):621-622

Burra P, Zanetto A, Germani G. Liver Transplantation for Alcoholic Liver Disease and Hepatocellular Carcinoma. Cancers (Basel). 2018 Feb 9;10(2):pii: E46

Toniutto P, Zanetto A, Ferrarese A, Burra P. Current challenges and future directions for liver transplantation. Liver Int. 2017;37:317–327

Burra P,Rodríguez-Castro K, Guarino M, Morisco F, Villa E, Mazzella G, Women in Hepatology Group; Italian Association for the Study of the Liver (AISF). AISF position paper on liver transplantation and pregnancy: Women in Hepatology Group, Italian Association for the Study of the Liver (AISF). Digestive and Liver Disease, 48(8):860-868.

Burra P, Germani G, Adam R, Karam V, Marzano A, Lampertico P, Salizzoni M, Filipponi F, Klempnauer JL, Castaing D, Kilic M, Carlis LD, Neuhaus P, Yilmaz S, Paul A, Pinna AD, Burroughs AK, Russo FP. Liver transplantation for HBV-related cirrhosis in Europe: an ELTR study on evolution and outcomes. J Hepatol. 2013 Feb;58(2):287-96.

Awards and prizes

Patrizia Burra is President of the NGO Marina Minnaja Foundation for the research and study of liver transplantation. She is a member of numerous Italian and international scientific societies, including: AISF (Italian Association of Liver Study) since 1985, SIGE (Italian Society of Gastroenterology) since 1985, ESOT (European Society for Organ Transplantation) since 1994, EASL (European Association Study of the Liver) since 1995 and ILTS (International Liver Transplant) since 2008.

Additionally, Professor Burra has previously served as Vice President of ESOT, Councillor of ILTS and Chair of the ILTS Education Committee, President of ILTS as well as Chair of the European Liver and Intestine Transplant Association. Currently, she is Past President of ILTS.

In 2021, she became a Fellow of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (FAASLD) and received the EASL 2021 Recognition Award. 

Position/Role

Full professor of Social Psychology at the University of Padua

Professional career

After graduating in Philosophy at the University of Trieste (1988) she received a PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Oregon in 1996. In 1996, she began her career as a researcher at the University of Padua, where she is currently a full professor.

Scientific results

Research activity on gender issues. Among these, the problem of sexual objectification of women and sexual harassment and the way in which the media, for example the Italian TV, support these phenomena have been investigated. This line of research has shown that viewing Italian TV clips with a representation of sexually objectified women increases adherence to traditional gender norms, which in turn increases the propensity to sexual harassment. Within the construction of a media literacy program, it has also been shown how watching complaint videos of female sexual objectification increases the intention to take collective actions, such as signing a petition against sexist and objectifying media, but only by women participants. Furthermore, the viewing of a complaint video by a group of male participants was effective in reducing their sexual harassment actions, such as sending sexist jokes to an unknown woman, and their intention to engage in more serious sexual harassment such as blackmail and qui pro quo.

Editorial work and publications

Associate Editor for the European Journal of Social Psychology from 2001 to 2004.
Ad-hoc reviewer for the following journals: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, European Journal of Social Psychology, Social Cognition, Group processes and Intergroup relations, British Journal of Social Psychology, Social Psychology and Personality Science, European Journal.

International publications:

(2017) Fasoli, F., Cadinu, M., Carnaghi, A., Galdi, S., Guizzo, F., & Tassara, L. How do you self-categorize? Gender and sexual orientation self-categorization in homosexual/heterosexual men and women. Personality and Individual Differences. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.11.011

(2017) Galdi, S., Maass, A., & Cadinu, M. Defending the Victim of Sexual Harassment: The Influence of Civil Courage and Media Exposure. Psychology of Women Quarterly, doi: 0361684317709770.

(2017) Guizzo, F., Cadinu, M. Galdi, S., Maass, A., Latrofa, M. Objecting to Objectification: Women's Collective Action Against Sexual Objectification on Television. Sex Roles. doi: 10.1007/s11199-016-0725-8

(2016) Guizzo, F., & Cadinu, M. Effects of Objectifying Gaze on Women’s Cognitive Performance: the Role of Flow Experience and Internalization of Beauty Ideals. British Journal of Social Psychology. doi: 10.1111/bjso.1217

(2016) Pacilli, M.G., Tomasetto, C. & Cadinu, M. Exposure to Sexualized Advertisements Disrupts Children’s Math Performance by Reducing Working Memory.Sex roles: A Journal of Research.DOI: 10.1007/s11199-016-0581-6.

(2015) Hunt, C. J., Fasoli, F., Carnaghi, A., & Cadinu, M. Masculine Self-Presentation and Distancing From Femininity in Gay Men: An Experimental Examination of the Role of Masculinity Threat. Psychology of Men & Masculinity. doi:10.1037/a0039545..

(2014) Galdi, S., Maass, A., & Cadinu, M. Objectifying media: Their effect on gender role norms and sexual harassment of women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 38, 398-413. doi: 10.1177/0361684313515185.

(2013) Cadinu, M., Galdi, S., &Maass, A. Chameleonic social identities: Context induces shifts in homosexuals’ self-categorization and self-stereotyping. European Journal of Social Psychology, 43, 474-481. doi: 10.1002/ejsp.1957

(2013) Galdi, S. Cadinu, M., & Tomasetto, C. In Search of the Roots of Stereotype Threat: The Activation of Math-gender Stereotypes Disrupts Girls’ Performance in Absence of Stereotype Awareness. Child Development. doi:10.1111/cdev.12128

(2013) Maass, A., Cadinu, M., Galdi, S. Sexual Harassment: Motivations and consequences. In M.K. Ryan &N.R. Branscombe (Eds.) The Sage Handbook of Gender and Psychology (cap. 21, pp. 341-358). London: Sage.

(2013) Cadinu, M., Latrofa, M., &Carnaghi, A. Comparing Self-Stereotyping with Ingroup- Stereotyping and Outgroup-Stereotyping in Unequal Group Contexts: the case of Gender. Self and Identity, 12, 582-596. Taylor and Francis online. doi:10.1080/15298868.2012.712753.

(2006) Maass, A., & Cadinu, M. Protecting a threatened identity through sexual harassment: A social identity interpretation. In R. Brown &D. Capozza (Eds.). Social Identities: Motivational, emotional, cultural influences (pp. 109-131). Hove, England. Hove, England: Psychology Press/Taylor &Francis (UK).

Awards and prizes

Member of the Executive Committee of the European Association of Social Psychology - 6-year term of office (2011-2017).

Position/Role

Associate professor at theGeorgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, United States.

Professional career

After graduating in Physics at the University of Milan, she continued her studies at the Princeton University, earning first a master's degree in 1998 and then a PhD in Physics in 2001. In the same year she became a post doc member at Princeton University, while, from 2002 to 2004 she held the same position at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

In 2005 she was a research scientist at MIT, a role she held until 2007, when she became assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. At the same university she worked as associate professor from 2012 until 2015. In 2014 she has been visiting scholar of Cardiff University for about six months. Since 2015 she is associate professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Scientific results

Her scientific research concerns gravitational waves, specifically it deals with identifying, characterizing and interpreting those of short duration produced by huge astrophysical events such as the collapse of the supernova core or the collisions of black holes. In February 2016 a press conference was held to present the discovery (which took place in September 2015) which changed the way astrophysics is understood: Laura Cadonati and her international research team showed the existence of gravitational waves theorized by Albert Einsten in the Theory of General Relativity. The discovery was carried out by the LIGO gravitational observatory in the United States, in collaboration with an international team of a thousand scientists, including those responsible for the Italian experiment Virgo, in Cascina. Thanks to this result there will be new applications in the field of theoretical physics and applied physics: indeed the discovery is not limited to providing a better understanding of the theory of relativity, but it offers new possibilities for scientific research in the field of the birth of the universe, and of the understanding of the forces that surround us. Laura Cadonati’s previous research activity included the detection of solar neutrinos with the Borexino experiment and participation in the DarkSide project for the research of Dark Matter, both experiments took place in the Gran Sasso National Laboratories.

Editorial work and publications

Laura Cadonati is the author of numerous presentations of international conferences and workshops, as well as seminars and parts of university books such as:

“Listening to Space with LIGO.” L. Cadonati. State of the Universe 2007 - New Images, Discoveries, and Events, 2006 Springer Praxis Books, Popular Astronomy Series. Ratcliffe Editor.

Moreover, she is author of numerous scientific publications, including:

(2016) LIGO-Virgo Collaboration. GW151226: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a 22 Solar-mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence. Physical Review Letters ,116, 241103.

(2016) LIGO-Virgo Collaboration. Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger. Physical Review Letters, 116, 061102.

(2016) LIGO-Virgo Collaboration. Characterization of transient noise in Advanced LIGO relevant to gravitational wave signal GW150914. Classical & Quantum Gravity, 33, 134001.

(2016) LIGO-Virgo Collaboration. Observing gravitational-wave transient GW150914 with minimal assumptions. Physical Review D, 93, 122004.

(2016) LIGO-Virgo Collaboration. Prospects for Observing and Localizing Gravitational-Wave Transients with Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo. Living Reviews in Relativity, 19, 1.

(2014) Clark J, Bauswein A, Cadonati L, Janka HT, Pankow C, Stergioulas N. Prospects For High Frequency Burst Searches Following Binary Neutron Star Coalescence With Advanced Gravitational Wave Detectors. Physical Review D, 90, 062004.

(2014) LIGO-Virgo Collaboration. Methods and results of a search for gravitational waves associated with gamma-ray bursts using the GEO600, LIGO, and Virgo detectors. Physical Review D, 89,122004.

(2014) LIGO Scientific Collaboration, Virgo Collaboration, NINJA Collaboration. The NINJA-2 project: Detecting and characterizing gravitational waveforms modelled using numerical binary black hole simulations. Classical & Quantum Gravity, 31, 115004.

(2014) Borexino Collaboration. Neutrinos from the primary proton–proton fusion process in the Sun. Nature, 512, 383–386.

(2008) Borexino Collaboration. Direct Measurement of the Be 7 Solar Neutrino Flux with 192 Days of Borexino Data. Physical Review Letters, 101, 091302.

Awards and prizes

She has been working for the LIGO Scientific Collaboration since 2002. In 2010 she received the Career Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF), in the same year she was elected to the executive committee of the Topical Group on Gravitation of the American Physical Society. In 2014 she was chosen in the Chair-line of the APS Topical Group on Gravitation (currently called “Division of Gravity”). The following year she joined the Fellow of the American Physical Society. In 2016 she became a member of the Advisory Board of the Classical and Quantum Gravity Journal.

Position/Role

Research Director of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), Section Catania - Osservatorio Etneo

Professional career

She was researcher (1987-1999) at Istituto Internazionale di Vulcanologia in Catania, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), then moved to Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), Sezione Catania - Osservatorio Etneo when several CNR institutes dealing with geophysics and volcanology merged together to form INGV. At INGV she was Senior Researcher (2001-2008), then Director of Research (2008-present); head of the Unità Funzionale di Vulcanologia e Geochimica (2002-2009), coordinating the activities of 35 scientists dealing with volcanology and geochemistry; leader of the Tematica Trasversale Coordinata (2004-2013) coordinating the monitoring and research activities on volcanoes of about 150 INGV scientists; leader of the Centro di Pericolosità Vulcanica (Volcanic Hazard Centre, CPV; 2016-present), coordinating within INGV the researches on volcanic hazard assessment, development of tools for hazard evaluation, and acting as a member of the "Unità di Crisi" (Crisis Unit).

Geology degree (full marks with laude) at Università della Calabria (Italy), PhD in Volcanic Hazard at Lancaster University (U.K.).

Scientific results

Monitoring and research on volcanic regions in Italy and abroad and development of tools for prompt hazard assessment, especially during volcanic crisis. Geology of volcanic systems, with development and applications of new methodologies for mapping volcanic terrains, and production of geological maps and data bases. Study on lava flows, lava flow fields and lava tubes, and ideation of routines useful for hazard assessment during effusive volcanic eruptions. Monitoring of explosive eruption using multidisciplinary data, and estimation of erupted volumes and explosion dynamics. Outreach activities, involving also several participations to Italian and foreign TV programs, such as RAI Explora (RAI Educational), Geo & Geo (RAI3), La TV delle Scienze (RAI1), National Geographic, Discovery Channel, plus several contributions and interviews to History Channel, CNN, BBC, Endemol UK, SWR (Germany), and talks to students organized by Zanichelli, where she was presenting the results from the activities and researches carried out by INGV.

Editorial work and publications

Proposer and editor of four geophysical monographs; of these, two were published by the American Geophysical Union: one dedicated to Etna volcano (Bonaccorso A, Calvari S, Coltelli M, Del Negro C, Falsaperla S (eds), Mt. Etna: Volcano Laboratory. Geophysical Monograph Series, v. 143, 2004), and the second to the 2002-03 eruption of Stromboli (Calvari S, Inguaggiato S, Puglisi G, Ripepe M and Rosi M (eds), The Stromboli Volcano: An integrated study of the 2002-2003 Eruption, Geophysical Monograph Series, 182, 2008). The third is a special issue of Frontiers in Earth Science (Calvari S, Bonaccorso A, Oppenheimer C, Spampinato L (eds), Exploring Volcanic Paroxysmal Explosive Activity From Magma Source to Ground and Atmosphere) and is in press in 2019. The fourth is a special issue of Annals of Geophysics (Calvari S, Del Negro C, Harris A (eds) and is in press in 2019. She is also author, together with Professor L.H. Tanner, of a book on Volcanoes for undergraduates published by the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science of Albuquerque (New Mexico): Tanner LH and Calvari S, Volcanoes: Windows on the Earth. Albuquerque, New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, A Division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, 2012. 

She was Associate Editor of Bulletin of Volcanology (2011-2015) and currently she is Associate Editor of Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (2018-present). She published more than 120 papers, and here below is a small selection of the most recent papers: 

(2018) Calvari S, Cannavò F, Bonaccorso A, Spampinato L, Pellegrino AG Paroxysmal Explosions, Lava Fountains and Ash Plumes at Etna Volcano: Eruptive Processes and Hazard Implications. Frontiers in Earth Science, 6(107) doi: 10.3389/feart.2018.00107.

(2018) Calvari S, Ganci G, Silva Victória S, Hernandez PA, Perez NM, Barrancos J, Alfama V, et al. Satellite and Ground Remote Sensing Techniques to Trace the Hidden Growth of a Lava Flow Field: The 2014–2015 Effusive Eruption at Fogo Volcano (Cape Verde). Remote Sensing, 10(1115) doi:10.3390/rs10071115.

(2017) Bonaccorso A, Calvari S. A new approach to investigate an eruptive paroxysmal sequence using camera and strainmeter networks: Lessons from the 3–5 December 2015 activity at Etna volcano.Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 475:231-241, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2017.07.020.

 (2016) Calvari S, Intrieri E, Di Traglia F, Bonaccorso A, Casagli A, Cristaldi A. Monitoring crater-wall collapse at active volcanoes: a study of the 12 January 2013 event at Stromboli. Bulletin of Volcanology, 78(5):1-16. 
(2015) Bonaccorso A, Calvari S, Boschi E. Hazard mitigation and crisis management during major flank eruptions at Etna volcano: reporting on real experience.Geological Society, London, Special Publications 426, SP426, 4. 

