Nicola Pugno

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Nicola Maria Pugno (born 4 January 1972) is an Italian scientist, [1] [2] mechanical engineer, astrophysicist, holding PhDs in fracture mechanics and biology. He is a full professor of solid and structural mechanics at the University of Trento [3] (previously at the Polytechnic University of Turin [4] [5] ) and part-time professor of materials science at Queen Mary University of London [6] . He is also a visiting professor at the University of Oxford [7] .

He has been appointed to several committees, including the technical and scientific committee [8] of the Italian Space Agency, and has served as a plenary speaker at numerous international workshops, events and conferences, such as Falling Walls, [9] at the World Economic Forum [10] [11] and the European Parliament [12] invited by the European Research Council (ERC) as well as -as opening plenary speaker- at the International Conference of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (2020+1). [13] He is editorial board member of several international journals and has been appointed as the first field chief editor of Frontiers in Materials. [14]

Pugno has published around 650 papers in international journals [15] . For his scientific contributions in nanomechanics, bioinspiration, fracture mechanics and adhesion (e.g., the proposals of superstrong (hierarchical) bio-inspired materials, supertough (knotted) fibers, superstrong nanotube/graphene cables (and composites), "bionicomposites" such as spider silk spun by spiders fed with nanomaterials, bio-inspired (hierarchical) metamaterials, tunable friction surfaces, superadhesive or antiadhesive (e.g. anti-ice) surfaces, nanoelectromechanical systems modelling, quantized/finite fracture mechanics, multiple peeling theories, etc.) he has received several awards. These include the first edition of the GiovedìScienza prize in 2012 (for both research and science popularization [16] ), the A. A. Griffith Medal and Prize [17] in 2017 and the Humboldt Prize [18] in 2022. Since 2011, he has secured several grants from the European Union mainly under the Excellent Science pillars -including 5 ERC grants [19] - for both fundamental science [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] and high-tech transfer, [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] which he is developing for various high-tech industries.

References

  1. "Nicola Pugno - Top Italian Scientist in Engineering". topitalianscientists.org.
  2. "Nicola M Pugno - AD Scientific Index 2025". www.adscientificindex.com.
  3. "Nicola Pugno - Solid and Structural Mechanics Group - University of Trento". pugno.dicam.unitn.it.
  4. "DISEG - Laboratorio Bio-Inspired Nanomechanics". DISEG.
  5. "MUSEO VIRTUALE - Gli ingegneri - Giuseppe Maria Pugno". areeweb.polito.it.
  6. "Prof Nicola Pugno". QMUL School of Engineering and Materials Science.
  7. "Home". staff.admin.ox.ac.uk.
  8. "Samantha Cristoforetti chiama il Muse". Trentino Cultura.
  9. "Nicola Pugno | Falling Walls". falling-walls.com.
  10. "Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2012". ERC.
  11. "Nicola Pugno". World Economic Forum.
  12. "ERA Portal Austria – ERC celebrates 5,000th top researcher funded". era.gv.at.
  13. "Plenary Lecturers | ICTAM 2020". www.ictam2020.org.
  14. "Frontiers in Materials | Editorial board". www.frontiersin.org.
  15. "Nicola M. Pugno". scholar.google.it.
  16. "GiovedìScienza: la scienza in diretta settimana per settimana - torinoscienza.it". archivio.torinoscienza.it.
  17. "Professor Nicola Pugno wins the IOM3's Griffith Medal & Prize". QMUL School of Engineering and Materials Science.
  18. Tomassetti, Giuseppe (November 23, 2022). "Humboldt Research Award 2022 a Nicola Pugno".
  19. "A new European research project in Trento | UniTrento Press Room". pressroom.unitn.it.
  20. "Bio-inspired Hierarchical Super Nanomaterials | BIHSNAM Project | Fact Sheet | FP7". CORDIS | European Commission.
  21. "Advanced Quantized FRActure MEchanics models of ice and snow for GLObal Warming risk mitigation | FRAMEGLOW Project | Fact Sheet | FP7". CORDIS | European Commission.
  22. "Bio-Inspired Hierarchical MetaMaterials | BOHEME Project | Fact Sheet | H2020". CORDIS | European Commission.
  23. "Biofunctionalised Electroconducting Microfibres for the Treatment of Spinal Cord Injury | Neurofibres Project | Fact Sheet | H2020". CORDIS | European Commission.
  24. "Ramp Up Phase Highlights from the Graphene Flagship". Graphene Flagship.
  25. "Graphene-based disruptive technologies | GrapheneCore1 Project | Fact Sheet | H2020". CORDIS | European Commission.
  26. "Graphene Flagship Core Project 2 | GrapheneCore2 Project | Fact Sheet | H2020". CORDIS | European Commission.
  27. "Graphene Flagship Core Project 3 | GrapheneCore3 Project | Fact Sheet | H2020". CORDIS | European Commission.
  28. "SILKENE: Bionic silk with graphene or other nanomaterials spun by silkworms | SILKENE Project | Fact Sheet | H2020". CORDIS | European Commission.
  29. "REPLICA2: Large-area replication of biological anti-adhesive nanosurfaces | REPLICA2 Project | Fact Sheet | FP7". CORDIS | European Commission.
  30. "KNOTOUGH: Super-tough knotted fibers | KNOTOUGH Project | Fact Sheet | FP7". CORDIS | European Commission.
  31. "acouStIc metamateriaL for MRI noisE caNCEllation | SILENCE Project | Fact Sheet | H2020". CORDIS | European Commission.
  32. "Bioinspired Hierarchical MetaMaterials for Railways | BioMetaRail Project | Fact Sheet | H2020". CORDIS | European Commission.