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Marco Paggi

Marco Paggi received his Master's Degree in Civil Engineering in 2001 (110/110 with honors, average mark 29.2/30, 23 exams over 30 with full marks, 13 with honors) and his Ph.D. in Structural Engineering in 2005 from Politecnico di Torino, Italy (PhD position with MIUR scholarship). After a Post-Doctoral Fellowship (2005-2007), he became Assistant Professor of Structural Mechanics in the same University (2007-2013). He spent the year 2010 as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow in the Institute of Continuum Mechanics of the Leibniz University of Hannover, Germany, where he collaborated with Prof. Dr.-Ing. Peter Wriggers. He has been appointed Associate Professor (November 2013-December 2017, direct appointment as an ERC principal investigator) and Full Professor (since December 2017) of Structural Mechanics at the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, Italy, where he is the Founding Director of the Research Unit MUSAM - Multi-Scale Analysis of Materials, and of the experimental laboratory MUSAM Lab. Prof. Paggi earned the Italian habilitation as associate professor in Structural Mechanics in 2012 and as full professor in 2017, with unanimous decisions by the committees. He has been included in the list of professors eligible to be drawn as members for the Italian scientific habilitation of professors in Structural Mechanics for the periods 2018-2020, 2021-2023 and 2023-2025. 


Institutional responsibilities 

  • Deputy Rector (November 2024-October 2027)
  • Rector's Delegate for Buildings, Spaces and Sustainability (November 2022-October 2024). 
  • Rector's Delegate for Research (December 2015-October 2021).
  • Elected member of the Board of Directors of the IMT School (November 2023-October 2027).
  • Elected member of the Academic Senate of the IMT School (November 2013-December 2015; March 2017-October 2023).
  • Member of the Executive Board of the Joint Technology Transfer Office (February 2016-October 2021). 
  • Elected member of the Disciplinary Board of the IMT School (April 2023-March 2026).
  • Coordinator of the PhD in Management of Digital Transformation (cycles 38, 39, 40).
  • Director of the Track in Computational Mechanics for the PhD in Systems Science (cycles 38, 39, 40).

Professional experience

  • Honorary assistant at Departamento de Mecánica de Medios Continuos y Teoría de Estructuras, Escuela Tecnica Superior de Ingenieria, University of Seville, A.Y. 2024-25.
  • Visiting professor at the University of Girona (March 2022). 
  • Visiting GIAN professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (May 2019). 
  • Visiting professor at Politecnico di Torino (June-July 2018).
  • Visiting full professor at the Laboratoire de Modélisation et Simulation Multi Echelle of the Université Paris EST (May 2014).
  • Visiting professor at the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca (October 2013).
  • Adjunct professor of Structural Mechanics at the University of Pisa (A.Y. 2016-2017 and A.Y. 2017-2018) 
  • Adjunct professor of Structural Mechanics at the University of Trento (A.Y. 2016-2017).
  • Member of the International Advisory Board of the Excellence Laboratory MANUTECH-SISE (Lyon-St Etienne, France) on Science and Engineering of Surfaces and Interfaces (2020-2024).
  • Member of the Advisory Board of the PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering (2023-2025), Politecnico di Torino (Torino, Italy).
  • Chair of the Executive Committee of the Mechanics of Materials Group of the Italian Association of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (September 2022-September 2024), after being member of the same Committee since September 2015. 
  • Member (Italian representative expert) of the Task 13 Committee on Performance and Reliability of Photovoltaic Systems of the International Energy Agency, Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme (IEA-PVPS), 2014-2017, 2024-.
  • Elected Member of the Executive Board of the Italian Group of Fracture, 2009-2011 & 2011-2013.
  • Member of the Board of Directors of Lucense scarl (2019-2022 & 2022-2025).
  • Member of the Scientific and Technical Committee of the National Competence Centre ARTES4.0 for Industry 4.0 (2019-2021 & 2022-2024) and Coordinator of its Academic and Research Board (March 2021-February 2022, December 2023-August 2024).