Awards and prizes

2017    "Certificate of Outstanding Contribution in Reviewing" awarded October 2017 by the Editors of Earth and Planetary Science Letters (Elsevier, Amsterdam The Netherlands).

2007    Most Cited Author 2003-2007 Award by Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research.

2001    Diploma and Medal from the Italian Department of Civil Defence for the work carried out during the 1991-1993 Etna eruptive crisis.

1989    Diploma from the Minister of the Italian Civil Protection for having actively contributed to the first simulation of a volcanic emergency and evacuation of the island of Vulcano, Italy.

Position/Role

Computer Engineering Professor Politecnico of Turin and Director Hub AI@polito

Professional career

In 1998 Barbara Caputo graduated in Physics at the Sapienza University of Rome, continuing her education with a specialization course in Biomedical Signal and Image Processing. Her research went on abroad, first at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, then at the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute in San Francisco and at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, where she received her PhD of research in Computer Science in 2005. She moved to Switzerland to work at the Idiap Research Institute in Martigny and later became the Research Manager of a group on artificial cognitive systems at the Idiap Institute. Back in Italy, since 2013 she is associate professor of the Department of Automatic and Management Computer Engineering at the “La Sapienza” University of Rome. She is now full professor of Computer Engineering at the Politecnico di Torino and senior researcher at the Italian Institute of Technology.

Scientific results

The main research interest of Barbara Caputo, defined by the media as "the woman who talks to robots", is the development of algorithms for learning, recognition and categorization of visual and multimodal models for artificial autonomous systems, just like the robot. Leading the robotic engineering group Visual Learning and Multimodal Perception (VALEM) since 2013, Barbara Caputo, with her colleagues, is developing algorithms to allow robots to learn information directly from the internet. So it will be possible to create robots capable of learning but also of interacting and reacting to the unexpected with a wide range of uses, from home robotics to assistance for the elderly, the disabled and children.

Editorial work and publications

Barbara Caputo is the author of several publications on international newspapers, including:

(2016) Kuzborskij I, Orabona F, Caputo B. Scalable Greedy Algorithms for Transfer Learning. Computer Vision and Image Understanding, arXiv:1408.1292.

(2015) Atzori M, Gijsberts A, Kuzborskij I, Caputo B, et al. Characterization of a Benchmark Database for Myoelectric Movement Classification. IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, 23(1):73-83. 

(2014) Castellini C, Artemiadis P, Wininger M, Caputo B, et al. Proceedings of the first workshop on Peripheral Machine Interfaces: Going beyond traditional surface electromyography. Frontiers in Neurorobotics, 8:22. 

(2014) Gijsberts A, Bohra R, Sierra Gonzalez D, Caputo B, et al. Stable Myoelectric Control of a Hand Prosthesis using Non-Linear Incremental Learning. Frontiers in Neurorobotics, 25:8. 

(2014) Tommasi T, Orabona F, Caputo B. Learning Categories From Few Examples With Multi Model Knowledge Transfer. The IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 36(5):928-41. 

(2013) Gijsberts A, Caputo B. Exploiting accelerometers to improve movement classification for prosthetics. IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitative Robotics, 2013:6650476. 

(2012) Atzori M, Gijsberts A, Heynen S, Hager AG, Castellimi C, Caputo B, Müller H. Experiences in the creation of an electromyography database to help hand amputated persons. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics,180:828-32.

Awards and prizes

In 2014 she won the prestigious Starting Grant of the European Research Council (ERC) for the project "RoboExNovo Robots learning about objects from externalized knowledge sources". The Starting Grant is a recognition that rewards the new talents in world research who are committed to building their laboratory in a European country.

Position/Role

Director of Complex Neuroscience Structure and National Centre for BSE, Institute of Piedmont, Liguria and Valle d'Aosta

Professional career

After graduating in Veterinary Medicine at the University of Turin, she specialized in Inspection of food of animal origin at the same university. Later she obtained a PhD in Comparative Veterinary Pathology at the University of Milan. In 1990 she joined the experimental zooprophylactic institute of Piedmont, Liguria and Valle d'Aosta as a veterinarian of the Department of General Diagnostics. Nine years later, she became head of the Histopathology Laboratory of the same zooprophylactic institute. Since 2001 she has been responsible for the National Reference Center for Animal Encephalopathies (based on the decree 3/8/1991) and in 2005 also for the Neuropathological and Genetic area. From 2009 she became medical director of the entire zooprophylactic experimental institute of Piedmont, Liguria and Valle d'Aosta. In 2012 she obtained the position of General Director f.f. of the experimental zooprophylactic institute of Piedmont, Liguria and Valle d'Aosta and since the beginning of 2016 she has been the general director of the Institute.

Scientific results

Maria Caramelli is one of the world's leading experts on bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), known as the "mad cow" disease. The etiological hypothesis according to which the triggering agent is an altered and malevolent protein, the prion, which causes lesions and is infectious has been confirmed by several experiments all over the world: the prion triggers the production of other pathological proteins determining the typical « spongiosi "(i.e. holes in the brain), hence the name" spongiform encephalopathies ". She currently works with her team, on the detection of different strains, that is on forms of the disease never identified before: in Turin it was discovered in particular one, called BASE (from Bovine amyloid spongiform encephalopathy), typical of old cattle, originated from a probably more aggressive and virulent prion than that of BSE. She has recently committed itself to other aspects of food safety, including, for example, the "strange case" of blue mozzarella, the European scandal of racehorse-based lasagna, wild boar contaminated with Cesio137 and the problem of hepatitis A in frozen berries.

Editorial work and publications

She is the author of the book To not find out by eating ... Food security in our country(Instar Libri, 2013

She is also the author of more than one hundred publications:n

(2015) Berrone E, Corona C, Mazza M, Vallino Costassa E, Lo Faro M, Properzi F, Guglielmetti C, Maurella C, Caramelli M, Deregibus MC, Camussi G, Casalone C. Detection of cellular prion protein in exosome derived from ovine plasma. Journal of General Virology, 96(12):3698-3702.

(2015) Orrú CD, Favole A, Corona C, Mazza M, Manca M, Groveman BR, Hughson AG, Acutis PL, Caramelli M, Zanusso G, Casalone C, Caughey B. Detection and discrimination of classical and atypical L-type bovine spongiform encephalopathy by real-time quaking-induced conversion. Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 53(4):1115-20.

(2014) Guglielmetti C, Mazza M, Pagano M, Carrella S, Sciuto S, Nodari S, Pezzolato M, Richelmi GB, Baioni E, Caramelli M, Acutis PL, Bozzetta E. Identification by a proteomic approach of a plasma protein as a possible biomarker of illicit dexamethasone treatment in veal calves. Food additives & contaminants. Part A, Chemistry, analysis, control, exposure & risk assessment, 31(5): 833-8.

(2014) Chieppa MN, Perota A, Corona C, Grindatto A, Lagutina I, Vallino Costassa E, Lazzari G, Colleoni S, Duchi R, Lucchini F, Caramelli M, Bendotti C, Galli C, Casalone C. Modeling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in hSOD1 transgenic swine. Neurodegenerative Diseases, 13(4):246-54.

(2013) Sciuto S, Martucci F, Desiato R, Mazza M, Guglielmetti C, Dell'Atti L, Ubaldi A, Ru G, Acutis PL, Caramelli M. Evaluation of the DR-CALUX® bioassay as screening method for the detection of contamination by dioxins in milk in Piedmont. Large Animal Review, 19(3):107-114.

(2013) Richelmi GB, Pezzolato M, Gili S, Gallina S, Decastelli L, Tarasco R, Abete MC, Ingravalle F, Serracca L, Pavino D, Vivaldi B, Riina MV, Acutis PL, Prearo M, Caramelli M, Bozzetta E. Pilot project to set up a control programme on fishery products. Italian Journal of Food Safety, 2(2):25.

(2013) Bianchi DM, Barbaro A, Gallina S, Vitale N, Chiavacci L, Caramelli M, Decastelli L. Monitoring of foodborne pathogenic bacteria in vending machine raw milk in Piedmont, Italy. Food Control, 33(2):435–439.

(2013) Meloni D, Pitardi D, Maurella C, Di Vietro D, Nocilla L, Piscopo A, Pavoletti E, Negro M, Caramelli M, Bozzetta E. Reducing the contamination of beef carcasses by specified risk materials during slaughter. Italian Journal of Food Safety, 2(1):3.

(2013) Vrentas CE, Greenlee JJ, Baron T, Caramelli M, Czub S, Nicholson EM. Stability properties of PrP(Sc) from cattle with experimental transmissible spongiform encephalopathies: use of a rapid whole homogenate, protease-free assay. BMC Veterinary Research, 9:167.

(2013) Pezzolato M, Richelmi GB, Maurella C, Pitardi D, Varello K, Caramelli M, Bozzetta E. Histopathology as a simple and reliable method to detect 17β-oestradiol illegal treatment in male calves. Food additives & contaminants. Part A, Chemistry, analysis, control, exposure & risk assessment, 30(6): 1096-9. 

Awards and prizes

In 2005 she won the AIDDA Award (Association of Businesswomen and Women Executives), in 2011 she was awarded by the Turin Chamber of Commerce with the Bogianen Prize, two years later she received the Green Environment Award (VAS Onlus) and in the same year also the Tecnovisionary Award (Women and Technologies Association). In 2013, Il Sole 24 ore included her among the 10 scientists who honor Italy. In 2016 she received the Sapio Award for Research and Innovation for her commitment as a scientist.

Position/Role

She has the rank of Research Director  and works at the Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica (INAF)  in Milano. She is also Professor of “Introduction to Astronomy” at the University of Pavia.

Professional career

PATRIZIA CARAVEO got her degree in physics in 1977 at the Milano University. Since 2002 she has the rank of Research Director  and works atthe Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica (INAF)  in Milano. She is also Professor of “Introduction to Astronomy” at the University of Pavia

She took part in several international space missions dedicated to high energy astrophysics, starting from the European mission COS-B. Currently, she is involved in the exploitation of ESA’s Integral, of NASA’s Swift, of the Italian Agile and of the NASA Fermi missions, all fully operational in orbit. She also represents INAF within the CTA (Cherenkov Telescope Array) Collaboration Board.

Scientific results

She is a recognized leader in the study of neutron stars behavior at different wevelengths. Her work lead to the discovery (and to the understanding) of Geminga, the first radio quiet neutron star. Indeed, her career in astronomy was based in an interdisciplinary approach, using data from space and ground instruments.

Editorial work and publications

Patrizia Caraveo is the author of numerous national and international scientific publications, with a total of almost 50,000 citations. The full list is available online at: https://fisica.unipv.it/personale/PersFiles/Publ_357.pdf.

He has also written five popular science books:

Sidereus Nuncius 2.0. I messaggeri celesti della nuova astronomia (Mondadori Università, 2021)

(con Giovanni Bignami) I marziani siam noi. All ricerca di un'altra terra (Zanichelli 2019)

Conquistati dalla Luna. Storia di un'attrazione senza tempo (Raffaello Cortina Editore)

L'universo violento (Lezioni di fisica, Corriere della sera, 2019)

Uomini e Donne: stessi diritti? (Castelvecchi editore, 2017)

Awards and prizes

Patrizia Caraveo is a member of the International Astronomical Union, and shared with colleagues from the Swift, Fermi and AGILE teams, the American Astronomical Society's Bruno Rossi Award in 2007, 2011 and 2012 respectively. 

Owing to the Geminga success story, she won the Premio Nazionale Presidente della Repubblica in 2009 "for contributions to the understanding of high-energy emission from neutron stars". 

In 2014 she received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Women in Aerospace European Society and was included by Thomson Reuters in the list of Highly Cited Researchers for Space Science

In 2017 she was awarded the title of Commendatore dell’Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana

In 2021, she received the "Enrico Fermi" prize (ex aequo with Prof. Elena Aprile) "for his role as a world leader in the field of high-energy emission from neutron stars and for his contribution to the identification of Geminga." 

Position/Role

Security Managing Director at Accenture Italia

Professional career

After graduating in Computer Engineering at the University Federico II of Naples in 2005, she continued her studies obtaining a PhD in Computer and Automatic Engineering at the same University in 2008. In 2007 she was Visiting Researcher at the CSR (Center for Software Reliability) of London City University where she specialized in algorithms and reliability growth models (reliability growth). At the end of the PhD program she was hired by Selex Sistemi Integrati, a company of the Finmeccanica group (now Leonardo) in which she continued her research activities on highly critical software systems, applying methods and results to systems for the control of air traffic, sea traffic and for coastal control. During her experience in Leonardo, she followed industrial research projects under European and national programs as well as dependability assessment and improvement (reliability assessment and improvement) on industrial solutions. In 2014 she began to specialize in methodologies and approaches based on machine learning, to reduce defects in software systems and increase productivity. She was Visiting Researcher at the University of Coimbra under the Marie Sklodowska Curie program aimed at evaluating the reliability of critical software systems OTS (off-the-shelf). 

Always interested in the issues of resilience, security and reliability of critical infrastructures, she has been Cloud Advisory Manager at Accenture for a year, where she is interested in transformation and migration issues towards cloud systems with particular attention to cybersecurity aspects. In May 2017 she received her Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the Bologna Business School. In the meantime, she continues her career at Accenture, in different security management roles, until her current position as Security Managing Director.

Scientific results

During her professional career she coordinated two European projects for SESAR JU, aimed at creating innovative software systems for the supervision of air traffic control systems and airports, and a national project (PON) for the development of methodologies and innovative techniques for testing and validating software systems almost in real time. Since 2013 she has been collaborating with the European Commission as an external expert for the review of research projects under the Horizon 2020 program. Her main areas of interest and research are software fault injection strategies, dependability assessment, reliability testing, defect management and security of cloud infrastructures. In 2014, she created a framework for measuring software defects based on static analysis of the code aimed at predicting (failure prediction) software failures. Gabriella Carrozza is present in the program committees of some of the most important conferences in the community of reliable software systems and reviewer of numerous scientific articles in the sector. Since 2017 she is member of Cloud Security Alliance Italy.

Editorial work and publications

She has published a book on software fault diagnosis strategies and several chapters in European publications on reliable systems. She is the author of over 50 scientific articles in international conferences and journals including:

[2015] Carrozza G. Software Faults Diagnosis in Complex Mission Critical Systems: A novel, recovery oriented, approach. Lambert Academic Publishing, ISBN-13:978-3-659-67232-3 ISBN-10:3659672327. 

[2015] Carrozza G, Pietrantuono R, Russo S. Defect analysis in mission-critical software systems: a detailed investigation. Journal of Software: Evolution and Process, 27(1):22-49.

[2015] Pecchia A, Cinque M, Carrozza G, Cotroneo D. Industry Practices and Event Logging: Assessment of a Critical Software Development Process. IEEE/ACM 37^th IEEE International Conference on Software Engeneering, 2:169-178.

[2014] Carrozza G, Pietrantuono R, Russo S. Dynamic test planning: a study in an industrial context. International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer, 16(5):593-607.

[2013] Carrozza G, Faella M, Fucci F, Pietrantuono R, Russo S. Engineering Air Traffic Control Systems with a Model-Driven Approach. IEEE Software, 30(3):42-48.

[2013] Carrozza G, Manetti V, Marotta A, Canonico R, Avallone S. Exploiting SDN Approach to Tackle Cloud Computing Security Issues in the ATC Scenario. Dependable Computing: 54-60. 

