Luisa Torsi

DESCRIPTION


Luisa Torsi, a member of the Accademia dei Lincei, is a Full Professor of Chemistry at the University of Bari Aldo Moro and has been a member of the Accademia dei Lincei since 2023. She was also an adjunct professor at Åbo Akademi University in Finland from 2017 to 2022.

She earned a degree in Physics and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Bari and was a postdoctoral researcher at the Bell Laboratories of AT&T/Lucent Technologies in the United States.

In 2010, she was awarded the H.E. Merck Prize, becoming the first woman to receive this prestigious international recognition. In 2019, she received the Distinguished Women Award from the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). In 2021, she was honored with the Wilhelm Exner Medal by the Austrian Industrial Association, a prize previously awarded to distinguished compatriots such as Guglielmo Marconi, as well as several Nobel laureates. In 2023, she received the President of the Republic Award from the Accademia dei Lincei.

By ministerial appointment, she serves as the National Representative for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions in the Horizon Europe Programme Committee. She is also Vice President of the Scientific Council of the National Research Council (CNR). In 2022, she was a member of the technical committee chaired by the Minister of University and Research to develop Italy's strategy on fundamental research.

Professor Torsi has also served as President of MEDISDIH S.c.ar.l., the evolution of the Mechatronics Technology District. She was also a board member of the Leonardo Foundation – Civiltà delle Macchine, established by the founding member Leonardo SpA and chaired by Luciano Violante. Last but not least, she was the only woman ever to serve as President of the European Material Research Society, which, with over 4,000 members, is the largest of its kind in Europe.

Currently, she chairs the Board of Directors of the Regional Agency for Technology, Technology Transfer, and Innovation (ARTI), a strategic body of the Apulia Region. As a strategic agency, ARTI supports the development and management of policies for economic growth, education, training, employment, and technology transfer aimed at enhancing research and innovation in all its aspects.

Torsi has authored over 250 scientific papers, published in prestigious journals such as Science and Nature Materials. Her research has gathered over 18,000 citations, contributing to an h-index of 67 (Google Scholar). She has secured over €40 million in research funding, leading multiple European, national, and regional projects, often as a coordinator.

Luisa Torsi is also deeply committed to serving as a role model for young female scientists. In a recent campaign by the Bracco Foundation, she was featured as the protagonist of a Topolino (Italian comic digest-size series of Disney comics) story, depicted as Louise Torduck, a successful scientist from Calisota Valley.

She has been married since 1991 and is the mother of Alessandro (born 1993) and Vincenzo (born 1997).

YOU MIGHT ALSO BE INTERESTED IN: