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Fabio Fava

Full Professor

Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental, and Materials Engineering

Academic discipline: CHEM-07/C Chemistry and Biotechnology of Fermentation

Curriculum vitae

Fabio Fava (1963) was graduated cum laude in "Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technologies" at the Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna (Italy) and he earned his Ph.D. in "Applied Microbiology" from the Institute of Chemical Technology of the University of Prague (Czech Republic). He was visiting scientist at the following US institutions, namely: a) New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJ, USA), b) Hazardous Substance Management Research Center (NJ, USA), and c) Rutgers University (NJ, USA) in 1993, 1994 and 1999, respectively. F. Fava was awarded with a Laurea Honoris Causa in Environmental Engineering from the Technical University "Gheorghe Asachi" of Iasi (Romania) in 2015. He is Full Professor of Industrial & Environmental Biotechnology at the School of Engineering of the Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna (Italy) since 2005. He served the same School as Dean's Delegate for International relations from 2005 to 2012. He served the Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering of the same University as Deputy Head (2010-2015) and the Coordinator of the Ph.D. programme in Civil, Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering (2013-2016). Then, he has been Deputy Rector of the University of Bologna for Industrial Research, Territorial Cooperation and Innovation from 2015 to 2021. He chaired the Inter-Departmental Center "Alma Mater Institute on Healthy Planet", joined by 22 Departments of the University of Bologna (2021-2024) and he is Visiting Professor at the School of Applied Sciences of the University of Applied Sciences and Human Arts (Muttenz, CH) (2021-).

 

F. Fava published about 250 scientific papers, 220 of which on medium/high IF peer-review international journals of industrial and environmental biotechnology and circular Bioeconomy. He has about 12,000 overall citations, a h-index of 62 and an i10 index of 150 (Google Scholar) along with 220 papers quoted by Scopus.

He is actively working in the fields of environmental and industrial biotechnology and of the Circular Bioeconomy in the frame of a number of national projects (funded by Italian ministries, Regions and companies) and European collaborative projects. He coordinated the research project NATO Science for Peace n. 973720 on the development and assessment of innovative intensified technologies for the bioremediation of (chlorinated) hydrocarbon-contaminated soils and participated in the EU Coordination Action EURODEMO (FP6) on the comparison of verified technologies applied in Europe in the sustainable remediation of contaminated sites and in the European Defense Agency (EDA) project NBC Modeling and Simulation (ERG1 TA 113-034). He coordinated the FP7 collaborative projects NAMASTE (on the integrated exploitation of citrus and cereal processing byproducts with the production of food ingredients and new food products) and BIOCLEAN (aiming at the development of biotechnological processes and strategies for the bioremediation and the tailored depolymerization of major oil-deriving plastics). He also coordinated the Unit of the University of Bologna who participated in the FP7 collaborative projects ECOBIOCAP and ROUTES (on the production of microbial polymers from different organic waste and food processing effluents), MINOTAURUS and WATER4CROPS (on the intensified bioremediation of contaminated waste- and ground-water and the integrated valorization and decontamination of wastewater coming from the food processing industry and biorefinery), and ULIXES and KILL SPILL (on the development of strategies for intensifying the in situ bioremediation of marine sediments contaminated by (chlorinated)hydrocarbons and the isolation and industrial exploitation of microbes from such contaminated matrices). He also participated in the FP7 BIORICE addressed to produce added value bioactive ingredients (semi-purified digestates and small molecular weight peptides) from protein by-products contained in the processing water of the rice starch production stream. He is also the Coordinator of the PRIN project "Vision" (2018-).

 

F. Fava served and is serving the following national institutions and organizations:

  • Member of the National Committee on Biosafety, Biotechnology and Life Sciences (CNBBSV) of the Italian Presidency of Council of Ministers (Rome) (2017-);

  • Scientific/technical Coordinator of the "National Bioeconomy Coordination Board", CNBBSV, at the Presidency of Council of Ministries (2019-);

  • Scientific coordinator of the Italian Strategies for Bioeconomy (BIT e BIT II) and of the related Implementation Action Plan launched at the Italian Presidency of Council of Ministers http://cnbbsv.palazzochigi.it/en/areas-of-work/biotechnologies/bioeconomy/ [http://cnbbsv.palazzochigi.it/it/materie-di-competenza/biotecnologie/home-page-bioeconomia/] ) (2017-);
  • Expert of Circular Bioeconomy in different panels of the Ministry of Education, University and Research (2013-2019), Ministry of Ecological Transition (2019-2022), Ministry of the agro-food and forestry policies (2020-2022), Ministry of Education (2020-2022), Ministry of University and Research (2019-) and Ministry of Environment and Energy Security (2022-).