[2013] Carrozza G, Cotroneo D, Natella R, Pietrantuono R, Russo S. Analysis and Prediction of Mandelbugs in an Industrial Software System. ICST 2013, IEEE Computer Society: 262-271.

[2011] Carrozza G, Natella R. A Recovery-Oriented Approach for Software Fault Diagnosis in Complex Critical Systems. International Journal of Adaptive, Resilient and Automatic System, 2(1):77-104.

[2011] Bovenzi A, Cinque M, Cotroneo D, Natella R, Carrozza G. OS-level hang detection in complex software systems. International Journal of Critical Computer-Based System, 2(3/4):352-377.

[2010] Carrozza G, Cotroneo D, Natella R, Pecchia A, Russo S. Memory leak analysis of mission-critical middleware. Journal of Systems and Software, 83(9):1556-1567.

Awards and prizes

In 2014 she received the FINMECCANICA Innovation Silver Award for her innovative activities in terms of software quality improvement. In the same year she was Industrial Chair of the 33rd IEEE Symposium on Reliable and Distributed Systems for which she received official IEEE recognition.

Position/Role

Head of the Emergency Support Department and Research in Earthquake Engineering at the European Centre for Training  (EUCENTRE, Pavia).

Professional career

She graduated in Building Engineering and Architecture, then she received a Master of Science and a PhD in Earthquake Engineering jointly awarded by the Institute for Advanced Study of Pavia and the Università degli Studi di Pavia in 2004.

In 2005 she worked at the University of California San Diego as post-doctoral researcher, and then as a research fellow at the University of Pavia. Since 2006 she has been working at EUCENTRE.

Scientific results

Dr. Casarotti main scientific interests concern applied experimental research the field of earthquake engineering, dynamic response of RC structures, seismic isolation and dissipation devices and emergency technical response.

Since 2007 she is in charge of the scientific supervision of the tests carried out on the Bearing Tester System lab facility of EUCENTRE.

Since 2009 she has been deeply involved in the emergency management and rapid response to earthquake disasters, both within the framework of pilot projects on the European Civil Protection Mechanism modules, national Civil Protection projects and in real disasters (Abruzzi-Aquila 2009, Emilia 2012 and Central Italy 2016), with technical coordination roles.

Editorial work and publications

She is the author of national and international publications, including:

(2017) Pavese, M. Furinghetti & C. Casarotti. Investigation of theConsequences of Mounting Laying Defects for Curved Surface Slider Devices under GeneralSeismic Input, Journal of Earthquake Engineering, DOI: 10.1080/13632469.2017.1323046
(2017) Casarotti, C., A. Pavese, S. Peloso, B. Borzi.  EUCENTRE e l’emergenza sismica: attività preparatorie e supporto in emergenza durante il Sisma in Centro Italia. N° 2 (2017): Progettazione Sismica
(2014) Monteiro R, Marques M, Adhikari G, Casarotti C, Pinho R. Spectral reduction factors evaluation for seismic assessment of frame buildings. Engineering Structures, 77:129-142.
(2013) Pinho R, Marques M, Monteirom Casarotti C, et al. Evaluation of Nonlinear Static Procedures in the Assessment of Building Frames.Earthquake Spectra, 29(4):459-1476.
(2012) Casarotti C, Pavese A, Peloso S. Valutazione delle strutture nella fase post terremoto. Il modulo sviluppato da Eucentre e l'attività sul campo. Progettazione Sismica, 3:37-48.
(2009) Casarotti C, Pavese A, Peloso S. Seismic Response of the San Salvatore Hospital of Coppito (L'Aquila) during the 6th April 2009 earthquake. Progettazione Sismica, 3, Special Abruzzo, Italiano (163-176) e Inglese (159-172).
(2009) Benzoni C, Casarotti C. Effects of Vertical Load, S train Rate and Cycling on the Response of Lead-Rubber Seismic Isolators. Journal of Earthquake Engineering, 13:293-312.
(2009) Casarotti C, Monteiro R & Pinho R. Verification of spectral reduction factors for seismic assessment of bridges. Bulletin of the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering, 42(2).
(2009) Pinho R, Monteiro R, Casarotti C, Delgado R. Assessment of Continuous Span Bridges through Nonlinear Static Procedures. Earthquake Spectra, 25(1):143-159.
(2007) Pinho R, Casarotti C, Antoniou S. A comparison of Single-Run Pushover Analysis Techniques for seismic assessment of bridges. Earthquake Engineering & Structural Dynamics, 36:1347-1362.
(2007) Casarotti C, Pinho R. An adaptive capacity spectrum method for assessment of bridges subjected to earthquake action. Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering, 5:377-390.
(2006) Casarotti C, Pinho R. Seismic response of continuous span bridges through fibre-based finite element analysis. Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Vibrations 5(1):119-131.

Awards and prizes

Nevada Medal for Distinguished Graduate Student Paper In Bridge Engineering 2005, University of Nevada, Reno

Position/Role

1st level Medical Director, Neurologist at Neurology and Stroke Unit wards of S. Maria Della Misericordia Hospital in Perugia.

Professional career

Specialization in Neurology obtained in 1999, at University of Perugia. In 1997 she obtained an ERASMUS scholarship from the Neurology Department of the University of Kiel in Germany, to deepen her skills in acute therapy in stroke. In 2000 she obtained a fellowship at the Intensive Care Unit of the Neurology Department of the University of Heidelberg, for the development of innovative therapies for stroke. In 2003 she obtained a PhD in Cerebrovascular Diseases from the University of Perugia. She also participated in the ESO (European Stroke Organisation) working group for the drafting of the first European guidelines for the ‘treatment of stroke in the acute phase’.

Scientific results

Specialization in Neurology obtained in 1999 at the University of Perugia. In 1997 she earned an ERASMUS scholarship from the Neurology Department of the University of Kiel in Germany to deepen her skills in acute therapy in stroke. In 2000 she obtained a fellowship at the Intensive Care Unit of the Neurology Department of the University of Heidelberg for the development of innovative therapies for stroke. In 2003 she earned a Ph.D. in Cerebrovascular Diseases from the University of Perugia. She also participated in the ESO (European Stroke Organisation) working group for the drafting of the first European guidelines for the ‘treatment of stroke in the acute phase.’

In 2014 she founded the WISE (Women Initiative for Stroke in Europe) group. This group produced several publications and scientific projects, including an international and multicenter study on stroke in pregnancy, which today represents one of the most important causes of maternal and infant mortality. This group is currently working on drafting guidelines for stroke in women.

In 2014 she was elected president of ESO (the first woman to fill this role), with the programmatic mission to increase female representation in the key positions of related scientific societies, as speakers and heads of scientific commissions. Also, in 2014 he obtained the national scientific qualification as Associate Professor, and in 2017 the one of Full Professor.

 The most important scientific project in which she is currently participating in the Horizon 2020 PRESTIGE AF Project, with the role of international coordinator of the working group on gender inequalities. The final objective of this research is to encourage the inclusion of women in clinical trials and to identify obstacles related to the diminished socio-economic conditions of women (the so-called ‘pension gap’ between men and women) and the ‘self-exclusion’ of patients from treatment.

Editorial work and publications

Valeria Caso is associate editor of the ‘Neurological Sciences’ publication and member of editorial boards of numerous scientific journals, such as the ‘International Stroke Journal’ and the ‘European Stroke Journal.’ She published books and chapters in three languages: German, Italian, and English producing more than 300 scientific.

(2021) Caso V. Editorial: Coronavirus disease 2019 and stroke: how to avoid a new lockdown for stroke patients. Curr Opin Neurol. 2021 Feb 1;34(1):1-2. doi: 10.1097/WCO.0000000000000892. PMID: 33278147.

(2020) Caso V, Federico A. No lockdown for neurological diseases during COVID19 pandemic infection. Neurol Sci. 2020 May;41(5):999-1001. doi: 10.1007/s10072-020-04389-3. PMID: 32270358; PMCID: PMC7138901.

(2020) Aguiar de Sousa D, van der Worp HB, Caso V, Cordonnier C, Strbian D, Ntaios G, Schellinger PD, Sandset EC; European Stroke Organisation. Maintaining stroke care in Europe during the COVID-19 pandemic: Results from an international survey of stroke professionals and practice recommendations from the European Stroke Organisation. Eur Stroke J. 2020 Sep;5(3):230-236. doi: 10.1177/2396987320933746. Epub 2020 Jun 10. PMID: 33072876; PMCID: PMC75387.

(2020) Zedde M, Pezzella FR, Paciaroni M, Corea F, Reale N, Toni D, Caso V. Stroke care in Italy: An overview of strategies to manage acute stroke in COVID-19 time. Eur Stroke J. 2020 Sep;5(3):222-229. doi: 10.1177/2396987320942622. Epub 2020 Jul 26. PMID: 33072875; PMCID: PMC7538763.

(2020) Beghi E, Feigin V, Caso V, Santalucia P, Logroscino G. COVID-19 Infection and Neurological Complications: Present Findings and Future Predictions. Neuroepidemiology. 2020;54(5):364-369. doi: 10.1159/000508991. Epub 2020 Jul 1. PMID: 32610334; PMCID: PMC7445369.

(2020) Leira EC, Russman AN, Biller J, Brown DL, Bushnell CD, Caso V, Chamorro A, Creutzfeldt CJ, Cruz-Flores S, Elkind MSV, Fayad P, Froehler MT, Goldstein LB, Gonzales NR, Kaskie B, Khatri P, Livesay S, Liebeskind DS, Majersik JJ, Moheet AM, Romano JG, Sanossian N, Sansing LH, Silver B, Simpkins AN, Smith W, Tirschwell DL, Wang DZ, Yavagal DR, Worrall BB. Preserving stroke care during the COVID-19 pandemic: Potential issues and solutions. Neurology. 2020 Jul 21;95(3):124-133. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000009713. Epub 2020 May 8. PMID: 32385186; PMCID: PMC7455350.

(2019) Sandset E,  de Sousa  Aguiar D,   Christensen H, Cordonnier C, Fischer U,  Katan M Kremer C  Pavlovic A Sprigg N,  van der Worp HB, Zedde M,  Caso V. Women in the European Stroke Organisation: One, two, many. . . – A top Down and Bottom Up approach ESJ, 4, 3, 2019: 247-253.

(2019) Acciarresi M, Altavilla R, Mosconi MG, Caso V. Management of intracranial haemorrhage, unruptured aneurysms and arteriovenous malformations during and after pregnancy. Curr Opin Neurol. 2019 32(1):36-42.

(2018) Baschieri F, Acciarresi M, Caso V. Gender-Based Approaches for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases. Stroke , 49 (12), 2810-2811

(2017) Cordonnier C, Sprigg N, Sandset EC, Pavlovic A, Sunnerhagen KS, Caso V, Christensen H, Stroke in women – from evidence to inequalities, Women Initiative for Stroke in Europe (WISE) group. Nat Rev Neurol.;13(9):521-532.

(2017) Tsivgoulis G, Katsanos AH, Caso V, Under-representation of women in stroke randomized controlled trials: inadvertent selection bias leading to suboptimal conclusions, Ther Adv Neurol Disord. 10:241-24.

(2017) Caso V, Falorni A, Bushnell CD, Acciarresi M, Remohí J, Sprigg N, Gerli S. Pregnancy, Hormonal Treatments for Infertility, Contraception, and Menopause in Women After Ischemic Stroke: A Consensus Document. Stroke;48:501-506. 

(2017) Caso V, Paciaroni M. Sex Is Not a Risk Factor in Outcome When a Stroke Unit Treats the Patient. Stroke;48:250-251.

(2016) Arnao V, Acciarresi M, Cittadini E, Caso V. Stroke incidence, prevalence and mortality in women worldwide. Int J Stroke. 2016;11:287-301.

(2014) Acciarresi M, De Luca P, Caso V, Agnelli G, D'Amore C, Alberti A, Venti M, Paciaroni M. Acute stroke symptoms: do differences exist between sexes? J Stroke Cerebrovasc Dis.;23:2928-33.

(2014) Pezzella FR, Santalucia P, Vadalà R, Giugni E, Zedde ML, Sessa M, Anticoli S, Caso V; Women Stroke Association. Women Stroke Association Statement on Stroke. Int J Stroke;9:20-27.

(2013) De Rango P, Brown MM, Leys D, Howard VJ, Moore WS, Paciaroni M, Ringleb P, Rockman C, Caso V. Management of carotid stenosis in women: consensus document. Neurology;80:2258-68.

(2013) Santalucia P, Pezzella FR, Sessa M, Monaco S, Torgano G, Anticoli S, Zanoli E, Maimone Baronello M, Paciaroni M, Caso V; Women Stroke Association (WSA). Sex differences in clinical presentation, severity and outcome of stroke: results from a hospital-based registry. Eur J Intern Med;24:167-71.

(2010) Caso V, Paciaroni M, Agnelli G, Corea F, Ageno W, Alberti A, Lanari A, Micheli S, Bertolani L, Venti M, Palmerini F, Billeci AM, Comi G, Previdi P, Silvestrelli G. Gender differences in patients with acute ischemic stroke. Womens Health (Lond). 2010;6:51-7.

Awards and prizes

2015 - Honoray Member of “Société française neuro-vasculaire”

2017 - Critics Award of R.O.S.A., Club Canova Roma

2017 - Award Toshkent Tibbiyot Akademiyasi

2018 - Award Umbria in Rosa 2018

2019 - ESO-Angels Award for EXCELLENT STROKE CARE and EXCEPTIONAL STROKE PRACTITIONERS

Position/Role

Researcher at the IBFM-CNR (Institute of Molecular Bio-images and Physiology - National Research Council) in Milan.

Professional career

After graduating in Physics at the University of Milan in 1993, she received a scientific education in the field of physics applied to medicine, (more recently to cultural heritage and the environment), in particular in applications of imaging diagnostics combined with advanced computational techniques. Since 1997 she is Researcher at the Institute of Molecular Bioimaging and Physiology of the National Research Council (IBFM-CNR), where, since 2011, she is also a member of the Council of the Institute. From 2010 to 2016 she was professor on contract at the University of Milano-Bicocca. She gained experience in research responsibility through the creation and management of her own research group at the IBFM-CNR, which was consolidated in 2011 in a research laboratory (Integration & Innovation Laboratory in Molecular Imaging, INLAB www.inlab.ibfm.cnr.it), which currently hosts 10 researchers with expertise in the field of bioimaging, computer science, biology and biotechnology.

Scientific results

She obtained important scientific results in: 1) physical characterization of diagnostic imaging systems, in particular positron emission tomography (PET), single photon emission tomography (SPECT), computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance (MRI), fluorescence imaging/bioluminescence and near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS),                                  2) development of methods of acquisition and processing of diagnostic images for medical and cultural applications, 3) development of methods and models for the correction of physical effects, noise sources in diagnostic imaging studies (eg attenuation, dispersion, partial volume effect), 4) development of methods of quantification and extraction of characteristics from diagnostic images (for example analysis of statistical parametric mapping, radiomics, analysis of main components, machine learning), 5) creation of databases of synthetic medical images for the validation of processing methods and quantification of medical images. Since 2010 she has coordinated 13 scientific research projects financed on competitive tenders or through contracts, for a total non-repayable net grant of 2M €, and 12 research projects in agreement with IRCCS and Hospitals. She showed her research achievements in more than 50 seminars and lectures at national and international conferences, universities and research institutes. She is co-inventor of four softwares for the extraction and quantification of biomarker images and biomedical data in use at national and foreign health facilities. From 2012 to 2015 she was Mentor of two spin offs in the biomedical technology sector.

