Governing bodies
The Lake Como School activities are defined and managed by a scientific and an administrative board.
Giulio Casati
Director
He is prof. Emeritus at the Università degli studi della Insubria at Como and distinguished visiting professor at the International Institute of Physics, Natal. He has been deputy rector of University of Insubria and distinguished visiting professor at the National University of Singapore. His scientific interest include classical and quantum chaos, nonlinear dynamics and complex systems, transport phenomena, quantum computing . Statistical physics and theoretical physics. He is member of the Academia Europea and member of the European Akademy of Sciences and arts. He is recipient of the Enrico Fermi prize, of the international prize for Physics of the Accademia dei Lincei and of the Italian prize for Physics “F. Somaini”.
Administrative board
Marina Brambilla
Rector of the University of Milan “La Statale”
Gianfranco Pacchioni received his PhD at the Freie Universität Berlin in 1984. He is active in the field of modeling of heterogeneous catalysis and oxide materials. He worked at the IBM Almaden Research Center, the Technical University of Munich, the Fritz-Haber Institute (Berlin), etc. He is Full Professor at the University of Milano-Bicocca where he has been Vice Rector for Research (2013-2019) and Director of the Department of Materials Science (2003-2009). Editor-in-chief of the Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter (Institute of Physics, UK); co-author of about 550 papers (>34000 citations; h-index WoS 93; Google Scholar 105); he has given about 600 invited talks. He received several awards (Humboldt Award, Pascal Medal, etc.); Fellow of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (2014), the Academia Europaea (2012), the European Academy of Sciences (2009).
Gianfranco Pacchioni
Professor of Chemistry at the University of Milano-Bicocca
Umberto Piarulli obtained his PhD from the University of Lausanne in 1996 with Prof C. Floriani. In 1996 he became assistant professor of organic chemistry at Milan University and from 1998 to 2004 at the University of Insubria in Como. In 2004 he was appointed Associate Professor and in 2016 he was promoted Full Professor of Organic Chemistry. His research interests focus on stereoselective metal catalyzed synthetic methodologies, the synthesis of peptidomimetics and, more recently, the targeted delivery of drugs.
Umberto Piarulli
Deputy Rector at the University of Insubria
Professor of Solid and Structural Mechanics and Rector at the University of Pavia. His major research interests are the area of COomputational Mechanics and include: Isogeometric Methods, Finite Element Methods, Solid and Structural Mechanics, Fluid-Structure Interaction, Biomechanics, Constitutive Modeling, Immersed Methods, Phase-Field Modeling. For his research results he received many awards and honors including the Euler Medal by the European Community of Computational Methods in Applied Sciences; the IACM Fellows Award by the International Association for Computational Mechanics; the Finzi Prize by the Istituto Lombardo Accademia di Scienze e Lettere; and an ERC “Ideas” Starting Independent Researcher Grant by the European Research Council. Moreover, he has been designated Highly Cited Researcher in Computer Science (5 times) by ISI/Clarivate; Knight Commander of the Order of Merit by the President of the Italian Republic; TUM Ambassador by the President of the Technical University of Munich; and Fischer Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study of the Technical University of Munich.
Alessandro Reali
Rector at the University of Pavia
Full Professor of Hydraulic and Water Engineering (since 2003); Vice Rector for Research (since 2023) at Politecnico di Milano. Director of the Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering (2017/2022). Adjunct Professor at the Dept. of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences of the University of Arizona (USA). Main research activity: qualitative and quantitative aspects of flow and transport process across porous media (from nano- to field-scale), groundwater systems, underground energy resources (more than 200 ISI publications; h-index (SCOPUS) = 41; research group at: www.mipore.polimi.it). Key roles in EU framework projects (FP5-FP7, H2020). Chair of the Communication Committee of the International Society for Porous Media (Interpore). Chair of the Committee on Groundwater Hydraulics and Management of the International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR). Chief Executive Editor of the Journal Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (EGU) and Associate Editor of the Journals Water Resources Research (AGU) and Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment. Recipient of the Chaire Gutenberg and Prix Gutenberg 2018 (Award by Cercle Gutenberg and Région Grand-Est, France, for research on Climate change and water cycle in Upper Rhine Basin). Elected member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (2021).
Alberto Guadagnini
Vice Rector for Research at Politecnico di Milano
Scientific Board
Is prof. Emeritus at the Università degli studi della Insubria at Como and distinguished visiting professor at the International Institute of Physics, Natal. He has been deputy rector of University of Insubria and distinguished visiting professor at the National University of Singapore. His scientific interest include classical and quantum chaos, nonlinear dynamics and complex systems, transport phenomena, quantum computing . Statistical physics and theoretical physics. He is member of the Academia Europea and member of the European Akademy of Sciences and arts. He is recipient of the Enrico Fermi prize, of the international prize for Physics of the Accademia dei Lincei and of the Italian prize for Physics “F. Somaini”
Giulio Casati
Scientific director – Prof. Emeritus at the Università degli studi della Insubria at Como
Full Professor of Condensed Matter Physics, Dept. of Physics at Politecnico di Milano, he obtained his MSc and PhD degrees in Physics from Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa.
