Francesco Tornabene

Francesco Tornabene (Bologna, 13th June 1978) is an Italian Professor. His research activities are focused on the structural behaviour of doubly-curved shell structures, as well as the innovative industrial processes for the development of novel classes of materials. He is author of more than 10 books on laminated anisotropic shell structures, and more than 300 scientific publications. His name has been included in the 100000 Top Scientists List since 2019 and in the Top Italian Scientists List for the Engineering Area. In the years 2018, 2019 and 2020 he was included in the Highly Cited Researchers List. Currently, he is Professor at the University of Salento for the classes of Structural Mechanics for students of Civil and Biomedical Engineering.

Born

January 13th, 1978 Bologna, Italy

Nationality

Italian

Education

University of Bologna

Fields

Computational Mechanics; Doubly-Curved Shell Structures; Fracture Mechanics; Generalized Differential Quadrature; Innovative and Smart Materials; Structural Mechanics; Structural Stability.

Institutions

University of Salento (2018 – Present)

University of Bologna (2004-2018)

Notes

Top Italian Scientist in Engineering

Personal Information

Francesco Tornabene was born on 13 January 1978 in Bologna, where he received the high school degree at Liceo Classico San Luigi, in 1997. In 2001 he achieved a National Patent Bologna (Italy) for the Industrial Invention: Friction Clutch for High Performance Vehicles Question BO2001A00442. He received from the University of Bologna - Alma Mater Studiorum, a M.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering (Curriculum in Structural Mechanics), on 23/07/2003, discussing a thesis entitled: “Dynamic Behavior of Cylindrical Shells: Formulation and Solution”. In December 2003, he was admitted at the PhD course in Structural Mechanics, at the University of Bologna, reaching the first position in the competitive admission. In 2004, he received from the University of Bologna a Thesis price in memory of Carlo Felice Jodi; in 2007 he received the Ph.D. degree in Structural Mechanics at the University of Bologna, discussing the Thesis entitled “Modeling and Solution of Shell Structures Made of Anisotropic Materials”. Since 2007 to 2009 he received a research fellowship by the University of Bologna, working on the “Unified Formulation of Shell Structures Made of Anisotropic Materials. Numerical Analysis Using the Generalized Differential Quadrature Method and the Finite Element Method”. Since 2011 to 2012 he became a Junior researcher (RTD-A) within the research program entitled “Advanced Numerical Schemes for Anisotropic Materials”; since 2012 to 2018 he was an Assistant Professor and Lecturer at the Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna; since 2018 to 2021 he was an Assistant Professor in Structural Mechanics and Lecturer at the University of Salento, Department of Innovation Engineering (Lecce); since 2022 up to date he is an Associate Professor at the University of Salento, Department of Innovation Engineering (Lecce). He is author of more than 260 scientific publications, and collaborates with many national or international researchers and professors worldwide, as visible from his scientific production. He is author of 11 books, see e.g. “Meccanica delle Strutture a Guscio in Materiale Composito. Il metodo Generalizzato di Quadratura Differenziale” (2012); “Mechanics of Laminated Composite Doubly-Curved Shell Structures. The Generalized Differential Quadrature Method and the Strong Formulation Finite Element Method” (2014); “Laminated Composite Doubly-Curved Shell Structures I. Differential Geometry. Higher-Order Structural Theories” (2016); “Laminated Composite Doubly-Curved Shell Structures II. Differential and Integral Quadrature. Strong Formulation Finite Element Method” (2016); “Anisotropic Doubly-Curved Shells. Higher-Order Strong and Weak Formulations for Arbitrarily Shaped Shell Structures” (2018), among many. He is member of the Editorial Board for 52 International Journals (see, e.g. Journal of Engineering, International Journal of Engineering & Applied Sciences, Composite Structures, Computers & Structures, Technologies, Journal of Applied and Computational Mechanics, Journal of Composites Science, Advanced Materials and Technologies, Heliyon, International Scholarly Research Notices, Mathematical Problems in Engineering, ISRN Mechanical Engineering, Journal of Computational Engineering, Advances in Aircraft and Spacecraft Science). He is also Editor-in-Chief for 3 International Journals: Curved and Layered Structures, Journal of Composites Science, Characterization and Application of Nanomaterials; since 2019 he is Associate Editor for the 7 International Journals such as “Mechanics Based Design of Structures and Machines”, among many. In the last years he received different important awards, see e.g. “Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics” (years 2018, 2019, 2020), “Ambassador of Bologna Award for the organization of 21st International Conference on Composite Structures ICCS21, 4-7 September 2018, Bologna, Italy” (2019), “Member of the European Academy of Sciences” (since 2018). He collaborates as reviewer with more than 335 prestigious international journals. Since 2012, his teaching activity includes Dynamics of Structures; Computational Mechanics; Plates and Shells; Theory of Structures, Structural Mechanics. Developer and promoter of the DiQuMASPAB (Differential Quadrature for Mechanics for Mechanics of Anisotropic Shells, Plates, Arches and Beams) software, his scientific interests include the Structural Mechanics, Solid Mechanics, Innovative and Smart Materials, Computational Mechanics and Numerical Techniques, Damage and Fracture Mechanics.