Current position

• 2019–present — Associate Professor of Fluid Mechanics (SSD IIND-01/F), Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome.

• 2018 — National Scientific Habilitation (ASN) as Full Professor, sector 09/A1 (now 09/IIND-01).

Previous positions

• 2016–2019 — Assistant Professor (tenure-track, RTD-B), Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome.

• 2012–2016 — Assistant Professor (RTD-A), Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome.

• 2009–2012 — Research Fellow, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome.

Education

• 2010 — Ph.D. in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Sapienza University of Rome.

• 2006 — M.Sc. in Aeronautical Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, 110/110 cum laude.

• 2004 — B.Sc. in Aerospace Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, 110/110 cum laude.

International experience

• 2026 — Research project selected for the CTR Summer Program 2026, Center for Turbulence Research, Stanford University (with M. Cogo, PI, and M. Fratini).

• 2016 — Visiting Professor (4 months), Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas at Dallas.

• 2012, 2010 — Participant, CTR Summer Program, Stanford University (1 month each).

• Collaborations with 131 co-authors, 66 of them with a foreign affiliation; access to the ESA Space HPC facility (ESRIN) within ESA-funded activities.

Awards and honours

• 2025 — CEAS/AIDAA Best Paper Award in Fluid Dynamics, 10th CEAS Aerospace Europe Conference and 28th AIDAA International Congress, Turin, 1–4 December 2025.

• 2025 — EuroHPC project EHPC-EXT-2023E01-034 selected among the 15 projects admitted to the JUPITER Research and Early Access Program (JUREAP).

• 2023, 2024, 2025 — Included in the Stanford University "World's Top 2% Scientists" lists (editions 2022, 2023, 2024).

• 2022 — APS/DFD Gallery of Fluid Motion Award (video V0037), 75th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics.

• 2021 — AIAA Solid Rockets Best Paper Award, AIAA Propulsion and Energy Forum 2021.

• 2015 — Article in Journal of Fluid Mechanics (vol. 770, pp. 424–441) selected for "Focus on Fluids".

• 2014 — SIR grant (Scientific Independence of young Researchers), Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research.

Research grants (as PI or WP leader)

• 2026 — Horizon Europe, EuroHPC JU "HPC Centres of Excellence and Lighthouse Codes": project CERISSE-X.

• 2025 — ENEA/MISE PTR 2025–2027: combustion technologies for NH₃/H₂/N₂ mixtures in gas turbines.

• 2024 — PRIN 2022 ADMIRE — ADvanced Modeling of hIgh-speed aerodynamics for MaRs Entry (national PI), MUR.

• 2024 — ASI fellowship call (Ph.D. cycle XL): numerical methods for supersonic turbulent combustion in scramjet engines.

• 2023 — POR FESR 2020 "GREEN H2-CFD", Regione Lazio.

• 2021 — ENEA/MISE PTR 2022–2024: development of thermo-fluid-dynamics software for GPU and CPU-MPI/GPU architectures.

• 2021 — Sapienza research project "Large-scale numerical simulations of Mars supersonic parachute dynamics".

• 2019 — Sapienza research project "Numerical investigation of flow separation in over-expanded nozzles".

• 2017 — Sapienza research project "Characterization of flow dynamics and shock unsteadiness in a dual-bell nozzle".

• 2015 — SIR project "Active control of shock-wave/boundary-layer interactions", MIUR.

• 2014 — Sapienza research project "Passive control of wall turbulence".

Industrial research contracts (as PI or WP leader)

• 2025 — AVIO: "VEGA-HTE components: cold CFD analysis", parts 3 and 4; "Support activities for buffeting analyses on VEGA-C / VEGA-E new fairing by using LES".

• 2024 — AVIO: "LES simulation for FD1 aeroacoustic loads during ascent phase" and "during re-entry phase"; "VEGA-HTE components: cold CFD analysis", part 2.

• 2023 — ESA: "Aeroacoustics at lift-off with water injection"; "High-fidelity simulation of turbulent reacting multiphase flows" (space transportation support activities).

• 2022 — AVIO: "VEGA-HTE components: cold CFD analysis".

• 2021 — ESA: "Assessment of VEGA-C vehicle acoustics at lift-off"; "Thrust unsteadiness of large SRMs affecting vehicle dynamics".

• 2019 — ASI: "Characterization of cryogenic propellants in tanks under microgravity conditions".