Editorial positions


Honours and awards

  • 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 - Included in the "Stanford" World’s Top 2% Scientists List (for both single year and career performances)
  • 2022-2024 - Included in the Top Scientist list of Research.com in the area Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. 
  • Since 2021 - Included in the Top Italian Scientists list, section Engineering.
  • 2017 – Biography included in Cartaditalia n. 3 “New frontiers of scientific research in Italy published by Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Bruxelles, in Italian, French, English and Dutch.
  • March 2014 – Nominated Member of the Young Academy of Europe, affiliated to Academia Europaea, Alumno since 2022.
  • March 2012 – Scholarship ABMEC (Brazilian Association for Computational Methods in Engineering) for the participation in the 10th World Congress of Computational Mechanics, July 8-13, 2012, San Paolo, Brasil.
  • 2008, 2009, 2010 & 2011 - Award for Outstanding Scientific Activity of a Young Researcher conferred by Politecnico di Torino (2008: 5th position among all young faculty members; 2009: 2nd position; 2010: 1st position; 2011: 1st position).
  • January 2011 - Prize for Outstanding Collaboration of a Visiting Researcher (Auszeichnung für hervorragende Zusammenarbeit als Gastwissenschaftler), conferred by the Freundeskreis der Leibniz Universität Hannover, Sektion Mechanik.
  • September 2010 - 2010 Young Scientist Award, conferred by the European Structural Integrity Society. The purpose of the Young Scientist Award is to recognize individuals younger than 40 who have made distinguished, innovative work in fracture mechanics in their early career. The award was given to Dr. Paggi: "For outstanding contributions to fracture mechanics, and particularly in fatigue scaling, friction effects and nonlinear crack modelling", Link to Eng Fract Mech, Link to Int J Fatigue.
  • January 2010 - Fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The AvH sponsorship is limited to those individuals who have demonstrated outstanding achievements in research and who contribute significantly to international cooperation and understanding.
  • June 2009 - Prize for Young Authors IGF 2009 conferred by the Italian Group of Fracture (IGF) for the paper entitled "Fatigue of quasi-brittle materials: a unified interpretation of microstructural size, crack size and size-scale effects".
  • March 2009 - Selected by a joint ESF-ALLEA review panel as one of the 21 participants to attend the ESF-ALLEA Early Career Researchers Forum "Humanities Spring 2009 I" with the title "From Learned Societies to Knowledge-Based Society: Towards a European Young Academy? ", Vienna, 8-10 June, 2009.
  • September 2002 - Prize Optime for the best young graduates of the year, conferred by the Industrial Union of Turin, in collaboration with the Turin University and Politecnico di Torino.  

Research grants

  • 2023-2027 - Coordinator of a research unit, H2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Staff Exchanges project DIAGONAL "Ductility and Fracture Toughness Analysis of Functionally Graded Materials" (GA 101086342), 184,000 Euro. 
  • 2020-2024 - Coordinator of a research unit, H2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie ITN project NEWFRAC "New strategies for multifield fracture problems across scales in heterogeneous systems for Energy, Health and Transport" (GA 861061), 3,359,824 Euro.
  • 2022-2024 - Principal investigator, POR FSC 2022 NEXTPAPER4.0 "Next generation paper and packaging", Regione Toscana, 60,000 Euro.
  • 2019-2022 - Coordinator of a research unit, Project of Relevant National Interest 2017 (PRIN) ''XFAST-SIMS: Extra fast and accurate simulation of complex structural systems'', MIUR, 1,199,955 Euro.
  • 2018-2021 – Coordinator of a research unit, POR FESR 2014/2020 – action 1.1.5 sub-action a1 - Call 1, Strategic Projects of Research and Development project ''GlycoG-Lab 4.0'', Regione Toscana, 2,500,575 Euro.
  • 2018-2020 – Principal investigator, MIUR-DAAD Joint Mobility Program 2017 "Multi-scale modeling of friction for large scale engineering problems", 40,000 Euro. The project, in collaboration with Prof. Dr.-Ing. A. Popp (Bundeswehr Universitaet Munich) is granted by MIUR and DAAD.
  • 2018-2019 - Coordinator for IMT, H2020 call Marie Sklodowska-Curie COFUND project "Brilliant Researchers Impact on Growth Health and Trust in research" (GA 818515) 200,000 Euro.
  • 2018-2019 – Principal investigator, POR FSE 2014/2020 PROPAINT "Intelligent design of innovative functionalized paints", Regione Toscana, 54,000 Euro.
  • 2017-2018 – Principal investigator, ERC Proof of Concept 2016 PHYSIC "Photovoltaics with superior crack resistance", European Research Council (GA 737447) 149,500 Euro.
  • 2012-2017 – Principal investigator, ERC Starting Grant 2012 CA2PVM "Multi-scale and multi-physics computational approach to design and durability of photovoltaic modules", European Research Council (GA 306622) 1,483,980 Euro.
  • 2016-2017 - Coordinator for IMT, H2020 call Marie Sklodowska-Curie COFUND project "Brilliant Researchers Impact on Growth Health and Trust in research" (GA 722944) 180,000 Euro.
  • 2012-2016 - Principal investigator, FIRB Future in Research 2010 "Structural mechanics models for renewable energy applications", MIUR, 954,800 Euro.
  • 2011-2012 - Principal investigator, Vigoni Project 2010 "3D modelling of crack propagation in polycrystalline materials" (15,000 Euro). The project, in collaboration with Prof. Dr.-Ing. P. Wriggers (Leibniz University Hannover, Hannover, Germany), is granted by MIUR, Ateneo Italo-Tedesco, and DAAD.