Editorial work and publications

She is credited with 112 scientific publications in ISI scientific journals, including:

Science, Nucleic Acids Research, Theranostics, European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Medicine, Cerebral Cortex; she is in pole position (with the role of first, corresponding or last author) in more than 70% of her publications.

[2005] Berti A, Bottini G, Gandola M, Pia L, Smania N, Stracciari A, Castiglioni I, Vallar G. Shared cortical anatomy for motor awareness and motor control. Science, 309(5733):488-91.

[2014]Picchio M, Kirienko M, Mapelli P, Dell'Oca I, Villa E, Gallivanone F, Gianolli L, Messa C, Castiglioni I. Predictive value of pre-therapy (18)F-FDG PET/CT for the outcome of (18)F-FDG PET-guided radiotherapy in patients with head and neck cancer.Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging, 41(1):21-31.

[2015] Bertoli G, Cava C, Castiglioni I. MicroRNAs: New Biomarkers for Diagnosis, Prognosis, Therapy Prediction and Therapeutic Tools for Breast Cancer. Theranostics, 5(10):1122-43.

[2015] Salvatore C, Cerasa A, Battista P, Gilardi MC, Quattrone A, Castiglioni I; Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. Magnetic resonance imaging biomarkers for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease: a machine learning approach. Front Neurosci, 9:307. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2015.00307. eCollection 2015.

[2016] Colaprico A, Silva TC, Olsen C, Garofano L, Cava C, Garolini D, Sabedot TS, Malta TM, Pagnotta SM, Castiglioni I, Ceccarelli M, Bontempi G, Noushmehr H. TCGAbiolinks: an R/Bioconductor package for integrative analysis of TCGA data. Nucleic Acids Res, 44(8):e71. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkv1507.

[2017] Antunovic L, Gallivanone F, Sollini M, Sagona A, Invento A, Manfrinato G, Kirienko M, Tinterri C, Chiti A, Castiglioni I. [18F]FDG PET/CT features for the molecular characterization of primary breast tumors. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging, 44(12):1945-1954.

[2017] Berti A, Della-Torre E, Gallivanone F, Canevari C, Milani R, Lanzillotta M, Campochiaro C, Ramirez GA, Bozzalla Cassione E, Bozzolo E, Pedica F, Castiglioni I, Arcidiacono PG, Balzano G, Falconi M, Gianolli L, Dagna L. Quantitative measurement of 18F-FDG PET/CT uptake reflects the expansion of circulating plasmablasts in IgG4-related disease. Rheumatology,56(12):2084-2092. 

[2018] Gargano M, Galli A, Bonizzoni L, Alberti R, Aresi N, Caccia M, Castiglioni I, Interlenghi M, Salvatore C, Ludwig N, Martini M. The Giotto's workshop in the XXI century: looking inside the “God the Father with Angels” gable. Journal of cultural heritage: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.culher.2018.09.016

[2019] Cantini L, Bertoli G, Cava C, Dubois T, Zinovyev A, Caselle M, Castiglioni I, Barillot E, Martignetti L. Identification of microRNA clusters cooperatively acting on Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition in Triple Negative Breast Cancer. NAR, in press (Published on-line).

[2019] Musazzi L, Sala N, Tornese P, Gallivanone F, Belloli S, Conte A, Di Grigoli G, Fenghua C, Treccani G, Bazzini C, Castiglioni I, Nyengaard JR, Wegener G, Moresco RM, Popoli P. Acute inescapable stress rapidly increases synaptic energy metabolism in prefrontal cortex and alters working memory performance. Cerebral Cortex, in press.

Awards and prizes

From 2007 to 2009 she was Foreign Scientific Visitors Tutor for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). She is a scientific evaluator of research projects for International Institutions (Engineering in the Medical and Biology Society, Fundacao para a Cienca and in Technology FCT – Portugal, French Institute National du Cancer, Poland National Science Center, Horizon2020). She is a scientific reviewer in international scientific journals in the field of bioimaging and molecular diagnostics and carries out publishing activities, as Associate Editor and Guest Editor. In particular she was Lead Guest Editor of the Special Issue "Frontiers in Biomarkers for Theranostics" in Frontiers in Bioscience - Landmark, of the Special Issue "Frontiers from Radiomics in Molecular Imaging" in Contrast Media and Molecular Imaging, and of the Special Issue "Imaging biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of neurodegenerative diseases” in Frontiers in Neuroscience.

In September 2021 she is  named among the 50 most inspiring Italian women in the world of technology with the award InspiringFifty for Italy.

Position/Role

Full rofessor of Computer Engineering and Director of the Department of Computer, Automatic and Management Engineering at La Sapienza University of Rome. 

Professional career

After graduating in Electronic Engineering from La Sapienza University of Rome in 1987, she continued her education with a PhD in Computer Science at the same university. Since November 2000 she has been a full professor of Information Processing Systems at the Faculty of Computer Engineering, Informatics and Statistics at La Sapienza University of Rome. From 2009 to October 2014 she is president of the InfoSapienza Centre. From November 2010 to April 2014 she is pro-rector for Infrastructure and Technology and coordinator of the Organismo di Indirizzo e Raccordo (OIR) of the same university. Since 2014 she is director of the Interuniversity Centre on Cognitive Processing in Natural and Artificial Systems (ECONA). Since May 2015 she is director of the interdepartmental research centre "Sapienza Design Research". Since July 2015 she is President of KION S.p.A., a company belonging to the CINECA group. Since 2018, she has been Director of the Department of Computer, Automatic and Management Engineering at La Sapienza University of Rome.

Professor Catarci is very active in combating gender disparities and promoting the STEM disciplines among female students by promoting dedicated projects at both school and university level and acting as role-model for “Inspiring Girls” and other initiatives.

Scientific results

Tiziana Catarci’s main research interests are in theoretical and application oriented aspects of visual formalisms for databases, human-computer interaction, user interfaces, usability, smart environments, information visualization, data management, data quality and digital libraries. On these topics she has published over 200 papers in international journals, conferences and workshop proceedings, and 20 books. In particular, her contribution can be regarded as one of the first and most significant examples of deep analysis and formalization of the interaction between the user and the database, which takes in consideration both usability issues and various database related aspects.

Editorial work and publications

Tiziana Catarci serves on the scientific committee and as a reviewer for many leading scientific journals and international conferences in the relevant fields, including ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, ACM Transactions on Information Systems, VLDB Journal, IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, WWW Journal, Journal of Visual Languages and Computing, ACM Interact, Computing Surveys, VLDB, ACM Sigmod, IEEE Multimedia, ACM CHI. 

She is the author of more than 200 scientific articles in international journals, including: 

(2019) Marco Angelini, Graziano Blasilli, Tiziana Catarci, Simone Lenti, Giuseppe Santucci. Vulnus: Visual Vulnerability Analysis for Network Security. IEEE Trans. Vis. Comput. Graph. 25(1): 183-192.

(2018) Paolo Ceravolo, Tiziana Catarci,et al.:Big Data Semantics. J. Data Semantics7(2): 65-85.

(2014) Bauleo E, Carnevale S, Catarci T, Kimani S, Leva M, Mecella M. Design, realization and user evaluation of the SmartVortex Visual Query System for accessing data streams in industrial engineering applications. Journal of Visual Languages and Computing 25(5):577-601.

(2010) Catarci T, Dix AJ, Kimani S, Santucci G. User-Centered Data Management. Morgan & Claypool Publishers.

(2000) Catarci T. What Happened When Database Researchers Met Usability. Information Systems, 25(3):177-212. 

Awards and prizes

In 2003 she won the IBM Eclipse Innovation Award for the SEAWER project, SEmantic Annotation of WEb Resources. 

In 2014 she was the first female candidate for Rector in the secular history of La Sapienza University. 

In 2015 she received the honour of "Commendatore della Repubblica Italiana".

In 2016, she was invited to join the prestigious European Academy of Sciences and Arts.

In 2021, she received the international prize "Le Tecnovisionarie".

Position/Role

R&D consultant in SEAS-SA. External researcher and lecturer at the University of Pavia.

Professional career

In the academic year 2001 she obtained a master degree in Civil Engineering, Hydraulic, in the University of Pavia (Italy). In the same university in 2002 she obtained a first level master regarding surface waters defence. Four years later, 2006, she obtained the title of environmental acoustic expert, after a post lauream course organised by F.A.S.T. (Milan- Italy). In 2008 she obtained the energy certificatory qualification. In academic year 2008 she became Philosophy Doctor in technologies for energy and environment (Applied Physics) with a thesis about energetic sustainable buildings (University of Bergamo - Italy). From 2001 to 2014 she worked as external researcher and lecturer in Pavia University, Engineering Faculty, in Applied Physics. She also taught in several professional courses. In 2012 Lucia Cattani worked in the research team of the University of Pavia devoted to design a new machine which can extract water from air. The research ended with the prototype construction. In 2014 she became R&D manager for SEAS-SA, a Swiss start up, which bought rights about the said research and started to build and sell integrated machines which extract water from air and permit to increase energy efficiency in building heating and cooling. In 2017 she shifted to a part time occupation in SEAS, as R&D scientific consultant, in order to return to research and teaching activities in Pavia University. Nowadays she continues her work in SEAS and at the same time carries out research in the field of water from air extraction as external researcher in Pavia University.

Scientific results

Thanks to her studies and previous research work, Lucia Cattani obtained an interdisciplinary attitude, which permits her to work in the branch of Applied Physics which regards advanced integrated plants devoted to increase energy saving and drinking water generation. Having knowledge about: thermodynamics, heat transmission, renewable energies, hydraulics, water sanification and purification treatments, waste treatment and recycling, she was able to become R&D manager of an innovative start up, SEAS SA in the field of AWG (atmospheric water generator). Integrated systems AWA modula, produced by SEAS SA, are not simple water from air extractors, but are particular machines, which can provide not only high quality drinking water, but also two thermal contributes, a fresh and dry airflow and an heating flux. All the said functionalities are obtained at the same time with the same energy consumption. AWA is an evolution of the research prototype and is designed to employ all the useful effects of a reverse cycle applied to environmental air. Her research field regarded also applied acoustics, heat transmission, energy saving, building sustainability.

Editorial work and publications

Lucia Cattani participates in national and international conferences and is the author of numerous scientific articles, including:

(2018) Cattani L. Magrini A., Cattani P. Water Extraction from Air by Refrigeration¡ªExperimental Results from an Integrated System Application, Applied Sciences. 2018; 8(11):2262.

(2017) Magrini A, Cattani L, Cartesegna M, Magnani L.Water Production from Air Conditioning Systems: Some Evaluations about a Sustainable Use of Resources,  Sustainability 2017, 9(8), 1309; doi:10.3390/su9081309. 

(2015) Magrini A, Cattani L, Cartesegna M, Magnani L. Production of water from the air: the environmental sustainability of air-conditioning systems through a more intelligent use of resources. The advantages of an integrated system. Energy Procedia, 78:1153-1158.

(2015) Magrini A, Cattani L, Cartasegna M, Magnani L. Integrated systems for air conditioning and production of drinking water - Preliminary considerations. Energy Procedia, 75:1659-1665.

(2010) Magrini A, Cattani L, Magnani L. A global index to evaluate the acoustical and thermal behavior of buildings: first evaluations and applications to common building walls. ISRA Melbourne, Victoria, Australian Acoustical Society. 

Position/Role

Full professor of Mathematics of the University of Rome Tor Vergata and Member of the ANVUR Governing Board

Professional career

After the Master degree in Mathematics as the University of Rome La Sapienza, she continued her studies through a PhD in Mathematics at the Swiss Polytechnic Institute (ETH) in Zuerich, awarded in 1989. Afterwards, she becomes Researcher in Mathematical Physics at the Department of Mathematics of the University of L’Aquila until 1999. Since then, she is associate professor of Mathematical Physics at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. Since 2013 she is full professor at the same university; from 2015 to 2018 she has been chair of the Department of Mathematics of the University of Rome Tor Vergata, where she coordinates since 2010 the post-graduate course in “Space Science and Technology”. In 2019 she was appointed Board Member of the Italian Space Agency, a role she held until February 2020. Since April 2020 she is a member of the Board of Directors of ANVUR.

Scientific results

The research interests of Alessandra Celletti include celestial mechanics, dynamical systems theory, interplanetary trajectories and the study of the dynamics of space debris. Celestial Mechanics is a discipline which dates back to primordial times and studies the dynamics of objects in the solar system, form the Moon to the planets, from spacecraft to artificial satellites. There are several open questions that celestial mechanics tries to answer: for example, whether the solar system will undergo collisions among the planets, how it is possible to design interplanetary low-cost trajectories, which is the fate of the space debris orbiting around the Earth or which is the probability of the threat induced ny the collision of an asteroid with the Earth.

Editorial work and publications

She is author of several books at university and popular level:

Celletti A, Esercizi di Meccanica Razionale, Aracne editrice, 1999. 

Celletti A, Stability and Chaos in Celestial Mechanics, Springer-Praxis, 2010. 

Celletti A, Perozzi E, Celestial Mechanics: The Waltz of the Planets, Springer-Praxis, 2007.

Celletti A, Perozzi E, Pianeti per caso, UTET, 2012. 

Celletti A., Meccanica Celeste, Lezioni di Fisica, Corriere della Sera, 2019.

Alessandra Celletti is also author of several scientific publications on national and international journals, among which:

(2018) Celletti A., Gales C., "Dynamics of resonances and equilibria of Low Earth Objects", SIAM J. Appl. Dyn. Syst., vol. 17:203-235

(2016) Celletti A, Gales C, Pucacco G. Bifurcation of lunisolar secular resonances for space debris orbits. SIAM, Journal on Applied Dynamical Systems, 15(3):1352-1383. 
(2016) Lhotka C, Celletti A, Gales C. Poynting-Robertson drag and solar wind in the space debris problem. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 460(1):802-815. 
(2015) Celletti A, Gales C. Dynamical investigation of minor resonances for space debris.Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy, 123(2):203-222. 
(2015) Celletti A, Pucacco G, Stella D. Lissajous and Halo orbits in the restricted three-body problem. Journal of Nonlinear Science, 25(2):343-370. 
(2014) Celletti A, Gales C. On the dynamics of space debris: 1:1 and 2:1 resonances. Journal of Nonlinear Science, 24(6):1231-1262. 
(2014) Calleja R, Celletti A, Falcolini C, de la Llave R. An extension of Greene's criterion for conformally symplectic systems and a partial justification. SIAM Journal on Mathematical Analysis, 46(4):2350-2384. 
(2013) Calleja R, Celletti A, de la Llave R. A KAM theory for conformally symplectic systems: efficient algorithms and their validation. Journal of Differential Equations, 255(5):978-1049. 
(2011) Celletti A, Stefanelli L, Lega E, Froeschle' C. Global dynamics of the regularized restricted three-body problem with dissipation. Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy, 109:265-284. 
(2009) Celletti A, Chierchia L. Quasi-periodic attractors in Celestial Mechanics. Archive for Rational Mechanics and Analysis, 191(2):311-345.

