People

Our group works on high-fidelity simulation of compressible turbulent flows, high-performance computing and aerospace applications, in close collaboration with CINECA, ESA, ASI, AVIO, ENEA and several universities in Italy and abroad. Former members have moved on to positions at ESA, EPFL and international research groups, and group projects have been selected for the CTR Summer Program at Stanford University (2026).

Head

• Matteo Bernardini — Associate Professor of Fluid Mechanics · matteo.bernardini@uniroma1.it · ORCID

Postdoctoral researchers

• Michele Cogo — research fellow (2024–2026): high-speed turbulent flows over rough surfaces; selected for the CTR Summer Program 2026 (Stanford University).

Ph.D. students

• Marco Fratini — since 2023: DNS of turbulent wall-bounded flows in the hypersonic regime and chemical non-equilibrium; selected for the CTR Summer Program 2026.

• Federico Zanetti — since 2024: numerical methods for turbulent supersonic combustion in scramjet engines (ASI fellowship).

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

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

Alumni

• Giacomo Della Posta — Ph.D. 2018–2021; postdoc 2022–2025 (Sapienza–Rome Technopole Early-Career Researcher fellowship, project HELIOS). Wind-turbine aeroelasticity, micro-ramp control of SBLI, launcher aeroacoustics, conjugate heat transfer. SNSF Swiss Postdoctoral Fellowship (EPFL / Beyond Gravity / Sapienza, project EFESTO, 2025); now Internal Research Fellow at ESA.

• Francesca Rossetti — Ph.D. 2020–2023; postdoc 2023–2024. Cryogenic propellants in tanks under microgravity, sloshing.

• Srikanth Sathyanarayana — Ph.D. 2019–2022. DNS of supersonic and hypersonic flows over rough walls; STREAmS-2 exascale porting.

• Matteo Cimini — Ph.D. 2018–2021. High-fidelity simulations of aeroacoustic phenomena in compressible turbulent flows (solid rocket motors).

• Luca Saccoccio — Ph.D. 2017–2020. Flow dynamics in over-expanded nozzles.

• Russel Quadros — postdoc 2017–2019. Transitional shock-wave/boundary-layer interactions.

• Ioannis Asproulias — postdoc 2016–2018. Wall-temperature effects on shock-wave/boundary-layer interactions.

Main collaborators

• Sergio Pirozzoli and Fulvio Stella, Sapienza University of Rome

• Emanuele Martelli, University of Campania "L. Vanvitelli"

• Francesco Salvadore and Antonio Memmolo, CINECA

• Davide Modesti, Delft University of Technology

• Francesco Picano, University of Padova

• Stefano Leonardi, University of Texas at Dallas

• Maurizio Quadrio, Politecnico di Milano

• Johan Larsson, University of Maryland

• Roberto Camussi and Alessandro Di Marco, Roma Tre University

• Marco Pizzarelli and Enrico Cavallini, Italian Space Agency (ASI)

• Andrea Neri and Daniele Barbagallo, AVIO