National and European programmes

• 2022–2025 — National Research Centre for HPC, Big Data and Quantum Computing (ICSC), PNRR M4C2 — NextGenerationEU: Spoke 6 "Multiscale Modeling & Engineering Applications" (member of the research critical mass; PI of the HELIOS HPC project, 2025).

• 2022–2026 — EXCELLERAT (Horizon Europe, European Centre of Excellence for Engineering Applications), investigator.

• 2012–2016 — TFAST (FP7): Transition Location Effect on Shock Wave Boundary Layer Interaction, investigator.

High-performance computing allocations (as PI)

Extreme-scale / Tier-0

• 2025 — JUPITER Research and Early Access Program (JUREAP), EuroHPC project EHPC-EXT-2023E01-034.

• 2025 — EuroHPC Extreme Access, CREST: Complex Roughness Effects on Supersonic Turbulence (LUMI-G).

• 2024 — EuroHPC Extreme Access, DISCOVERY: Direct numerical simulations of microramps for shock-wave/boundary-layer interaction control (MareNostrum 5).

• 2023 — Leonardo Early Access Program (LEAP), project DISCOVERER (Leonardo Booster).

• 2022 — PRACE 23rd call, STOMP: Large-scale numerical simulations of Mars supersonic parachute dynamics (Marconi100).

• 2020 — PRACE 21st call, LEISURE: Large-scale numerical simulation of supersonic turbulent boundary layers with surface roughness (Marconi100).

Other competitive allocations

• 2026 — ISCRA B, IIATA: Impact of Ice Accretion on Transonic Airfoils (CINECA).

• 2025 — HELIOS: High-fidelity numerical simulation of fluid–thermal interaction for shock-wave/boundary-layer interactions (ICSC).

• 2024 — ISCRA B, SPEAR: Supersonic Parachute Analysis for Mars Re-entry (CINECA).

• 2020 — ISCRA B, DWSBLI; 2018 — ISCRA B, TRIS; 2017 — ISCRA B, DENSITy; 2016 — ISCRA B, CuLTURES; 2015 — ISCRA B, jACOBI (CINECA).

Supervision

Postdoctoral researchers

• 2024–2026 — M. Cogo: analysis of high-speed turbulent flows over rough surfaces.

• 2022–2025 — G. Della Posta: conjugate heat transfer in shock-wave/boundary-layer interactions (Sapienza–Rome Technopole Early-Career Researcher fellowship, project HELIOS, 2024).

• 2023–2024 — F. Rossetti: cryogenic propellants in tanks under microgravity conditions.

• 2017–2019 — R. Quadros: shock-wave/boundary-layer interactions in the transitional regime.

• 2016–2018 — I. Asproulias: wall-temperature effects on shock-wave/boundary-layer interactions.

Ph.D. students (ongoing)

• 2025– — M. Cirimelli: LES of the combustion of ammonia, hydrogen and nitrogen mixtures.

• 2025– — M. Galante: artificial-intelligence-based wall models for high-speed flows.

• 2024– — F. Zanetti: numerical methods for turbulent supersonic combustion in scramjet engines.

• 2023– — M. Fratini: DNS of turbulent wall-bounded flows in the hypersonic regime.

Ph.D. students (completed)

• 2020–2023 — F. Rossetti: cryogenic propellants in tanks under microgravity conditions.

• 2019–2022 — S. Sathyanarayana: DNS of supersonic and hypersonic flows over rough walls.

• 2018–2021 — G. Della Posta: LES of fluid–structure interaction in wind energy.

• 2018–2021 — M. Cimini: high-fidelity numerical simulations of aeroacoustic phenomena in compressible turbulent flows.

• 2017–2020 — L. Saccoccio: characterization of flow dynamics in over-expanded nozzles.

Former group members have obtained competitive international positions and fellowships: G. Della Posta was awarded an SNSF Swiss Postdoctoral Fellowship (EPFL / Beyond Gravity / Sapienza, project EFESTO, 2025) and is currently Internal Research Fellow at ESA; M. Cogo and M. Fratini were selected for the CTR Summer Program 2026 at Stanford University.

Teaching

• 2019–present — Aerodinamica (9 CFU), B.Sc. in Aerospace Engineering (in Italian, ~120 students/year).

• 2023–present — Computational Gas Dynamics (6 CFU), M.Sc. in Space and Astronautical Engineering (in English, ~70 students/year).

• 2016–2023 — Compressible Flows (3 CFU), M.Sc. in Space Engineering (in English).

• 2013–2019 — Thermo-Fluid Dynamics (6 CFU), M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering (in Italian).