Awards and prizes

From 2011 to 2013 Alessandra Celletti is chair of the Italian Society of Celestial Mechanics and Astrodynamics; the asteroid 2005 DJ1, n. 117539 bears the name Alessandra Celletti. In 2010 she is elected member of the Celestial Mechanics Institute, an international organization composed by about 20 experts in Celestial Mechanics. In 2012 she is invited speaker at the sixth congress of the European Mathematical Society. She received from the Europen Community grants for the projects "Marie Curie Innovative Training Networks" called Astronet-II (2011), Stardust (2013), Stardust-R (2019). In 2018 she becomes president of the Scientific Committee in Celestial Mechanics of the International Astronomical Union. During the period 2015-2018 she is member of the scientific committee of the Italian Mathematical Union and since 2014 of the scientific committee of the Italian National Group of Mathematical Physics. In 2016 she is elected Editor in Chief of the international journal "Celestial Mechanics & Dynamical Astronomy" (edited by Springer), a reference publication in the field of Celestial Mechanics and Flight Dynamics. She is e member  of the Committee Women in Mathematics of the European Mathematical Society. In September 2018 she was elected Presidente of the Celestial Mechanic and Astrodynamics Committee of the International Astronomical Union.

Position/Role

Full Professor of Molecular Biology at University of Trento, Group Leader Laboratory of Molecular Virology

Professional career

After graduating in Biological Sciences at the University of Genoa in 1990 she moves to the United States, Bethesda MD, at the National Institute of Health (NIH) where she studies the molecular biology of retroviruses. In 1998 she moves to New York where she first works as postdoc at the Cornell University and then as Instructor at the Institute of Gene Therapy, Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She moves back to Italy to work at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità and then to the International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, ICGEB, in Trieste. She became Assistant Professor and Group Leader in the at Scuola Normale Superiore (SNS) in Pisa. Currently she is Full Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Trento where she teaches Gene Therapy and Molecular Virology. In the Department CIBIO, at the University of Trento, she leads a research groups developing strategies for genome editing to repair genetic diseases including one of the most frequent disease, Cystic Fibrosis.  She is co-inventor of three patents, she is co-founder and scientific advisor of an academic start-up, Alia Therapeutics, working for the development of genome editing strategies for genetic diseases.

Scientific results

Her scientific career took off as post-doctoral fellow in Robert Gallo’s lab at the NIH where she studied the cellular transformation mechanisms of a human retrovirus, HTLV-1, causing a specific type of T-cell leukemia. Her studies gave important contribution to the cancer field by shedding light onto the basic mechanisms responsible for cancer formation viruses. Three main publications on these topics are: i) Science, 1995. 269(5220): p. 79-81. 31.8, ii) Blood, 1996. 88(5): p. 1551-60.10.1 and iii) Oncogene, 1999. 18(15): p. 2441-50.

Her studies continued in the field of retrovirology investigating the molecular biology of HIV-1, the causative agent of AIDS. She focused on the central events of HIV-1 replication occurring at the nuclear level of the infected cells. She used innovative experimental approaches by integrating molecular biology and advanced fluorescence microscopy to study the nuclear dynamics of the virus and fusion of the HIV-1 cDNA into the cellular genome. Three main publications in the field are: i) Cell Host Microbe. 2011 Jun 16;9(6):484-95, ii) Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Apr 2;110(14):5636-41 and Methods Mol Biol. 2014;1087:47-54.

More recently she gave important contribution to the field of gene therapy by advancing concepts and tools in genome editing. With her group she developed viral and non-viral delivery tools for genome editing delivery and identified one of the most precise CRISPR nuclease (evoCas). Her work aimed also at proving the power of CRISPR based technology for the treatment of genetic diseases with a specific focus in Cystic Fibrosis, one of the most frequent genetic disease.  The objects of her work have been filed for patenting and she is founder of an academic spin-off, Alia Therapeutics, developing genome editing approaches for genetic diseases. Three main publications in the field are: Nat Commun. 2019 Aug 7;10(1):3556, Mol Ther Nucleic Acids. 2018; 12:453-462, Nat Biotechnol. 2018; 36(3):265-271).

Editorial work and publications

(2020)  Leslie W, Frati G, Felix T, Hardouin G, Casini A, Wollenschlaeger C, Meneghini V, Masson C, De Cian A, Chalumeau A, Mavilio F, Amendola M, Andre-Schmutz I, Cereseto A, El Nemer W, Concordet JP, Giovannangeli C, Cavazzana M, Miccio. Editing a γ-Globin Repressor Binding Site Restores Fetal Hemoglobin Synthesis and Corrects the Sickle Cell Disease Phenotype. Science Advances 2020 6 (7): eaay9392. 

(2019)  Maule G, Casini A, Montagna C, Ramalho AS, De Boeck K, Debyser Z, Carlon MS, Petris G, Cereseto A. Allele specific repair of splicing mutations in cystic fibrosis through AsCas12a genome editing. Nat Commun. 2019 Aug 7;10(1):3556. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-11454-9.

(2018) Montagna C, Petris G, Casini A, Maule G, Franceschini GM, Zanella I, Conti L, Arnoldi F, Burrone OR, Zentilin L, Zacchigna S, Giacca M, Cereseto A. VSV-G Enveloped Vesicles for Traceless Delivery of CRIAPR-Cas9. Mol Ther Nucleic Acids. 2018; 12:453-462. 

(2018) Casini A, Olivieri M, Petris G, Montagna C, Reginato R, Maule G, Lorenzin F, Prandi D, Romanel A, Demichelis F, Inga A, Cereseto A. In vivo screening of highly specific SpCas9 variants. Nat Biotechnol. 2018; 36(3):265-271

(2017) Romanel A, Garritano S, Stringa B, Blattner M, Dalfovo D, Chakravarty D, Soong D, Cotter KA, Petris G, Dhingra P, Gasperini P, Cereseto A, Elemento O, Sboner A, Khurana E, Inga A, Rubin MA, Demichelis F. Inherited determinants of early recurrent somatic mutations in prostate cancer. Nat Commun 2017;8:48. 

(2017) Petris G, Casini A, Montagna C, Lorenzin F, Prandi D, Romanel A, Zasso J, Conti L, Demichelis F, Cereseto A. Hit and go CAS9 delivered through a lentiviral based self-limiting circuit. Nat Commun 2017;8:15334. 

(2016) Quercioli V, Di Primio C, Casini A, Mulder LCF, Vranckx LS, Borrenberghs D, Gijsbers R, Debyser Z, Cereseto A. Comparative Analysis of HIV-1 and Murine Leukemia Virus Three-Dimensional Nuclear Distributions. J Virol 2016;90:5205–5209. 

(2015)  Casini A, Olivieri M, Vecchi L, Burrone OR, Cereseto A. Reduction of HIV-1 infectivity through endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation-mediated Env depletion. J Virol 2015;89:2966–2971. 

(2014) Cereseto A, Giacca M. Imaging HIV-1 nuclear pre-integration complexes. Methods Mol Biol Clifton NJ 2014;1087:47–54. 

(2013) Di Primio C, Quercioli V, Allouch A, Gijsbers R, Christ F, Debyser Z, Arosio D, Cereseto A. Single-cell imaging of HIV-1 provirus (SCIP). Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2013;110:5636–5641. 

(2011) Allouch A, Di Primio C, Alpi E, Lusic M, Arosio D, Giacca M, Cereseto A. The TRIM family protein KAP1 inhibits HIV-1 integration. Cell Host Microbe 2011;9:484–495. 

(2010) Manganaro L, Lusic M, Gutierrez MI, Cereseto A, Del Sal G, Giacca M. Concerted action of cellular JNK and Pin1 restricts HIV-1 genome integration to activated CD4+ T lymphocytes. Nat Med 2010;16:329–333. 

Awards and prizes

Anna Cereseto received financial support for her research from the European community in the context of the Framework Programme 7 and 8 (Horizon 20202), from the Italian Ministry of Health (Bandi AIDS) and from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.  She is reviewer for internationl research foundations (Flanders Research Fundation, Austrian Science Fund, MRC-University of Cambridge and Czech Science Fundation) and for international journals including Nature Biotechnology, Nature Communications, Nature Methods and  and Cell RTeports Medicine. She’s been awarded of an AIRC and Fogarty International Center Research fellowships.

Position/Role

Research Director of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) at the Turin Division.

Professional career

After graduating in Theoretical Physics in Turin in 1984, she obtained a PhD from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1989 and worked at CALTECH in California, before returning in 1993 as a researcher and lecturer at the Politecnico di Torino. She is a research manager at the Turin Section of the INFN, where she coordinated the Theoretical Physics Group from 2015 to 2022. Her research explores quantum field theories of fundamental interactions including gravity, with applications to black holes and cosmology. Since 2017 she leads a national research project on String and Field Theory. She has been a team member of the ERC "Superfields" and a working group leader in the COST project "The String Theory Universe." She is active in promoting gender in Theoretical Physics and among the founders of the GenHET group at CERN. She is involved in science outreach through various means, including Theatre,  she is one of the creators of La forza nascosta: scienziate nella fisica e nella storiata: scienziate nella fisica e nella storia and president of the Teatro&Scienza association in Turin and president of the Science&Theatre association in Turin.

Scientific results

Her research activity has been in high-energy theoretical physics. She has devoted herself to the construction of new quantum theories that, extending Einstein's General Relativity and the Standard Model for elementary particles, can describe the unification of gravity with the other fundamental interactions of elementary particles. Her focus has been on mathematical structures and symmetries governing the interaction of space, time and matter. She is an expert in models in which space-time possesses more than 4 dimensions, in field theories with conformal invariance and with supersymmetry: supergravity, string theories, holographic theories. She has also contributed their applications to the study of black holes and cosmology. 

Her most relevant results concern the construction of general models of supergravity in 4 and 5 space-time dimensions suitable for describing the interaction between (super)gravity and matter, the analysis of their electromagnetic duality symmetries, the work on consistency proofs of the holographic principle and the description of black holes in supergravity by means of flow equations.

Editorial work and publications

Her publications include more than 60 research papers published in international journals and one specialized volume in the field of high energy theoretical physics and mathematical physics. Below is a selection.

[2019]  Castellani L., Ceresole A., D'Auria R., Fré P. Tullio Regge: An Eclectic Genius: From Quantum Gravity to Computer Play. World Scientific, ISBN 978-981-12-1343-4, doi 10.1142/11643.

[2014] Ceresole A., Dall'Agata G., Ferrara S., Trigiante M., Van Proeyen A. A search for an N=2 inflaton potential, Fortsch. Phys. 62 (2014) 584 [arXiv:1404.1745 [hep-th]]. 

[2007]  Ceresole A., Dall'Agata G. Flow equations for non-BPS extremal black holes, JHEP 0703 (2007) 110 [arXiv:hep-th/0702088].

[2006] Ceresole A., Dall'Agata G., Giryavets A., Kallosh R., Linde A. Domain walls, near-BPS bubbles, and probabilities in the landscape, Phys. Rev. D 74 (2006) 086010 [arXiv:hep-th/0605266].

[2000] Ceresole A., Dall'Agata G. General Matter Coupled N=2, D = 5 Gauged Supergravity, Nucl. Phys. 585 (2000)143{170, [hep-th/0004111].

[2001] Ceresole A., Dall'Agata G., Kallosh R., Van Proeyen A. Hypermultiplets, Domain Walls and Supersymmetric Attractors, Phys. Rev. D 64 (2001) 104006 (23 pages) [arXiv:hep-th/0104056].

[2000] Ceresole A., Dall'Agata G., D'Auria R., Ferrara S. Spectrum of type IIB supergravity on AdS(5)xT11: Predictions on N = 1 SCFT's" , Phys. Rev. D61 066001-19, [hep-th/9905226].

[1997] Andrianopoli L., Bertolini M., Ceresole A., D'Auria R., Ferrara S., Fre P., Magri T. N=2 Supergravity and N=2 Super Yang-Mills Theory on General Scalar Manifolds: Symplectic Covariance, Gaugings and the Momentum Map, J. Geom. Phys. 23, 111 (1997), [hep-th/9605032].

[1995] Cadavid A. C., Ceresole A., D'Auria R., Ferrara S. 11-Dimensional Supergravity Compactified on Calabi Yau Threefolds, Phys. Lett B357 (1995) 76-80, [hep-th/9506144].

[1995] Ceresole A., D'Auria R., Ferrara S., Van Proeyen A. Duality Transformations in N=2 Supersymmetric Yang Mills Theories coupled to Supergravity, Nucl. Phys. B444 (1995) 92-124, [hep-th/9502072].

[1992] Ceresole A., D'Auria R., S. Ferrara S., Lerche W., Louis J. Picard-Fuchs equations and special geometry, Int. J. Mod. Phys. A, 8 (1993) 79-114 [hep-th/9204035 [hep-th]].

[1985] Ceresole A., Frè P., Nicolai H. Multiplet Structure and Spectra of N=2 Supersymmetric Compactifications, Class.Quant.Grav. 2 (1985) 133.

Position/Role

Research & Development Director and Member of the Executive Board of Dr. Schär group

Professional career

After graduating in Food Science and Technologies in 1994 at the University of Udine, Virna Cerne moved to Germany where she was Project leader of Research and Development at Zuegg Frucht in Berlin. In 1996 she came back to Italy and became Responsible for Quality Assurance and Research & Development department of Dr. Schär, leading company in Europe for gluten free nutrition. Since 2003 she has been Director of Dr. Schär R&D Centre, the Reserach & Development Centre of the entire Dr. Schär group.

Scientific results

Virna Cerne and Ombretta Polenghi developed the innovative patent which allows to extract from corn proteins similar to gluten which can be added to gluten free food products. Through this process it is possible to add the isolated proteins into food products for coeliac people obtaining the taste and texture of traditional food containing wheat flour.

Awards and prizes

In 2016 Virna Cerne and the Research team of Dr. Schär were nominated finalists at the European Inventor Award, in the Industry category, the only ones in the food sector. This is one of the most important European prizes concerning Innovation.

Position/Role

Full Professor at TNG Group, Politecnico of Turin

Professional career

Carla received her Degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Florence in 1996, and her Ph.D. in Electronic Engineering and Telecommunications from Politecnico di Torino in 2000. Since 2000, she has been with the Electronics and Telecommunications Department at Politecnico di Torino, where she is currently Full Professor. Before her current appointment, she worked at the Politecnico di Torino under as an Assistant Professor (2000-2006), and as an Associate Professor (2006-2018). From 1998 till 2003, she did research work at the Center for Wireless Communications and at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, University of California at San Diego. In 2012 and 2016, she was a visiting professor at Monash University (Australia). From 2012 till 2018, she has been the Coordinator of the Master Program in Communications and Computer Engineering at Politecnico di Torino. Since march 2018 she is Rector's Delegate for Alumni and Career Orientation.

Scientific results

Chiasserini participated in several National and European projects on wireless network systems, such as the RAMON, VICOM, PATTERN, NEWCOM++, NEWCOM#, MEADOW, VICSUM, FIGARO projects, and she has been the Principal Investigator for the MASP, TA_SL, IoT_|_ToI, and LIMPID national projects, as well as for the H2020 5G-Crosshaul, H2020 5G-TRANSFORMER, and H2020 I-REACT projects. She was the coordinator of the international QNRF GAD project on next-generation wireless access networks (2012-2015), of the international FLAG project on full-duplex radio, and of the MIMOSE project on local mobile connectivity. She has been the Principal Investigator also for the contracts between Politecnico di Torino and ALCATEL, Telecom Italia, Magneti Marelli, INLAB, FCA, and TIM.
Her research interests are mainly in the field of wireless and mobile networks. Her papers have been published in highly prestigious refereed journals, and she has received several Best Paper Awards. Carla is also co-author of six patents.

