Ross Coffin Purdy Award

Alessandro Schiavi

Alessandro Schiavi is Senior Researcher at the National Institute of Metrological Research in Turin, Italy. He received his MS in Physics at the University of Turin in 2002.

Mr. Schiavi was Assistant researcher from 2002 – 2012, Researcher scientist from 2012 – 2021, and Senior Researcher scientist from 2021 – present. He has more than 120 paper published in international Journals, mainly focused on materials properties, measurement science, and applied metrology.

Mr. Schiavi is currently engaged in research on experimental methodologies for the determination of functional physical and mechanical properties of materials and biomaterials applied in regenerative medicine (e.g., elastic modules, extensibility, toughness, compression, permeability, porosity and pore morphology), using measurement systems specifically designed and realized, and developing experimental physical models to support them.

Giulia Magnaterra

Giulia Magnaterra is a young, active Biomedical Engineer, always ready to get involved and looking for new challenges. She obtained her master’s degree in biomedical engineering from the “Politecnico di Torino” in July 2020. During her studies and thesis project (both bachelor’s and master’s) she developed knowledge about additive manufacturing applied to biomedical engineering, development and study of biomedical materials, study of the mechanics of human movement, biomedical instrumentations study and signal analysis. During her Master’s thesis project she focused her attention on studying and characterization of biomaterials and 3D printing technologies. Desire to work, curiosity, and humility are the adjectives that characterize her career and reflection of herself. She is working as Product Specialist in a company distributing biomedical devices all over Italy. During her job experience, she has gained a lot of knowledge and critical thinking skills in medical products and materials technology especially in the field of Intensive care and Anesthesia and Resuscitation. She is often involved in the training of their commercial partners or health personnel, she collaborates with doctors and has participated as an exhibitor at major medical congresses both in Italy and abroad. All these experiences have allowed her to grow as an engineer but also as a person, to develop a critical spirit, to solve problems on her own and in a team, and to hold discussions in front of a varied audience. She has a strong passion for technology and life science. Ms. Magnaterra has the ability to problem-solve and has gained team working skills in many situations where collaboration between different figures was essential. She is always looking for job opportunities that give her the possibility to grow professionally and apply her academic studies.

Elisa Fiume

Elisa Fiume was born in Brindisi in 1992 and moved to Turin in 2011 to pursue studies in Biomedical Engineering at Politecnico di Torino, where she earned the Master degree with honors in 2017.

Given her keen interest in tissue engineering, in the same year, she embarked on a doctoral program in Bioengineering and Medical-Surgical Sciences in the Department of Applied Science and Technology (DISAT) of Politecnico di Torino, earning her Ph.D in 2021. During this period, research interests focused on the design, synthesis and processing of bioactive glasses for the production of multifunctional scaffolds for bone tissue engineering, developing a complementary background in mathematical/physical modeling and computer-aided design (CAD) to support scaffold characterization. In the following years, due to her expertise additive manufacturing, Elisa had the opportunity to make a contribution across different industrial/research fields, including biomedicine, materials science and aerospace. In 2022, she joined Lince group of Politecnico di Torino as post-doctoral researcher, dealing with the development of structural ceramics for biomedical and aerospace applications by Digital Light Processing (DLP). After 8 months, Elisa became assistant professor at DISAT, contributing to the project NODES-Space4You on the development of advanced zirconia-based ceramics nanocomposites for space/aerospace industry. Her active engagement in national and international arenas was indicative of a proactive approach to fostering fruitful collaborations. By the conclusion of her academic career (February 2024), she collected over 1,500 citations on Scopus, reaching a h-index of 22 out of 40 technical papers.

Currently, her passion for bioengineering is fueled by the possibility of having a significant impact on health care, leading Elisa to seek new inspiration for her career in the field of IoT technology software.

Enrica Vernè

Enrica Vernè, Full Professor of Materials Science and Technology at the Applied Sciences and Technology Department of Politecnico di Torino (DISAT – POLITO – Italy).

Professor Vernè received her Master’s degree in Chemistry (Università degli Studi di Torino – Italy) in 1992, and her PhD in Materials Engineering (POLITO – Italy) in 1996. She was Assistant Professor at DISAT – POLITO from 01/10/1994 to 31/12/2011 and Associate Professor at the same department from 2012 to 2019.