• 2013–2017 — Parallel Computing for Scientific Applications, Ph.D. programme in Aerospace Engineering.

• 2020–2026 — Lecturer, "School on Numerical Methods for Parallel CFD", CINECA summer school.

• Supervisor of more than 170 theses: 136 Bachelor's theses (since 2020) and 36 Master's theses (since 2018).

Institutional roles

• 2026–present — Coordinator of the Teaching Observatory (Osservatorio della didattica), Aerospace Engineering Area Council.

• 2021–present — Member of the Sapienza committee for the evaluation and approval of spin-offs and start-ups.

• 2017–present — Member of the Sapienza Aerospace Research Centre (CRAS); 2017–2024 — member of CERSITES.

• 2012–present — Member of the Faculty Board of the Ph.D. programme in Aerospace Engineering.

• 2017–2019 — Elected member of the Board of the Faculty of Civil and Industrial Engineering and of the Board of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

• 2019–2025 — Member of the Teaching Observatory; 2022–2025 — BAER working group; 2019–2024 — international students admission committee (Aerospace Engineering Area Council).

• 2017–2020 — Department delegate for buildings and facilities; member of the Department Research Committee and of the working groups for the Excellence Project, the 2018–2020 strategic plan and the ANVUR evaluation.

Evaluation, editorial and reviewing activities

• Member of the Editorial Board of Aerotecnica Missili & Spazio.

• Ph.D. examination committees: University of Queensland (2026), Università Niccolò Cusano (2026), Delft University of Technology (2024), Technische Universität Berlin (2023), University of Naples Federico II (2018), University of Udine (2018).

• 2022 — Scientific evaluation committee, UNIPhD doctoral programme (MSCA COFUND); Fondimpresa evaluation committee (call 4/2022; also call 4/2017 in 2018).

• 2020 — Reviewer, MUR "Bando FARE 2020"; admission committee, Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering (cycle XXXVI).

• 2018 — Reviewer, French National Research Agency (ANR).

• 2016–present — Reviewer of computational projects, ISCRA initiative (CINECA); member of selection committees for research fellows, fixed-term researchers and associate professors.

• Reviewer (since 2009) for Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Physics of Fluids, Physical Review Fluids, Journal of Computational Physics, AIAA Journal, Theoretical and Computational Fluid Dynamics, European Journal of Mechanics B/Fluids, International Journal of Multiphase Flow, International Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow, Flow, Turbulence and Combustion, Journal of Turbulence, Acta Mechanica.

Memberships

• American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), since 2026.

• American Physical Society – Division of Fluid Dynamics (APS-DFD), since 2026.

Keynote and invited lectures

• 2027 — Keynote lecture on hypersonic boundary-layer noise, HiSST 2027 – International Conference on High-Speed Vehicle Science and Technology (CEAS), Beijing, 23–28 May 2027.

• 2025 — Keynote speaker, 15th International Conference on Computational Heat and Mass Transfer (ICCHMT), Antalya, 19–22 May 2025.

• 2015 — Invited speaker, ERCOFTAC meeting, Vinci, 15–16 October 2015: "Effect of flow compressibility on roughness-induced boundary layer transition".

• 2015 — MARINE 2015, VI International Conference on Computational Methods in Marine Engineering, Rome, 15–17 June 2015, session "HPC applications in CFD".

• 2014 — Workshop "Vortical structures and wall turbulence", Rome, 19–20 September 2014.

Research interests

Wall turbulence in incompressible and compressible flows (high-speed boundary layers, supersonic and hypersonic flows, transition); shock-wave/boundary-layer interactions, shock-induced separation and control by micro-ramps, roughness and structured surfaces; computational aeroacoustics and unsteady aerodynamics of launch vehicles, over-expanded nozzles, solid rocket motors and free-falling aerospace components; multiphase and particle-laden flows, cryogenic propellants and pressurisation in reduced gravity; roughness effects and turbulent drag reduction with superhydrophobic and liquid-infused surfaces; fluid–structure interaction (wind turbines, planetary-descent parachute systems); DNS/LES, wall-modelled LES, DES and hybrid RANS/LES; immersed-boundary methods; GPU and exascale computing (principal developer of STREAmS).

Bibliometrics

• Scopus (31 July 2026): 116 publications, 80 journal articles (82 including one online-first and one accepted paper in J. Fluid Mech.), 4,161 citations, h-index 34.

• Google Scholar (30 August 2026): 5,436 citations, h-index 40, i10-index 64.