Associate Professor at the University of Bologna since 2014, he carries out his research in the field of Electrical Engineering. The research interests are focused in particular on the development of nanomaterials for electrical, electronic and energy applications, the study of aging and diagnostics of electrical insulators. Currently he focuses his research on piezoelectric nanofibers for smart material manufacturing and on the development of non-destructive diagnostic techniques to evaluate the state of electric cable insulation.
Training
Born in Forlì in 1972 he graduated in Electrical Engineering with honors in 1997 and in 2001 he obtained the Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at the University of Bologna.
Academic career
From 2002 to March 2005 he was the holder of a research grant entitled "Diagnostic methodologies on electrical systems" at the Department of Electrical Engineering of the University of Bologna.
On April 2005 he became Assistant Professor in the scientific-sector ING-IND/33 Electric Power Systems at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Bologna, with affiliation to the Department of Electrical Engineering.
On December 2012 he obtained the National Scientific Qualification as an Associate Professor. From 15/09/2014 he is Associate Professor at the Department of Electrical, Electronic and Information Engineering of the University of Bologna.
From 31/03/2017 he holds the National Scientific Qualification as a Full Professor.
Teaching activity
Since 2007 he has been continuously teaching in charge of various courses for undergraduate and master's programs of the School of Engineering and Architecture. He is currently Professor of Innovative Electrical Technologies M and Design and Diagnostics of Electrical Insulation Systems M for Master’s degree courses in Energy Engineering and Electrical Energy Engineering and of the course of Elements of Electrical Plants and Safety T for the Bachelor in Civil Engineering.
In 2007/08 he taught Modeling and Electrical Materials Engineering LS for the Master's Degree on Electrical Engineering.
In the years 2007-09 he held the course of Innovation Technologies at the CESPEM master of the University of Bologna - Sede di Forlì.
From 2006 to 2008 he held the "Didactics of Electric Power Plants" course at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia.
From 2008 to 2011 he held the course of Intellectual Property Management in the Energetic / Mechatronic Field of the Master in Intellectual Property Management organized by Alma Graduate School.
Scientific activity
Since 2011 he has been the scientific director of the Laboratory of Innovative Materials for Electrical Systems (LIMES) of the Department of Electrical, Electronic and Information Engineering of the University of Bologna.
He is a founding member of the Research Group on Electrospinning (RGE) of the University of Bologna.
His research fields concern issues in the field of power electrical systems, spacing from the management of electrical assets, to the study of innovative magnetic materials, superconductors and nanocomposites, to the aging and diagnostics of electrical systems (in particular, of the windings of the electrical machines supplied by power converters), to the power quality.
Since 1998 he has participated in numerous Italian research projects (3 PRIN, 1 FISR, 1 FIRB and 2 PRIITT) and international (European Projects: ARTEMIS, DURASMART, HVDC and ADVANCE, SYRNEMO, TEMCABLES, GRIDABLE and MYLEG), as principal investigator or co-investigator and is or has been a consultant for numerous public and private companies. He is responsible for a VAMAS project for the University of Bologna on nanostructured materials for electrical and energy applications.
He was a visiting professor at the NEETRAC of Georgia Tech University in July 2006.
Referee of international journals in the field of High Voltages, Electrical Materials Science, Nanostructured Materials.
He is author or coauthor of about 240 scientific papers published in the proceedings of the main international conferences and journals and 2 book chapters.
Institutional activities and academic assignments
He was a member of the Board of Professors of the Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from 2011 to 2017 and of the Board of Professors of the Ph.D. in Biomedical, Electrical and Systems Engineering (IBES) of the University of Bologna from 2019.
Since 2016 he has been responsible for the Erasmus exchange with the Paul Sabatier University of Toulouse (France).
He was a member of the Executive Board of the Department of Electrical Engineering from 2010 to 2012.
He was a member of the “Collegio Superiore” of the University of Bologna from 2012 to 2015.
He was member of the Institute of Advanced Studies (ISA) of the University of Bologna from 2019 to 2022.
Membership of technical, scientific and editorial committees
Since 2009 he is a member of the WG on Nanodielectrics of the IEEE DEIS.
He was a member of CIGRE WG D1.40 Functional Nanomaterials for Electric Power Industry and Secretary of CIGRE WG D1.43 Rotating machine insulation voltage endurance under fast, repetitive voltage transients.
From 2018 he is a member of CIGRE WG D1.73 "Nanostructured dielectrics: Multi-function at the service of the electric power industry".
He was vice-chairman of the 2013 IEEE ICSD conference.
Member of the scientific board from the IEEE CEIDP conference from 2013 to 2019.
He was Chairman of the Technical Program Committee of the IEEE CEIDP International Conference for the two-year period 2014-2015.
Member of the Scientific Committee from the "International Youth Conference on Energy" (IYCE) since 2007.
Since 2018 he is a member of CT 15/112 of the CEI and of the IEC on Electrical Insulation Systems.
Since 2016 he is Associate Editor of the journal IET High Voltage.
Awards and recognitions
2008 - Best paper award of the Wire International Conference conference.
2015 - Best paper award of the IEEE ICPADM conference.
Other activities
Currently he is President of the IEEE Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Society (DEIS) since 2024.
He is President of the Bologna Section of the Italian Electrotechnical and Electronics Association (AEIT) from 2023, formerly Vice-President from 2019 to 2022 and Secretary from 2008 to 2018.
He is a Senior Member of the IEEE since 2016 (member since 1998), of the Dielectric and Electrical Insulation Society (DEIS), of the Power Engineering Society (PES) and of the CIGRE.
Since 2016 he has been a member of the AdCom of the IEEE DEIS where he served as Chair of the Meetings Committee from 2016 to 2019. Since January 2022 he has been elected Vice President Administrative of IEEE DEIS, after having been Vice-President Technical for 2020 and 2021.
From 1999 to 2015 he has been a founding member of TechImp Spa, a spin-off of the University of Bologna.
