Nicola Pugno

Nicola Maria Pugno (born 4 January 1972) is an Italian scientist,[1][2] mechanical engineer, astrophysicist, with 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 of materials science at the Queen Mary University of London[6] (part-time; and visiting professor at the University of Oxford[7]).

He has been selected as member of several committees such as the technical and scientific committee[8] of the Italian Space Agency and as plenary speaker in several international workshops, events and conferences, such as at Falling Walls,[9] at the World Economic Forum[10][11] and at the European Parliament[12] invited by the European Research Council as well as -as opening plenary speaker- at the International Conference of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics.[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]

He has published about 500 papers in international journals[15] and, for his scientific contributions in nanomechanics, bioinspiration, fracture mechanics and adhesion, he received -among other prizes (such as the first edition in 2012 of the GiovedìScienza prize for both science research and popularization[16])- in 2017 the A. A. Griffith Medal and Prize[17] and in 2022 the Humboldt Prize.[18] Since 2011, he has received several grants also from the European Union within the Excellent Science pillars for both fundamental science[19][20][21][22][23][24][25] and high-tech transfer,[26][27][28][29][30] that he is developing for several high-tech industries.