Conferences

  • Member of the Scientific Committee, 1st Hellenic-Italian Conference on Computational Mechanics, Biomechanics and Mechanics of Materials, 19-21 June 2025, Rhodes Island, Greece.
  • Member of the Scientific Committee, ECCOMAS Young Investigators Conference 2025, 17-19 September 2025, Pescara, Italy.
  • Thematic Session "Tribology-contact and friction" invited organizer at the 26th International Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, ICTAM 2024, August 25-30, 2024, Daegu, South Korea.
  • Member of the Scientific Committee, 3rd Workshop on Experimental and Computational Mechanics, May 27-28, 2024, University of Dublin, Poland. 
  • Member of the Scientific Committee, Contact Mechanics International Symposium, CMIS2024, May 22-24, 2024, Lyon, France.
  • Member of the Scientific Committee, NewFrac Conference, May 7-10, 2024, University of Porto, Portugal.
  • Member of the Scientific Committee, 2nd Workshop on Experimental and Computational Mechanics, September 20-22, 2023, University of Pisa, Italy.
  • Member of the Scientific Committee, GIMC GMA GBMA 2023 joint conference, July 12-14, 2023, Reggio Calabria, Italy.
  • Member of the International Steering Committee, 15th International Conference on Fracture, ICF15, June 11-16, 2023, Atlanta, US.
  • Member of the Scientific Committee, XXV Congress of the Italian Association of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, AIMETA, September 4-9, 2022, Palermo, Italy.
  • Member of the Scientific Committee, Contact Mechanics International Symposium, CMIS2022, May 23-25, 2022, Lausanne, Switzerland.
  • Chairman of the 2nd Workshop "Expanding Horizons", NEWFRAC Innovative Training Network, May 9-12, 2022, Lucca, Italy.
  • Chairman of the PRO Winter SchoolNEWFRAC Innovative Training Network, February 7-11, 2022, Lucca, Italy. 
  • Member of the Scientific Committee, 1st International Conference on Mechanics of Advanced Materials and Structures, ICMAMS 2018, June 17-20, 2018, Torino, Italy.
  • Member of the International Scientific Committee, Contact Mechanics International Symposium, May 16-18, 2018, Oropa (Biella), Italy.
  • Member of the Scientific Committee, 14th International Conference on Fracture, June 18-23, 2017, Rhodes, Greece.
  • Member of the Scientific Committee, 5th International Conference on Computational Modeling of Fracture and Failure of Materials and Structures CFRAC 2017, June 14-16, 2017, Nantes, France.
  • Chairman of the GIMC-GMA2016 XXI National Conference of Computational Mechanics and the VIII Meeting of the AIMETA Materials Group, June 27-29, 2016, Lucca, Italy.
  • Chairman of the EUROMECH Colloquium 575 on Contact Mechanics and Coupled Problems in Surface Phenomena, March 30-April 2, 2015, Lucca, Italy (Co-Chairman: Prof. D.A. Hills, University of Oxford, UK). 
  • Member of the Local Organizing Committee, ECCOMAS Thematic Conference eXtended Discretization MethodS XDMS 2015, September 9-11, 2015, Ferrara, Italy.
  • Member of the Scientific Committee, Workshop "State of the art and challenges in thermal and mechanical modelling of ceramic materials", Trento, Italy, March 20, 2015. 
  • Member of the Local Organizing Committee, XXI Congress of the Italian Association of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, September 17-20, 2013, Torino, Italy.
  • Member of the Scientific Committee, 8th FraMCoS International Conference on Fracture Mechanics of Concrete and Concrete Structures, March 10-14, 2013, Toledo, Spain.
  • Organizer of the Workshop of the Italian Group of Fracture on "Virtual Testing of Materials and Structures", October 8, 2012, Torino, Italy.
  • Member of the Local Organizing Committee, IUTAM Symposium "Fracture phenomena in nature and technology", July 1-5, 2012, Brescia, Italy.
  • Member of the Local Organizing Committee, 11th International Conference on Fracture (ICF11), Turin, Italy, March 20-25, 2005.