Editorial work and publications

Carla is Editor-in-Chief of the Computer Communications journal and is an Associate Editor of the ACM/IEEE Transactions on Networking. She has served for several years in the Editorial Board of the IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, and the Ad Hoc Networks Journal, and in the Executive Editorial Committee of the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications.  
She has co-authored more than 300 papers, among which: 

(2019) Agarwal, S.; Malandrino, F.; Chiasserini, C. F.; De, S., VNF Placement and Resource Allocation for the Support of Vertical Services in 5G Networks. IEEE-ACM Transactions on Networking

(2018) Malandrino, F.; Chiasserini, C. F.; Kirkpatrick, S., Cellular Network Traces Towards 5G: Usage, Analysis and Generation, IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing 

(2015) Malandrino F, Limani Z, Casetti C, Chiasserini CF. Interference-aware downlink and uplink resource allocation in HetNets with D2D support.IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications.

(2006) Chiasserini, C. F.; Garetto, M., An Analytical Model for Wireless Sensor Networks with Sleeping Nodes, IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing.

(2005) Srinivasan, V.; Nuggehalli, P.; Chiasserini, C.F.; Rao, R.R., An Analytical Approach to the Study of Cooperation in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications.

Awards and prizes

In 2010 Carla Fabiani Chiasserini received the Best Editor award from the Ad Hoc Networks Journal. Co-author of three patents, she is also a member of the Scientific Committee of the Bruno Kessler Foundation and a senior affiliate of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and a member of ACM (Association for Computing Machinery). 

Position/Role

Associate Professor of Physics at University of Pisa

Professional career

After obtaining the MD in Physics at the University of Pisa in1992 and the PhD at the Scuola Normale Superiore (SNS) in 1996, both cum laude, at the SNS she has been postdoc and then researcher (1998-2002, 2004-2007), working in 2002-2004 with Professor Anna Nobili. Since 2007 she is associate Professor at the University of Pisa (habilitated as full professor). She teaches two elementary-physics courses for BSD and MD in Pharmacy, one specialized course for MD and PhD in Physics, and Physics of everyday life to teach physics teaching. She contributes to the Interdisciplinary Center Sciences for Peace, Interdepartmental Center for Education Research, and the Responsible Research&Innovation group of the University of Pisa.
She has coordinated disciplinary or physics education research projects funded by CINECA, SNS, ASI, INFN, MIT-UNIPI, KITP, Erasmus+, and CISIA.
Part of her research activity has been carried out at international scientific Institutions, such as: IRC Cambridge, TU-Eindhoven, Institut Poincaré (Paris), CNRS (Grenoble), University of Auckland, Strathclyde University (UK), ICTP, ECT e CRS-BEC (Trento), and Los Alamos National Labs, Aspen Center for Physics, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, Stanford, Harvard e MIT (US). Long and strong ties are with JILA (Boulder, US), where she has investigated quantum fluids for 1-2 months almost every year since 1995 in the groups of Murray Holland or Debbie Jin, around the pioneering experiments of the Nobel laureates Carl Wiemann and Eric Cornell.

Scientific results

She has developed the bipolaronic theory for high-temperature superconductivity, published in a monography, while contributing to the study of strongly correlated charged bosons. Since the observation in 1995 at JILA and MIT of Bose-Einstein condensation in ultracold (i.e. at billionths Kelvin above absolute zero) atoms, she has focused on the study of these systems as a platform to engineer quantum technologies under the accurate control of temperature, interactions, and spatial dimensions.  To this aim, she has also developed simulational and theoretical methods, among the latter the time-dependent density functional theory for superfluids. The most relevant and recognized work has been conceiving with Murray Holland the theory of resonant fermionic superfluidity, later observed by Debbie Jin at JILA.  
During the happy research parenthesis in the group of Anna Nobili, she has developed the simulational environment for the Galileo Galilei on the Ground test of the equivalence principle, with macroscopic bodies. Such cross-disciplinary approach keeps characterizing the research activity, nowadays along two directions: quantum technologies for fundamental physics with atomic interferometry (she is coauthor of a number of proposals, among which Atomic Experiments for Dark Matter and Gravity Exploration in Space submitted to the ESA call Voyage2050); developing a “quantum black box” to solve quantum problems which, by means of on-purpose conceived videogames, modelling human behavior, and using machine learning, integrates the power of human-mind creativity and intuition with the power of machines (classical or quantum). In fact, she coordinates with Sabrina Maniscalco (Turku University) the cross-disciplinary proposal Integrating Human&Machine Minds for Quantum Technologies (IQHuMinds) crossing quantum physics, neuroscience, computer science, gamification, with European and US partners from Universities (Pisa and Turku, ICFO, JILA) and sectoral companies (VIS, MiTale, QuSide, IBM-Zurich, Unity).

She parallels the disciplinary research with physics education research and outreach. She has created a number of formats and events for radio (e.g. Hallo, Science! with Sara Maggi), videos, and art&science shows. She has collaborated on science&society with Rai-Radio3, Repubblica, Focus Junior, Scienzainrete, Ingenere, Corriere della Sera, DireDonne.

Editorial work and publications

[2019] Lucchesi L and Chiofalo ML, Many-body Entanglement of Fermi Gases with Short-Range Interactions. Phys. Rev. Lett. 123: 60406.
 
[2018] Colella E, Citro R, Barsanti M, Rossini D, and Chiofalo ML, Quantum Phases of Spinful Fermi Gases in Optical Cavities. Phys. Rev. B 97: 134502.
 
[2014] Iadonisi G, Cantele G, Chiofalo ML, Introduction to Solid State Physics and Crystalline Nanostructures, SPRINGER VERLAG- Italia (2014) 685 pp.
 
[2008] Ivanov V, Alberti A, Schioppo M, Ferrari G, Artoni M, Chiofalo ML and Tino G, Coherent delocalization of atomic wavepackets in driven lattice potentials. Phys. Rev. Lett. 100: 43601.
 
[2007] Citro R, Orignac E, de Palo S, and Chiofalo ML, Evidence of Luttinger liquid behavior in one-dimensional dipolar quantum gases, Phys. Rev. A Rapid Comm. 75: 51602.
 
[2006] Chiofalo ML, Giorgini S, and Holland MJ, Released Momentum Distribution of a Fermi Gas in the BCS-BEC Crossover. Phys. Rev. Lett. 97: 070404.
 
[2003] Nobili AM, Bramanti D, Comandi GL, Toncelli R, Polacco E, and Chiofalo ML, GALILEO GALILEI-GG: design, requirements, error budget and significance of the ground prototype. Phys. Lett. A.318: 172.
 
[2001] Holland MJ, Kokkelmans SJJMF, Chiofalo ML and Walser R, Resonance superfluidity in a quantum degenerate Fermi gas. Phys. Rev. Lett. 87: 120406.
 
[2001] Chiofalo ML and Tosi MP, Time-dependent density-functional theory for superfluids. Europhys. Lett. 53:162.
 
[2001] Burger S, Cataliotti FS, Fort C, Minardi F, Inguscio M, Chiofalo ML and Tosi MP, Superfluid and Dissipative Dynamics of a Bose-Einstein Condensate in a Periodic Optical Potential. Phys. Rev. Lett. 86: 4447.
 
[1998] Iadonisi G, Schrieffer RJ and Chiofalo ML Eds., Models and Phenomenology for conventional and high-Tcsuperconductivity, Proceedings del CXXXVI Corso della Scuola Internazionale di Fisica "Enrico Fermi", IOS.
 
[1997] Holland M, Jin J, Chiofalo ML and Cooper J, Emergence of interaction effects in Bose--Einstein condensation. Phys. Rev. Lett. 78: 3801.

Awards and prizes

She has been awarded the Prize for MD students by the Italian Physical Society (1997). The work on Time-dependent density functional theory for superfluids has been selected among the INFM Highlights (1998). She has been awarded the Prizes Culture of Solidarity (Pistoia, 2014) and Successful Women (Sportello Donna, Pavia, and Fondazione Gaia, Milan, 2016, event Beijin+20). According to Ladynomics, she is among the 150 most influential feminists 2019.
She has organized a number of events as component of scientific board, among which the CXXXVI International School of Physics Enrico Fermi (Varenna 1997, on high-temperature superconductivity) with the directors R. J. Schrieffer (Nobel laureate) and G. Iadonisi.  She has created and directed the Festival MusicalMente for the Arts Campus in Sangemini, and chairs the Conferences series Quantum gases, Fundamental interactions, and Cosmology (2017-). She is part of the scientific boards of the CISP Magazine, the series Culture and training (D. Pardini and M. Agujari eds.), and the Cosmos Award for popular science, chaired by Gianfranco Bertone. She has served as peer reviewer for VQR 2011-2014, ERC Starting Grant 2019, and academic Institutions (Stanford, Harvard, LKB Paris). She is in the board of Photonics.  She is reviewer for Physical Review (Letters, A, B, E, X), Nature, NJP, EPJ, Europhysics Letters.

Position/Role

Full professor of Psychiatry at University Vita-Salute San Raffaele of Milan and Head of the Complex Operative Unit of Rehabilitation of Mood Disorders at San Raffaele Hospital, Milan 

Professional career

After graduating in Medicine and Surgery at the University of Milan and qualifying as a doctor in 1985, Cristina Colombo continued her training as a volunteer at the Laboratory of Clinical Neurophysiology of the Psychiatric Clinic of the University of Milan. At the same time she worked as a medical assistant at the Division of Psychiatry 3 of the Department of Neuropsychiatric Sciences, IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital. The following year he completed his specialisation in Psychiatry at the University of Milan. In 1991 he completed a postgraduate course in bioethics at the Department of Biomedical Science and Technology, IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital. In 2001 she obtained a second specialisation in Clinical Criminology, also at the University of Milan. Today she is Professor of Psychiatry at the University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Head of the Complex Operative Unit of Rehabilitation of Mood Disorders at the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan and Director of the Master of II level Forensic Psychopathology and Criminology at the University Vita-Salute San Raffaele.

Scientific results

Cristina Colombo's research activity extends from computerised electroencephalography, brain mapping and brain imaging techniques (CT, MRI, PET) to her current position as coordinator of the research group of the Chronobiology Unit of the Centre for Mood Disorders at San Raffaele Hospital. Within the centre, she and her colleagues carry out specific scientific research on mood disorders, the main research aims being not only to expand knowledge about this pathology, but also to design and develop diagnostic and measurement tools. The main lines of scientific research at the Centre coordinated by Cristina Colombo are functional neuroimaging, the psychopathology of mood disorders, chronobiology and chronotherapy and somatotherapy (TMS, a non-invasive technique for stimulating areas of the brain related to depressive disorders).

Editorial work and publications

Cristina Colombo is on the scientific committees of several international journals and has authored more than 100 articles in international journals, including:

(1993) Colombo C, Bonfanti A, Livian S, Abbruzzese M, Scarone S. Size of the corpus callosum and auditory comprehension in schizophrenics and normal controls. Schizophrenia Research, 11:63-70.

(1999) Smeraldi E, Benedetti F, Barbini B, Campori C, Colombo C. Sustained antidepressant effect of sleep deprivation combined with pindolol in bipolar depression: a placebo-controlled trial. Neuropsychopharmacology, 20(4):380-385.

(2000) Moresco RM, Colombo C, Fazio F, Bonfanti A, Lucignani G, Messa C, Gobbo C, Galli L, Del Sole A, Lucca A, Smeraldi E. Effects of fluvoxamine treatment on the in vivo binding of [F-18]FESP in drug naive depressed patients: a PET study. Neuroimage, 12(4):452-465.

(2002) Benedetti F, Colombo C, Barbini B, Smeraldi E. Sleep deprivation and biological rhytms in bipolar disorder. Journal of Affective Disorders, (68):88-89.

(2007) Benedetti F, Barbini B, Colombo C, Smeraldi E. Chronoterapeutics in a psychiatric ward. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 11:509-522.

(2011) Benedetti F, Colombo C. Sleep deprivation in mood disorders. Neuropsychobiology, 64:141-151.

(2014) Benedetti F, Bollettini I, Radaelli D, Poletti S, Locatelli C, Falini A, Smeraldi E, Colombo C. Adverse childhood experiences influence white-matter microstructure in patients with bipolar disorder. Psychological Medicine, 44:3069-3082.

(2014) Benedetti F, Riccaboni R, Poletti S, Radaelli D, Locatelli C, Lorenzi C, Pirovano A, Smeraldi E, Colombo C. The serotonin transporter genotype modulates the relationship between early stress and adult suicidality in bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorders, 16: 857-866.

(2015) Benedetti F, Poletti S, Radaelli D, Locatelli C, Pirovano A, Lorenzi C, Vai B, Bollettini I, Falini A, Smeraldi E, Colombo C. Lithium and GSK-3beta promoter gene variants influence cortical gray matter volumes in bipolar disorder. Psychopharmacology. 

(2015) Benedetti F, Riccaboni R, Dallaspezia S, Locatelli C, Smeraldi E, Colombo C. Effects of CLOCK gene variants and early stress on hopelessness and suicide in bipolar depression. Chronobiology International, Posted online on July 23, 2015.

Position/Role

Full Professor of Manufacturing and Production Systems, Deputy Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Politecnico di Milano

Professional career

After graduating in Management Engineering at Politecnico di Milano in 1996, prof. Colosimo got a PhD in Manufacturing and Production Systems in 2001; in the same year she was visiting postdoc at the Department of Industrial Engineering at Pennsylvania State University (PSU). In 1999 she became researcher (assistant professor) and in 2003 associate professor; from 2014 she is full professor of Manufacturing and Production Systems at Politecnico di Milano. Since 2012 she has been the Coordinator of the PhD Programme in Mechanical Engineering in the same university, and member of the Department Board since 2014. In January 2017 she has been nominated Deputy Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Politecnico di Milano.

Scientific results

The main research interest of prof. Colosimo concerns the development of innovative solutions for data mining, monitoring and control in advanced manufacturing processes (e.g., additive manufacturing or 3D printing). She is carrying out research activities in several international projects, such as SAMM (Smart Additive Manufacturing for Metal) in collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); some European projects (e.g., CleanSky2 AMATHO for the production of large aeronautical components in additive manufacturing); several national and regional  projects on Intelligent Manufacturing (Cluster- High Performance Machining and Sustainable Manufacturing; Made4Lo). She currently has active collaborations with several international research groups: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), Pennsylvania State University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), among the others.

Editorial work and publications

Bianca Maria Colosimo is Editor-in-chief of  the Journal of Quality Technology (Taylor & Francis). She is in the Editorial Board of Polimi Springerbriefs since 2013 and of IISE Transactions since 2017. She has been acting as refereefor many international journals, such as International Journal of Production Research, Technometrics, IISE Transactions (former IIE Transactions) and The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology. 

She is co-author of more than 130 publications, including: 

(2018) Colosimo B.M., Grasso M. Spatially Weighted PCA for Monitoring Video Image Data with Application to Additive Manufacturing, Journal of Quality Technology, vol. 4, 2018.