 

F. Fava served and is serving several European and international institutions and organizations, by covering, among others, the following positions:

  • Italian Representative in the task force “Biotechnologies' Risk Assessment under the European Economic Security Strategy”, DG RTD, European Commission, Brussels (2024-);

  • Senior Official (i.e., Sherpa) of the Minister of University and Research, Prof. Anna Maria Bernini, in the frame of the 2024 G7 Science & Technology (2023-);

  • Italian Representative (i.e., focal point) of the Italian Presidency of Council of Ministers in the frame of the 2024 G20 Bioeconomy initiative (GIB) chaired by Brazil (2023-);
  • Italian Representative and elected vice chair in the "States Representatives Group" della Public Private Partnership "Circular Biobased Europe" (CBE JU), Brussels (2021-);
  • Expert in the programming Committee of Horizon EU Mission "A soil deal for Europe" (2022-);
  • Italian Representative in the "European Bioeconomy Policy Forum" and the "European Bioeconomy Policy Support Facility" of the European Commission (2020-);

  • Senior Expert of the Italian delegation to the Programming committee Horizon Europe, Cluster VI: Food, Bioeconomy, natural resources, agriculture and environment (European Commission, DG RTD)(2020-);

  • Member of the Scientific Committee of the European Environmental Agency (EEA), Copenaghen, for the "Circular Economy and resource use" domain (2021-);
    • Representative of the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) in the "Western Mediterranean Initiative" (WEST MED, EU Commission, DG MARE) (2016-);

    • Member and vice Chair of the "Working Party on Biotechnology, Nanotechnology and Converging Technologies" of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, Paris) (2008-);

    • Italian Representative in the Group of Senior Officials (chaired by the EU Commission DG RTD and Union for Mediterranean), for the BLUEMED initiative WG (2017-2023)
    • Italian Representative in the Horizon2020 Programme Committee of Societal Challenge 2: European Bioeconomy Challenges: Food Security, Sustainable Agriculture and Forestry, Marine, Maritime and inland water research" (European Commission, DG RTD) (2013-2020);

    • Italian Representative in the "State Representative Group" of the Public Private Partnership "Biobased Industry" (PPP BBI JU) (Brussels) (2014-2021); he has been elected chair the same Group from 2018 to 2021;

    • Chair (2011-2013) and Deputy Chair of the "Environmental Biotechnology Division" of European Federation of Biotechnology (EFB) (2013-2021);

    • Italian Representative and Acting Chair in the BLUEMED initiative (European Commission, DG RTD and DG MARE) (2014-2017);
    • Member of the Scientific Committee of the Joint Programming Initiative on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change (FACCE-JPI) (2014-2017);

    • Member of the "Expert Group on biobased products" EU Commission, DG GROW (2013-2017);

    • Member of the "High Level Group on Key Enabling Technologies" EU Commission, DG GROW (2013-2016);

    • Member of the "Expert Group on eco-industries". EU Commission, JRC (2012-2014);

    • Member of the “Lead Market Initiative on biobased products" EU Commission, DG Ent Ind (2009-2012);

    • Chair of the Industrial & Environmental Biotechnology section of the Italian Technology Platform on Sustainable Chemistry (SusChem Italy) (2006-2013) and member of the Industrial Biotechnology Expert Group of the European Technology Platform on Sustainable Chemistry (ETP SusChem) (2007-2011).

     

    F. Fava played a key role in the organization of the following international conferences; in particular, he has been:

    • Chair of the "14th International Biotechnology Symposium and Exhibition" (14th IBS)(Rimini, Italy, 2010) organized by the University of Bologna together with the Italian KBBE Technology Platforms, the European Technology Platforms of the same area, IUPAC, European Federation of Biotechnology (EFB), EuropaBio, International Society of Environmental Biotechnology (ISEB), European Society of Environmental Biotechnology (ESEB) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (1620 delegates from 72 Nations);

    • Co-Chair of the "V European Bioremediation conference" held in Chania, Greece, in 2011 (270 delegates from 35 Nations);

    • Chair of the international conference "Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology in the frame of the knowledge-based bio and green economy", EMB2012 (Bologna, 2012) organized by the University of Bologna together with EFB and the Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS) an in cooperation with EuropaBio, ISEB, the Asian Federation of Biotechnology, OECD and other international and Italian industrial and scientific associations (400 delegates from 50 different nationals);

    • Co-Chair of the " 3rd European Bioeconomy Stakeholders' Conference" (Turin, 2014), organized by the Italian Presidency of the Council of the European Union in collaboration with the European Commission (400 delegates from 40 different nations);

    • Co-Chair of the "VI European Bioremediation Conference" (Chania, Crete, 2015) (320 delegates from 40 different nations);

    • Co-Chair of the "9th International Conference on Environmental Engineering and Management (ICEEM9)(Bologna, Italy, 2017)(220 delegates from 40 different nations);

    • Co-Chair of the "VII European Bioremediation Conference" (Chania, Crete, 2018) (300 delegates from 35 different nations);

    • Co-Chair of the "10th International Conference on Environmental Engineering and Management (ICEEM10)(Basel, 2021);       

    • Co-Chair of the "VIII European Bioremediation Conference" (Chania, Crete, 2022) (160 delegates from 20 different countries).

    Further, he is the Chair of the Scientific/Technical Committee of the annual international Exhibition "Ecomondo" (held in Rimini, Italy) on Green and Circular Economy; each edition is hosting about 150 internal conferences/workshops and 1,550 industrial exhibition booths and is attended by over than 100,000 delegates from over 120 different countries (http://en.ecomondo.com/ ).

     

    F. Fava is Research Editor of Microbial Cell Factories and member of the Editorial Board of the international journals New Biotechnology, Process Biochemistry and Environmental Engineering and Management Journal.

     

    F. Fava is member of the "Italian Academy for agriculture" (2015-), "Italian Academy for Science" (2015-), the "Georgofili Academy" (2017-) and of the ’”Academy of Engineering and Technology” (2024-).

     

    Finally, F. Fava is member of several national and international associations and of conferences/workshop scientific committees. He has been and is project evaluator for a number of different national and international grant agencies, the European commission (DG RTD), etc. and he is peer reviewer of several international journals of Industrial and Environmental Biotechnology and Microbiology.

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