Invited seminars and keynote lectures

Prof. Paggi has been invited to deliver seminars at the following universities and research centres: University of Oxford, Northwestern UniversityETH Zurich, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Institute of Fundamental Technological Research of the Polish Academy of SciencesUniversity of Portsmouth, Scuola Normale SuperioreUniversity of TrentoPolitecnico di Milano, University of PaviaUniversità Campus Bio-medico di RomaUniversity of PisaIstituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare Catania, Joint Research Centre Ispra, Leibniz University of HannoverUniversity of SevilleUniversity of EvryUniversity of Paris-ESTInstitute of Solar Energy Research HamelinTechnical University of Berlin, Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, Institute of Computational Science of the University of Lugano, Renningen Research Centre of Robert Bosch GmbH.

  • "Advancements on phase-field models for fracture applied to quasi-brittle materials in compression" Invited lecture for the Thematic Session "Damage & fracture mechanics" at the 26th International Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (ICTAM), Daegu, South Korea, August 25-30, 2024.
  • "Advances on high-fidelity phase-field models for fracture mechanics of quasi-brittle materials and interfaces", Keynote lecture at the XI International Conference of the International Association on Fracture Mechanics of Concrete and Concrete Structures (IA-FraMCoS-XI), Bangalore, September 10-14, 2023.
  • "In-situ strength effect in long fibre reinforced composites: A micro-mechanical analysis using the phase field approach to fracture", Keynote lecture at the 25th International Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (ICTAM), Milano, August 22-27, 2021.
  • "Computational methods for fracture and contact at interfaces: cohesive zone model, phase field approach, micromechanics", Keynote lecture at the International Conference on Computational Contact Mechanics, Lecce, July 5-7, 2017.
  • "Multi-scale and multi-field modelling and testing of photovoltaic modules", Keynote Lecture at the Workshop on Multi-Scale and Multi-Physics Testing, Technical University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany, February 18-19, 2016. 
  • "A geometrical multiscale numerical method for coupled hygro-thermo-elastic problems in layered materials", Invited lecture at the Workshop State of the art and challenges in thermal and mechanical modelling of ceramic materials, Trento, March 20, 2015.
  • "Modelling and simulation of fracture in classical and hierarchical polycrystalline materials towards the design of super-resistant cutting tools", Invited lecture at the Special Interest Seminar on Simulation and Modelling in Hard Materials, Euro PM2014 Congress & Exhibition, Salzburg, Austria, 21-24 July 2014.
  • "Flaw tolerance of continuum and discrete mechanical systems: the roles of heterogeneity and nonlocality", Opening lecture at the ECT* Workshop on New Frontiers in Multiscale Modelling of Advanced Materials, Trento, Italy, 17-20 June 2014.
  • "Modelling of cracking in PV modules: Physical aspects and Computational Methods", Opening lecture of the Workshop "Measurements and Models for PV-Module analysis", Institute of Solar Energy Research, Hamelin, Germany, 5 November 2013. 
  • "Length scales in fracture mechanics of heterogeneous and hierarchical materials: the role of imperfect interfaces on the scaling of material properties", Invited lecture at the Workshop of the Multiscale Methods for Interface Coupling (MUSIC) International Research Training Group in St. Anton, Austria, 12-16 December 2011.
  • "Length scales in contact mechanics of rough surfaces: scaling of real contact area and thermal contact conductance", Invited lecture at the Workshop of the Multiscale Methods for Interface Coupling (MUSIC) International Research Training Group in St. Anton, Austria, 12-16 December 2011.    
  • "A generalized dimensional analysis approach to fatigue crack growth", Keynote lecture at the 12th International Conference on Fracture, 12-17 July 2009, Ottawa, Canada.      