(2018) Repossini G., Laguzza V., Grasso M., Colosimo B.M., On the use of spatter signature for in-situ monitoring of Laser Powder Bed Fusion, Additive Manufacturing, 16, 35-48

(2017)   Grasso M., Colosimo B.M., Process Defects and In-situ Monitoring Methods in Metal Powder Bed Fusion: a Review, Measurement Science and Technology, 28(4), 1-25.

(2017) Wang J, Pagani L, Leach RK, Zeng W, Colosimo BM, Zhou L. Study of weighted fusion methods for the measurement of surface geometry. Precision Engineering, 47, 111-121. 

(2017) Grasso M, Laguzza V, Semeraro Q, Colosimo BM. In-Process Monitoring of Selective Laser Melting: Spatial Detection of Defects Via Image Data Analysis. ASME Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering, 139(5), 016.

(2016) Grasso M, Colosimo BM, Tsung F. A phase I multi-modelling approach for profile monitoring of signal data. International Journal of Production Research, 1-24. 

(2015) Colosimo BM, Pacella M, Senin N. Multisensor data fusion via Gaussian process models for dimensional and geometric verification. Precision Engineering, 40:199-213.

(2015) Del Castillo E, Colosimo BM, Tajbakhsh S. Geodesic Gaussian Processes for the Reconstruction of a Free-Form Surface. Technometrics, 57, 1, 87-98.

(2014) Colosimo BM, Cicorella P, Pacella M, Blaco M. From profile to surface monitoring: SPC for cylindrical surfaces via Gaussian Processes. Journal of Quality Technology, 46(2):95-113.

(2013) Colombo D, Colosimo BM, Previtali B. Comparison of methods for data analysis in the remote monitoring of remote laser welding. Optics and Lasers in Engineering, 51, 34-46. 

(2008) Colosimo BM, Pacella M, Semeraro Q. Statistical Process Control for Geometric Specifications: On the Monitoring of Roundness Profiles. Journal of Quality Technology, 40(1):1-18. 

Awards and prizes

In 1996 prof. Colosimo won the UCIMU Degree Award (Union of Italian Machine Tool Manufacturers) and in 2003 was awarded the Young Researcher Award of the Italian Association of Mechanical Technologies (AITeM). In 2008 the article Statistical Process Control for Geometric Specifications of theJournal of Quality Technology, that she co-authored, was recognized as the "Top downloaded paper of the year ".  In 2017 she was invited speaker at the Stu-Hunter conference.

Position/Role

Full professor and Head of the SENSOR laboratory at University of Brescia

Professional career

After achieving her degree in Experimental Physics in 1996 at the University of Pisa, she has been a Ph.D. student in Materials for Engineering at the University of Brescia. She was awarded with her Ph.D. degree in 2000. From 1999 to 2001 she was employed as a technologist at INFM (National Institute of Physics of Matter). Since 2001 she has been a researcher in Physics of Matter at the University of Brescia, where she later became associate professor and then full professor of Experimental Physics of Matter.

Scientific results

Elisabetta Comini specialises in studying the growth of metal oxides, in particular nanowires, and in measuring their electronic, functional and structural properties. She is responsible for the research line on "Metal oxide nanocrystalline quasi-1D structures" at the SENSOR laboratory (University of Brescia and National Institute of Optics). The aim of the SENSOR lab is to design and develop new materials and manufacturing processes to realise devices and systems for functional applications. The laboratory is dedicated to research in the fields of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), nanomedicine, food and safety. One of the laboratory's most advanced research areas is the one directed by Elisabetta Comini, which deals with quasi-one-dimensional oxide nanostructures: 1-D crystalline nanostructures are now emerging as the basis for next-generation electronics and nanoscale optoelectronic devices with superior performance. 

Editorial work and publications

Elisabetta Comini has authored more than 350 peer-reviewed papers.

Selected publications:

(2019) Nunez-Carmona E,  Bertuna A, Abbatangelo M, Sberveglieri V, Comini E, Sberveglieri G. BC-MOS: The novel bacterial cellulose based MOS gas sensors MATERIALS LETTERS, 237 10.1016/j.matlet.2018.11.011

(2018) Zappa D, Galstyan V, Kaur N, Arachchige  HMMM, Sisman O, Comini E. Metal oxide -based heterostructures for gas sensors. A review ANALYTICA CHIMICA ACTA 1039, 10.1016/j.aca.2018.09.020.

(2016) Kaur N, Comini E, Zappa D, Poli N, Sberveglieri G. Nickel oxide nanowires: vapor liquid solid synthesis and integration into a gas sensing device. Nanotechnology, 27(20). 

(2015) Comini E, Galstyan V, Faglia G, Bontempi E, Sberveglieri G. Highly conductive titanium oxide nanotubes chemical sensors. Microporous and Mesoporus Materials, 208:165-170.

(2013) Comini E. Integration of Metal Oxide Nanowires in Flexible Gas Sensing Devices. Sensors-Basel, 13(8):10659-10673. 

(2009) Comini E, Baratto C, Faglia G, Ferroni M, Vomiero A, Sberveglieri G. Quasi-one dimensional metal oxide semiconductors: Preparation, characterization and application as chemical sensors. Progress in Materials Sciences, 54(1):1-67.

(2007) Vomiero A, Ferroni M, Comini E, Faglia G, Sberveglieri G. Preparation of radial and longitudinal nanosized heterostructures of In2O3 and SnO2. Nano Letters, 7(12):3553-3558.

(2006) Ponzoni A, Comini E, Sberveglieri G, Zhou J, Deng SZ, Xu NS, Ding Y, Wang ZL. Ultrasensitive and highly selective gas sensors using three-dimensional tungsten oxide nanowire networks. Applied Physics Letters, 88(20).

(2004) Comini E, Guidi V, Malagu C, Martinelli G, Pan Z, Sberveglieri G, Wang ZL, Electrical properties of tin dioxide two-dimensional nanostructures. Journal of Physical Chemestry B, 108 (6):1882-1887.

(2002) Comini E, Faglia G, Sberveglieri G, Pan ZW, Wang ZL. Stable and highly sensitive gas sensors based on semiconducting oxide nanobelts. Applied Physics Letters, 81(10):1869-1871.

Awards and prizes

In September 2005 she won the prize for the best presentation at the EUROSENSORS XIX conference in Barcelona. The following year, she won the same prize at the EUROSENSORS XX conference in Gothenburg. In 2010 she won the first place in Science as Art as part of the MRS Spring Meeting in San Francisco. Two years later she won the Eurosensors fellow 2012, a leading conference for the sensor community.

Position/Role

President and co-founder of Talent4Rise, Milan

Professional career

In 1986 she graduated in Electronic and System Physics from the University of Milan with a thesis on the effects of acid rain carried out at CRTN (ENEL's Centre for Thermal and Nuclear Research). In 1987 she joined the Italtel Telesis Consortium in the role of Proposal Manager for the development of environmental monitoring networks and the first mathematical models for air quality forecasting (DISIA Ministry of the Environment project). From 1988 to 1997 she was Head of the Environmental Subsystem in the 5T Consortium. In 1997 she joined Italtel S.p.A. as Proposal Manager and took part in the ministerial tender for the assignment of the third mobile operator (Wind). Later, from 2000 to 2013, she was International Bid and Contract Manager and contributed to the implementation of important intranets (EINET-Italian Army), the IP backbone of the Italian Research and University Network (GARR Consortium) and VoIP for international operators (SNCF, Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français) and Italian operators (CGIL Piemonte, Acciaieria Cogne di Aosta and for the Barilla factory). In 2013 he founded the association Talent4Rise.

Scientific results

Paola Corradi has been working for almost thirty years on the development of ICT networks for businesses and public administration, on cloud solutions, on the start-up of new services and new markets. Her current interests include innovative ICT applications for smart cities and international relations as a lever for development in a globalised world. Advocating the importance of shared value between public administration, profit and non-profit companies, to activate cooperative circuits and positive feedback, and the development of new digital technologies as a tool for economic growth, Paola Corradi participates in Expo 2015 with a series of workshops at Cascina Triulza and cultural exhibitions on Expo themes (Epic Exhibition of Expo in the City - Shepherds of the Alps: 100 stories, 100 faces to feed the Planet). She brings to Expo 2015 the original Rise2Up project, whose primary objective is to give visibility to the good practices of Italian companies, in Italy and abroad, that stand out for Quality and Safety, Food Education, Originality and Biodiversity, Eco-sustainability, Health, WEB2.0, Internationality, Tradition and Conservation and Innovation. In April 2016, she organised a business mission to Dubai on the themes of innovation. Today she promotes, with the support of Talent4Rise Management, scientific workshops within the Human Factory Day programme of Fondazione Triulza.

Awards and prizes

The Rise2Up project was awarded by the Milan Chamber of Commerce as one of the best projects presented at the Thematic Tables of Expo2015. Paola Corradi is a member of the General Council of Fondazione Triulza as co-founder.

Position/Role

Full professor of Pharmacology at the University of Bari

Professional career

After graduating in Medicine and Surgery at the University of Bari in 1979, she specialized in Neurology at the same university. She then obtained a scholarship from the Mario Negri Institute in Milan and, in 1984, moved as a researcher to Duke University Medical Center, Durham in the United States, in the group of Dr. R.J. Lefkowitz, Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2012. Her academic career continued as Research Assistant Professor at the same Duke University and, since 1992, as professor of Pharmacology at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. In 2007 she returned to Italy definitively and became professor of Pharmacology at the University of Bari.

Scientific results

Susanna Cotecchia has always been committed to basic research as an indispensable tool for understanding the mechanisms of disease and drug action. Her research focuses on the study of membrane receptors and site-directed mutagenesis, a particular technique used in molecular biology to study the structure-function relationship of proteins. This line of research aims to address the fundamental questions of molecular pharmacology, providing rapid screening methods and useful information to understand the mechanism of action of medicines. The goal is to build new molecules with selective and targeted pharmacological properties, the so-called drug design, which avoids side effects in the treatment of numerous diseases.

Editorial work and publications

She is the author of more than 100 national and international scientific papers, including:

(2006) Stanasila L, Abuin L, Diviani D, Cotecchia S. Direct interaction of ezrin with the alpha1b-adrenergic receptor regulates recycling of the internalized receptors. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 281:4354-63. 

(2005) Hosoda C, Koshimizu TA, Tanoue A, Nasa Y, Oikawa R, Tomabechi T, Fukuda S, Shinoura H, Oshikawa S, Takeo S, Kitamura T, Cotecchia S, Tsujimoto G. Two alpha1-adrenergic receptor subtypes regulating the vasopressor response have differential roles in blood pressure regulation. Molecular Pharmacology, 67:912-22. 

(2005) Novi F, Stanasila L, Giorgi F, Corsini GU, Cotecchia S, Maggio R. Paired activation of two components within muscarinic M3 receptor dimers is required for recruitment of beta-arrestin-1 to the plasma membrane. The Journal of Biological Chemistry, 280:19768-76.

(2005) Costa T and Cotecchia S. Historical Perspective: The discovery of inverse efficacy and the constitutive activity of GPCRs. Trends in Pharmacological Sciences.

(2005) Hosoda C, Tanoue A, Shibano M, Tanaka Y, Hiroyama M, Koshimizu TA, Cotecchia S, Kitamura T, Tsujimoto G, Koike K. Correlation between vasoconstrictor roles and mRNA expression of alpha(1) adrenoceptor subtypes in blood vessels of genetically engineered mice. British Journal of Pharmacology 146:456-66. 

(2005) Sarang Z, Molnar P, Nemeth T, Gomba S, Kardon T, Melino G, Cotecchia S, Fesus L, Szondy Z. Tissue transglutaminase (TG2) acting as G protein protects hepatocytes against Fas-mediated cell death in mice. Hepatology 42:578-87. 

(2004) Diviani D, Abuin L, Cotecchia S and Pansier L. Anchoring of both PKA and 14-3-3 inhibits the Rho-GEF activity of the AKAP-Lbc signaling complex, EMBO Journal 23:2811-20. 

(2004) Cotecchia S, Stanasila L, Diviani D, Bjorklof K, Rossier O and Fanelli F. Structural determinants involved in the activation and regulation of G protein-coupled receptors: lessons from the alpha1-adrenegic receptor subtypes. Biology of the Cell, 96:327-33. 

(2005) Zhang H, Cotecchia S, Thomas SA, Tanoue A, Tsujimoto G and Faber JE. Gene deletion of dopamine beta-hydroxylase and alpha1-adrenoceptors demonstrates involvement of catecholamines in vascular remodeling. American Physiological Society Journals, Heart and Circulatory Physiology, 287:H2106-H2114. 

(2004) Townsend SA, Jung AS, Gillian Hoe YS, Lefkowitz RY, Khan SA, Lemmon CA, Harrison RW, Lee K, Barouch LA, Cotecchia S, Shoukas AA, Nyhan D, Hare JM and Berkowitz DE. Critical role for the alpha-1B adrenergic receptor at the sympathetic neuroeffector junction. Hypertension, 44:776-82.

Awards and prizes

Susanna Cotecchia received the award of the European Federation of Biochemical Societies (FEBS) in 1995. In 2001 she obtained the "Receptor Research Prize" of Perk.

Position/Role

Full Professor of Egineering at the University of L'Aquila.

Professional career

After graduating in Economics at the University of L'Aquila, from 2000 to 2005 she served, first as a tutor then as a research and teaching collaborator, at the University of L'Aquila, Faculty of Engineering, for courses of Economics Applied to Engineering, Industrial Economics and Economics of Public Utility Services. At the same time, she continues her educational path with a PhD in Management and Economic Engineering at the University of San Marino which she obtained in 2004.

In 2007 she is a researcher, in 2015 she is an associate professor and since 2020 she is a full professor in management and economic engineering at the University of L'Aquila.

She is member of the Department of Industrial and Information Engineering and Economics, her teaching activity is focused on the courses of Economics and Business Organization and Management of Health Systems and Medical Diagnostic Instrumentation.

Scientific results

The research activity of Prof. Federica Cucchiella began in 2000 with a PhD in Management and Economic Engineering.

She began her scientific activity by taking an interest in the problems of optimizing supply chain performance and technology transfer.

Her research then focused on environmental issues related to waste management, the eco-sustainable exploitation of solar energy, renewable energy and the circular economy.

As part of her scientific research, particular attention was paid, with reference to the economic and managerial aspects, to the management of investments aimed at promoting energy from renewable sources with specific concentration on photovoltaic energy, biomethane and incinerators with energy recovery. Research was also developed to promote the adoption by the market of innovative technologies to support renewable energy, analyzing how to simplify the interconnection to the energy transmission and distribution system and how to support policies that allow the generation, integration, safety and sustainable use of renewable energy.

In order to promote and encourage sustainable development, she become involved in the study of new business models based on the principles of the Circular Economy with reference, among others, to waste from electrical and electronic equipment.

In recent years, the scientific research activities of Prof. Federica Cucchiella have focused on the definition of multidisciplinary frameworks to support decisions that favor the retrofit of existing buildings in order to make cities more efficient, intelligent, resilient and generally sustainable. 

Her research is generally characterized by a high interdisciplinarity in a wide range of engineering and science areas applied to renewable energy.