She is coauthor of 260 peer-reviewed journal publications, almost 190 conference papers and book chapters and 9 patents (H Index 50, SCOPUS).

Her research interests include the synthesis and characterization of bioactive glasses and composites for bone augmentation, ferrimagnetic bioactive glass-ceramics for hyperthymia therapy of cancer, superparamagnetic nanoparticles for magnetic and immunological drug targeting, antibacterial biomaterials, surface functionalization of biomaterials.

In 2007, she received the Award from “Federation of European Materials Societies” for the service as “Symposium Organizer” for the organization of the Symposium “Bioactive Materials, Surfaces and Coatings” in the frame of the “International Conference Euromat 2007” (10-13 Sept 2007, Nuremberg, Germania).

She is a member of the ACerS’ Bioceramics Division and Italy Chapter. In 2017, she was awarded by The American Ceramic Society for the activity of Reviewer.

Currently, her research activities are mainly focused on the following topics:

• design of multifunctional bioactive glasses (doped with therapeutic ions/metallic nanoparticles) to induce specific biological responses in hard and soft tissue regeneration;
• additive manufacturing of bioactive scaffolds for bone tissue engineering;
• surface treatment of inert and bioactive glasses with plasma-treated polymer coatings to impart anti-adhesive properties.

Martin Schwentenwein

Martin Schwentenwein is currently working as Chief Scientific Officer at Lithoz GmbH, a worldwide technology provider of additive ma, located in Vienna, Austria.

Martin Schwentenwein has a background in technical chemistry and specialized in photopolymerization, materials science, and additive manufacturing. He completed both his master’s thesis and his PhD thesis at the Technical University of Vienna in 2008 and 2012, respectively. The topics of his work at the university were the development of new resin systems for vat photopolymerization-based additive manufacturing for different technical but also medial applications such as bone tissue engineering. After his academic work, he joined the then start-up Lithoz in 2012 as Materials Engineer and built up the R&D division at the company. This R&D team now comprises more than 40 researchers, engineers, and technicians and focuses mainly on the development of new processes, 3D printers, and printable inks for additive manufacturing of high-performance ceramics and bioceramics. Since 2022 he serves as Chief Scientific Officer and R&D Coordinator at Lithoz.

Martin Schwentenwein co-authored more than 50 papers related to vat photopolymerization-based additive manufacturing of ceramics and he is member of ACerS since 2015 where he is affiliated to the Engineering Ceramics division. Martin Schwentenwein was awarded the Best Oral Presentation award during the 8^th International Congress on Ceramics (ICC8) in 2021 and the ACerS Global Star award in 2023.

Martin Schwentenwein’s current research interests include the material and process development related to additive manufacturing of ceramics, especially focusing on vat photopolymerization-based techniques, multi-material ceramic and metal-ceramic printing as well as developing characterization and mechanical testing methods for 3D-printed ceramics.

Francesco Baino

Francesco Baino is an Associate Professor of Materials Science and Technology (from November 2021 to date) in the Department of Applied Science and Technology (DISAT), Politecnico di Torino, Italy. He received his M.S. in Biomedical Engineering (summa cum laude) in July 2006 and his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Technology in March 2010, both from Politecnico di Torino. He joined DISAT as a post-doc in January 2010, was appointed as an Assistant Professor in January 2017 and then as a tenure-track Senior Assistant Professor in November 2018.

Prof. Baino has been Section Editor-in-Chief of the journal Materials (MDPI) in the section Advanced and Functional Ceramics and Glasses (March 2021-January 2024) and is currently Associate Editor of the International Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology (Wiley) (since January 2021) and of Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology (Frontiers Ltd) (since July 2015). Prof. Baino has published more than 240 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles, 30 book chapters, 100 abstracts or contributions in congress proceedings and is author of 3 patents. His H-index is 54, with a total number of citations above 9700 (Scopus database). He is member of the American Ceramic Society since 2018 in the Bioceramics Division.

His current research interests include biomaterials and tissue engineering with special focus on bioceramics and bioactive glasses, ceramics for sustainable applications as well as processing and testing of advanced ceramics. According to a scientometric study performed by Stanford University, which was first published in PLOS Biology in 2021 and has been then annually updated, Prof. Baino is listed among the 2% top-cited scientists in the world.