Board of trustees

From 2020: Member of the International Advisory Board of the Excellence Laboratory MANUTECH-SISE (Lyon-St Etienne, France) on Science and Engineering of Surfaces and Interfaces.

Peer-reviewer for the following institutions:

  • European Research Council (ERC)
  • Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca (MIUR)
  • Agenzia Nazionale di Valutazione del Sistema Universitario e della Ricerca (ANVUR)
  • UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
  • Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD)
  • German Research Foundation (DFG)
  • National Council for Scientific Research of Romania
  • Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sports
  • Czech Science Foundation
  • Tromsø Research Foundation, Norwey
  • Research Proposal Foundation, Cyprus
  • Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi
  • Prix Jeunes Talents France, L’Oréal-UNESCO Pour les Femmes et la Science
  • Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
  • Italian Competence Center ARTES4.0 on Industry 4.0

 


    Mentorship

    Prof. Paggi supervised 17 PhD students (already graduated) and 14 post-doctoral fellows; responsible for 3 assistant professors. He is currently supervising 10 PhD students. 

    International recognitions and academic career of selected collaborators:

    • Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Students Abroad 2023, the highest government award granted by the Chinese government to Chinese students overseas, conferred to Zeng Liu.
    • Best PhD Thesis Award 2023 in Mechanics of Materials, conferred by the Group of Mechanics of Materials (AIMETA) to Pavan Kumar Asur Vijaya Kumar.
    • Best PhD Thesis Award 2018 in Mechanics of Materials, conferred by the Group of Mechanics of Materials (AIMETA) to Pietro Lenarda.
    • Dr. Andrea Bacigalupo, formerly Assistant Professor, now Full Professor at the University of Genoa, Italy.
    • Dr. Francesca Fantoni, formerly post-doc, now Tenure-Track Assistant Professor at the University of Brescia, Italy.
    • Dr. Lorenzo Morini, formerly post-doc, then lecturer at Cardiff University, UK, and now Tenure-Track Assistant Professor at the University of Cagliari, Italy.
    • Dr. Pietro Lenarda, formerly PhD student, now Tenure-Track Assistant Professor at the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, Italy.
    • Dr. Jacopo Bonari, formerly PhD student, now Research Assistant at the German Aerospace Center, Munich, Germany.
    • Dr. Pavan Kumar Asur Vijaya Kumar, formerly PhD student, now post-doc at TU Wien, Austria.
    • Dr. Zeng Liu, formerly PhD student, now post-doc at Swansea University, UK.
    • Dr. Angel Valverde Gonzalez, formerly PhD student, now post-doc at the University of Seville, Spain. 


    Fields of interest

    Prof. Paggi is author of university textbooks on structural mechanics and thermoelasticity and of more than 240 publications in international refereed journals on computational methods for nonlinear partial differential equations, fracture mechanics, contact mechanics, material models for renewable energy applications, durability and ageing of polymers and adhesives, computational homogenization, numerical methods for coupled problems in engineering and applied mathematics. Applications include: tribology, reliability and durability of photovoltaics, composite materials, micro- and nano-mechanics, advanced materials and coatings, graphene, fibrous materials and tissues, reaction-diffusion systems, computational archaeology, agent-based traffic simulations. 

    For updated bibliometric data:
    ORCID
    SCOPUS author ID: 35148174600
    Google Scholar


    Books and technical reports

                          

     


    Special issues of international journals

    Special issue on fracture and contact mechanics for interface problems                  

    Cover pages of international journals

    Videos and interviews