She is the author of four industrial invention patents that can contribute to the promotion of sustainable development and is a founding member of the Spin-off SENSing. The company, where she chaired the Board of Directors, operates in the field of the production of engineering materials and innovative bio-materials, scientific research and technological innovation applied to process or product innovation and the provision of services in the of scientific research

Editorial work and publications

She is co-author of approximately 100 scientific publications, including:

[2020] Cucchiella F, D'Adamo I, Gastaldi M, Koh L, Santibanez-Gonzalez EDR. Assessment of ghg emissions in Europe: Future estimates and policy implications. Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 19(1):131-42.

[2020] Annibaldi V, Cucchiella F, De Berardinis P, Gastaldi M, Rotilio M. An integrated sustainable and profitable approach of energy efficiency in heritage buildings. Journal of Cleaner Production, 251.

[2019] Ferella F, Cucchiella F, D'Adamo I, Gallucci K. A techno-economic assessment of biogas upgrading in a developed market. Journal of Cleaner Production, 210:945-57.

[2019] Annibaldi V, Cucchiella F, De Berardinis P, Rotilio M, Stornelli V. Environmental and economic benefits of optimal insulation thickness: A life-cycle cost analysis. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 116.

[2018] Cucchiella F, Gastaldi M, Miliacca M. The management of greenhouse gas emissions and its effects on firm performance. Journal of Cleaner Production, 167:1387-400.

[2018] Awasthi AK, Cucchiella F, D'Adamo I, Li J, Rosa P, Terzi S, et al. Modelling the correlations of e-waste quantity with economic increase. Science of The Total Environment, 613-614:46-53.

[2017] Cucchiella F, D'Adamo I, Gastaldi M. Sustainable waste management: Waste to energy plant as an alternative to landfill. Energy Conversion and Management, 131:18-31.

[2016] Cucchiella F, D’Adamo I, Rosa P. Urban waste to energy (WTE) plants: A social analysis. JP Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 13(3):421-44.

[2016] Cucchiella F, D'Adamo I, Gastaldi M. A profitability assessment of small-scale photovoltaic systems in an electricity market without subsidies. Energy Conversion and Management, 129:62-74.

[2016] Cucchiella F, D'Adamo I. Technical and economic analysis of biomethane: A focus on the role of subsidies. Energy Conversion and Management, 119:338-51.

[2015] Cucchiella F, D’Adamo I, Lenny Koh SC, Rosa P. Recycling of WEEEs: An economic assessment of present and future e-waste streams. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 51:263-72.

[2015] Cucchiella F, D’Adamo I, Gastaldi M. Financial analysis for investment and policy decisions in the renewable energy sector. Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy, 17(4):887-904

Awards and prizes

2020 she appears among the 100,000 international scientists (in the Energy and Environmental Sciences research sectors) identified in the PLOS databases (PLOS - 100,000 Top Scientists) and created by the international journal Plos Biology to classify professors from universities all over the world.

2017 VQR 2011/2014 - 1st place at national level of the Univaq Group. Prof. Cucchiella's products all receive a maximum rating of 1 (excellent).

2017 She receives the prize of the Fund for Funding for Basic Research Activities (FFABR) intended to contribute to the basic research of researchers and assistant professors.

2017 The paper “Recycling of WEEEs: An economic assessment of present and future e-waste streams” (Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2015, 51:263-72) is classified by Web of Science as Highly Cited Paper.

2015 The paper "Cleaner Energy Production and Sustainable Investment: A Portfolio Analysis in the Italian Electricity Market" presentato al 5th International Workshop Advances in Cleaner Production (San Paulo, Brazil, 20-22 May 2015) receives "Special mention" in the 5th International Workshop.

2015 she receives by Elsevier the Atlas Award for the paper "Recycling of WEEEs: An economic assessment of present and future e-waste streams" Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews (Volume 51, November 2015).

2010 Her paper "Risk management in supply chain: a real option approach" is classified among the Top 20 articles of Journal of Manufacturing Technology management.

2010 She receives by Supply Chain Management: an International Journal (Emerald Group Publishing Limited) the Higly Commended Award for the paper "A photovoltaic system in a residential building: environmental and economic optimization analysis" presented at 8th International Conference on Supply Chain Management and Information Systems, Hong Kong, China, 6-8 october 2010

2007 Highly Commended Winner at the Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence 2007 for the paper "Risk management in supply chain: a real option approach" Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management - special issue, 17(6), 700-720.

Position/Role

Full Professor of Physical Chemistry, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”

Professional career

After graduating in Chemistry from the University of Bari in 1993, she continued her education with a PhD in Chemistry in 1996 and, between 1995 and 1996, she was a Research Assistant in the Department of Chemistry at University College London. From 1996 to 1998, back in Italy, she carried out a post-doctorate at the Centro Studi Chimico Fisici sull'Interazione Luce-Materia of the CNR, in Bari. Since 1999 she has been a researcher at the Centre for Chemical and Physical Studies on Light-Matter Interaction, the following year she became a permanent researcher and since 2010 she has been First Researcher at the Institute for Chemical and Physical Processes (IPCF) of the CNR in Bari. Since 2018 she is Full Professor of Chemistry at the University of Bari.

Scientific results

Maria Lucia Curri is currently responsible for materials chemistry activities, aimed at designing, manufacturing and processing inorganic solids at the nanoscale, within the Institute for Physical Chemistry Processes in Bari. The institute carries out interdisciplinary research activities oriented towards exploitation, technology transfer and training in research fields such as soft matter, complex materials and systems, nanostructured composites, biomimetic systems, innovative methodologies and multidisciplinary applications. Maria Lucia Curri's main activities, carried out within the framework of national and international research projects, concern the synthesis of nanoparticles (i.e. particles formed by atomic or molecular aggregates with a diameter between 2 and 200 nanometres) with control over their shape, size and crystalline phase, in order to precisely regulate their chemical-physical properties and their functionalisation. In this sense, the study of the properties of manufactured colloidal nanoparticles is important in order to assess their potential use of nanostructured materials in the biomedical field, such as theragnostic systems for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, in energy conversion and in the environmental technology sector, for the abatement of pollutants and the creation of sensors. Of particular note are the results obtained in the field of environmental applications of nanostructured semiconductors by the European LIMPID project on "Nanocomposite materials for the photocatalytic degradation of pollutants", of which she was coordinator.

Editorial work and publications

She has been co-authoring more than 200 publications and over 180 papers on international peer-reviewed journals and a number of other publications, including 10 book chapters.

Here below a selection:

(2019) Truppi A., Petronella F., Margiotta V., Lasorella G., Giotta G., Giannini C., Sibillano T., Murgolo S., Mascolo G., Agostiano A., Curri M. L. , Comparelli R. Gram-scale synthesis of UV–vis light active plasmonic photocatalytic nanocomposite based on TiO₂/Au nanorods for degradation of pollutants in water Applied Catalysis B, 243, 604-613.

(2016) Valente G, Depalo N, de Paola I, Iacobazzi RM, Denora N, Laquintana V, Comparelli R, Altamura E, Latronico T, Altomare M, Fanizza E, Striccoli M, Agostiano A, Saviano M, Del Gatto A, Zaccaro L, Curri ML. Integrin Targeting with Peptide Bioconjugated to Semiconductor-Magnetic Nanocrystalline Heterostructures. Nano Research, 9:644-662.

(2015) Ingrosso C, Esposito Corcione C, Striani R, Comparelli R, Striccoli M, Agostiano A, Curri ML^, Frigione M. UV-curable Nanocomposite based on Methacrylic-Siloxane Resin and Surface modified-TiO₂ Nanocrystals. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 7:15494-15505. 

(2014) Corricelli M, Depalo N, Di Carlo E, Fanizza E, Laquintana V, Denora N, Agostiano A, Striccoli M, Curri ML. Biotin-decorated silica coated PbS nanocrystals emitting in the second biological near infrared window for bioimaging. Nanoscale, 6: 7924-7933. 

(2013) Fanizza E, Depalo N, Clary L, Agostiano A, Striccoli M, Curri ML. A combined size sorting strategy for monodisperse plasmonic nanostructures. Nanoscale, 5(8):3272-82. 

(2013) Placido T, Aragay G, Pons J, Comparelli R, Curri ML, Merkoçi A. Ion-Directed Assembly of Gold Nanorods: a Strategy for Mercury Detection. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 5 (3):1084-1092. 

(2010) Ingrosso C, Sardella E, Keller D, Dohn S, Striccoli M, Agostiano A, Boisen A, Curri ML. Surface functionalization of epoxy resist based microcantilevers with iron oxide nanocrystals. Advanced Material, 22:3288-3292. 

(2009) Placido T, Comparelli R, Giannici F, Cozzoli PD, Capitani G, Striccoli M, Agostiano A, Curri ML. Photochemical Synthesis of Water-Soluble Gold Nanorods: the Role of Silver in Assisting Anisotropic Growth. Chemistry of Materials, 18:4192-4202. 

(2009) Kim JY, Ingrosso C, Fakhfouri V, Striccoli M, Agostiano A, Curri ML, Brugger J. Multi-color inkjet printing of highly luminescent nanocrystal based nanocomposites. Small, 5:1051-1057. 

(2007) Ingrosso C, Fakhfouri V, Striccoli M, Agostiano A, Voigt A, Gruetzner G, Curri ML, Brugger J. Luminescent nanocrystal modified epoxy photoresist for the fabrication of 3-D high aspect-ratio microstructures. Advanced Functional Materials, 17:2009-2017.

(2005) Comparelli R, Curri ML, Fanizza E, Cozzoli PD, Mascolo G, Agostiano A. UV-induced Photocatalytic Degradation of Azo Dyes by Organic-Capped ZnO Nanocrystals Immobilized onto Substrate. Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, 60:1-11.

Awards and prizes

Maria Lucia Curri has received numerous awards for her scientific posters.

In 2000,  "L. Senatore" (Italian Chemical Society) award for the poster ”Chemical and physical characterization of hybrid structures based on in organic nanocrystalline semiconductors and semiconducting polymer for opto-electronic applications”

In 2002, best poster at E-MRS Spring Meeting Strasbourg June 2002: “Colloidal oxide nanoparticles for the photocatalytic degradation of organic dyes”

In 2003, best poster at E-MRS Spring Meeting Strasbourg E-MRS Spring Meeting Strasbourg 2003: "TiO2 nanocrystals -conjugated -polymer thin film for photovoltaic application"

In 2004, best poster at E-MRS Spring Meeting Strasbourg May 2004: “Hybrid organic nanocomposites based on semiconducting colloidal quantum dots in polymers”.

In 2006, "L. Senatore" award Italian Chemical Society for the poster “Optical and morphological properties of hybrid nanocomposite based on colloidal TiO₂nanocrystals in polymer”.

In 2017, best Poster Nomination at IEEE NEMS 2017 Los Angeles (CA, USA): “Drug Delivery Nanovectors Based on SPIONS for Targeted Therapy of Hepatocellular Carcinoma”

Position/Role

Head of the Department of Experimental Oncology and Molecular Medicine of the Cancer Institute of Milan

Professional career

After graduating in Biological Sciences at the University of Milan in 1976, she continued her education at the oncology laboratory of the Health Science Center of Tucson, in the United States. She then obtained a specialization in Medical and Biomedical Statistics at the University of Milan in 1997. In 1985 she became a professor of the Italian School of Breast Cancer and in 2001 professor for the Master in Diagnostic and Therapeutic Senology of the University of Siena, roles she still holds. She is also head of the Department of Experimental Oncology and Molecular Medicine of the Milan Cancer Institute.

Scientific results

The main interests of Maria Grazia Daidone are the study and characterization of tumor cells with high potential. This also occurs through translational studies in solid human tumors for the identification of biomolecular markers / profiles that lead to a diagnosis, prognosis and response to specific treatments, and through the study of resistance mechanisms to antitumor agents (drugs and / or hormones). Preclinical research on biomarkers and interactions between cancer cells and the immune system is an important support for the treatment and treatment of tumors: specifically, Maria Grazia Daidone is engaged in research on cancer cells of breast, ovarian and cervical cancer. She also coordinates quality control programs for the formulation and proposition of guidelines for the clinical use of biomarkers and for the collection and storage of biological material (BioBanche).

Editorial work and publications

She is the author of several book chapters and also more than 200 scientific publications in national and international journals including:

(2016) Callari M, Guffanti A, Soldà G, Merlino G, Fina E, Brini E, Moles A, Cappelletti V, Daidone MG. In-depth characterization of breast cancer tumor-promoting cell transcriptome by RNA sequencing and microarrays. Oncotarget, 7(1):976-94.

(2016) Callari M, Cappelletti V, D'Aiuto F, Musella V, Lembo A, Petel F, Karn T, Iwamoto T, Provero P, Daidone MG, Gianni L, Bianchini G. Subtype-Specific Metagene-Based Prediction of Outcome after Neoadjuvant and Adjuvant Treatment in Breast Cancer. Clinical Cancer Research, 22(2):337-45.

(2015) Cappelletti V, Appierto V, Tiberio P, Fina E, Callari M, Daidone MG. Circulating Biomarkers for Prediction of Treatment Response. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, (51):60-3.

(2015) D'Aiuto F, Callari M, Dugo M, Merlino G, Musella V, Miodini P, Paolini B, Cappelletti V, Daidone MG. miR-30e is an independent subtype-specific prognostic marker in breast cancer. British Journal of Cancer, 113(2):290-8.

(2015) Musella V, Pietrantonio F, Di Buduo E, Iacovelli R, Martinetti A, Sottotetti E, Bossi I, Maggi C, Di Bartolomeo M, de Braud F, Daidone MG, Cappelletti V. Circulating tumor cells as a longitudinal biomarker in patients with advanced chemorefractory, RAS-BRAF wild-type colorectal cancer receiving cetuximab or panitumumab. International Journal of Cancer, 137(6):1467-74.

(2015) Fina E, Callari M, Reduzzi C, D'Aiuto F, Mariani G, Generali D, Pierotti MA, Daidone MG, Cappelletti V. Gene expression profiling of circulating tumor cells in breast cancer. Clinical Chemistry, 61(1):278-89.

(2014) Callari M, Musella V, Di Buduo E, Sensi M, Miodini P, Dugo M, Orlandi R, Agresti R, Paolini B, Carcangiu ML, Cappelletti V, Daidone MG. Subtype-dependent prognostic relevance of an interferon-induced pathway metagene in node-negative breast cancer. Molecular Oncology, 8(7):1278-89.

(2011) Cordenonsi M, Zanconato F, Azzolin L, Forcato M, Rosato A, Frasson C, Inui M, Montagner M, Parenti AR, Poletti A, Daidone MG, Dupont S, Basso G, Bicciato S, Piccolo S. The Hippo transducer TAZ confers cancer stem cell-related traits on breast cancer cells. Cell, 147(4):759-72.

(2011) Callari M, Cappelletti V, De Cecco L, Musella V, Miodini P, Veneroni S, Gariboldi M, Pierotti MA, Daidone MG. Gene expression analysis reveals a different transcriptomic landscape in female and male breast cancer. Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, 127(3):601-10.

(2010) Martello G, Rosato A, Ferrari F, Manfrin A, Cordenonsi M, Dupont S, Enzo E, Guzzardo V, Rondina M, Spruce T, Parenti AR, Daidone MG, Bicciato S, Piccolo S. A MicroRNA targeting dicer for metastasis control. Cell, 141(7):1195-207.

Awards and prizes

In May 2014, Maria Grazia Daidone received the R.O.S.A. (Results obtained without aid) from the Canova Club of Rome.