He currently holds various significant positions, including serving as Vice-Rector for Talent Development at Politecnico di Milano since 2023. Elected member of the Steering Committee of the EUA-CDE (Council for Doctoral Education of the European University Association) since 2018, member of the Scientific Board of Lake Como School. Previously, elected member of the Academic Senate of Politecnico di Milano (2017-22), and Dean of the PhD School of Politecnico di Milano (2016-21).
Managing Editor of the European Physical Journal Plus (Springer, 2020 IF=4.13, 1st quartile in the "Physics, Multidisciplinary" categ.), he is Editor for 2 Springer Book Series. His research primarily focuses on the field of soft matter (liquid crystals, elasto-plasticity, shape memory alloys, random Ising models). Invited Professor at prestigious institutions (Univ. of Cambridge, Southampton, Minnesota). He published more than 70 research papers in international journals, 3 authored books, and contributions to approx. 75 international congresses as an Invited Speaker.
For his outstanding contributions to Applied Mechanics, he received the Bruno Finzi Prize in 2004, by the Ist. Lombardo, Accademia di Scienze e Lettere.
Paolo Biscari
Professor of Condensed Matter Physics at the Department of Physics at Politecnico di Milano
Full Professor of Numerical Analysis at the University of Pavia and Research Associate at CNR-IMATI “E. Magenes”.
His research focuses on numerical methods for partial differential equations, multiscale numerical methods, domain decomposition, stabilized finite element methods, and isogeometric analysis. He has been named a Highly Cited Researcher.
He has coordinated national research projects in Italy, including FIRB and PRIN, as well as European projects funded by the ERC.
He served as Director of the Gruppo Nazionale per il Calcolo Scientifico at INdAM, he is a member of the European Academy of Sciences.
He is currently Vice-Rector for Research at the University of Pavia.
Giancarlo Sangalli
Vice-Rector for Research at the University of Pavia
He is Professor of Infectious Diseases at the School of Medicine of the University of Insubria, Varese, Italy. From February 2001 he is the Director of the Infectious and Tropical Diseases Unit of the ASST-Sette Laghi of Varese, Italy.
His main field of research is on infections in immunocompromised patients. Starting from 1999 he is the advisor for all infectious diseases related problems at the Italian National Centre for Transplantation in Italy and covers the role of “second opinion” for all organ donors with potentially transmissible infectious diseases. He is the past chair of the ESCMID Study Group on infections in Immunocompromised Host, the past Chair of the ID Council of ISHLT, and the chair of the ID task force of ESOT. He is a member of the Consiglio Superiore di Sanità (Superior Council of Health) of the Italian Ministry of Health.
He was responsible of the chapter on the risk of transmission of Infectious Diseases of the Guide on Quality and Safety of Organs for Transplantation of the Council of Europe (5th, 6th, 7th, 8thedition and the ongoing 9th edition) and his author of more than 280 publications on peer-review journals.
Paolo Grossi
Professor of Infectious Diseases at the School of Medicine of the University of Insubria, Varese, Italy
Full Professor of Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics at the University of Milan “La Statale”, joined in 2001, after holding positions at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, École Polytechnique in Paris, CECAM at the University of Paris XI, and IBM Research Zurich.
His research focuses on the vibrational, structural, and electronic properties of solids, clusters, surfaces, and interfaces. He leads a research group specializing in ab initio theoretical spectroscopy and the study of ground- and excited-state properties.
He has published more than 150 peer-reviewed research papers, including several in Physical Review Letters, and his work has received more than
12,500 citations. In 2024, he was listed among the world’s top 2% most-cited researchers in his field.
He served as Director of the Physics Department at the University of Milan from 2017 to 2023 and has held several institutional and international representative roles. Since October 2024, he has served as Deputy Rector of the University of Milan “La Statale”.
Giovanni Onida
Deputy Rector of the University of Milan “La Statale”
Maria Luce Frezzotti is Full Professor of Petrology at the University of Milano-Bicocca. Her research focuses on the deep carbon cycle, tracing volatile transfer (C-O-H-S) through the Earth's interior via fluid-phase thermodynamics and Raman microspectroscopy. She ranks among Stanford University and Elsevier's World's Top 2% scientists. In 2019, the Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze, detta dei XL, awarded her the Medal for Physical and Natural Sciences for innovations in the geosciences. She has coordinated EU-funded research programmes and served as chair for EU Marie Curie panels. She was Dean of the Doctoral School at the University of Milano-Bicocca (2021–2025) and is a Fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America. She serves on the Scientific Committee of the Volta Foundation, the VIU Board of Directors, and the CoARA working group on gender bias in research assessment.
Maria Luce Frezzotti
Professor of Petrology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department ff Earth And Environmental Sciences DISAT