ESSAC - External Standing Scientific Advisory Committee
Francesco Profumo

Francesco Profumo (M’88-SM’90) was born in Savona, Italy, in 1953. In May 2016 he was appointed Chair of the Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo. He is Full Professor of Electrical Machines and Drives at Politecnico di Torino and Adjunct Professor at University of Bologna.

He was Visiting Professor at University of Wisconsin – Madison (1986-1989), Nagasaki University (1996-1997), Czech Technical University (1999) and University of Cordoba (2004 and 2005).

He has been appointed as President of CNR (National Research Council) in July 2011 and as Italian Minister of Education, University and Research (MIUR) in November 2011.

Prof. Profumo was the Dean of the Engineering Faculty at the Politecnico di Torino (2003-2005) and the Rector of the Politecnico di Torino (2005-2011).

Prof. Profumo was the Chairman of the IREN Group from July 2013 to May 2016.

Prof. Profumo was the Chairman of the InWit Company from 2015 to 2017.

Prof. Profumo is the Chairman of the Fondazione Bruno Kessler (since 2014).

Prof. Profumo is the Chairman of the ACRI - Associazione delle Fondazioni e Casse di Risparmio Italiane (since 2019).

His scientific fields of interest are power electronics conversion, high power devices, applications of new power devices, integrated electronic/electromechanical design, high response speed servo drives, new electrical machines structures, power conditioning systems for fuel cells applications, renewable energy, energy security, integration between energy and digital and energy efficiency.

He published more than 250 papers in International Conferences and Technical Journals.

Prof. Profumo won the IEEE-IAS second prize paper in 1991(USA) and in 1997 (USA), the IEEE-IAS first prize paper in 1992 (USA) and the JIEE-IPEC first prize paper in 2005 (JAPAN).

He was awarded by the Signum Aureum Facultatis Mechanicae Universitatis Miskolciensis, July 1, 2000, University of Miskolc (Hungary), by the Honorary Professorship, University of Cordoba (Argentina), August 11, 2004, by the Honorary Doctor Degree, Technical University of Riga (Latvia), October 12, 2006, by the Honorary Doctor Degree, Politechnica of Bucarest (Romania), June 15, 2007, by the Honorary Doctor Degree, University of Miskolc (Hungary), June 26, 2007, by the Honorary Professorship, Jiao Tong University, Xi An (China), September 11, 2007, by the Honorary Professorship, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo (China), September 27, 2009, by the Honorary Doctor Degree, Politechnica of Tirana (Albania), October 1, 2009, by Honorary Professorship, Tongji University, Shanghai (China), June 20, 2012, by the Honorary Professorship, Luoyang University, Luoyang (China), November 22, 2013, and by the Honorary Doctor in Management, ESCP Europe Business School (France), November 2017.

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Further awards: China Awards by the Italy-China Foundation (2009), Certificate of Appreciation by the Fulbright Commission (2009), Orden Universidad Javeriana by the Javeriana University (Bogotà, Colombia) (2010), Escudo de Oro by the University of Antioquia (Medellin, Colombia) (2010), Lion d'Oro by the Lion International (Torino) (2008), Award Valdo Fusi (Torino) (2011), Award Guido Carli (Rome) (2011) and Award Pericle (Torre di Ruggiero) (2013).

He has been the Chairman of the G8 University Summit 2009, (Torino) (2009) and the Chairman of the Columbus Association (55 European and Latin American Universities) (2006-2011).

He has been Member of the Board of Unicredit Private Bank (2008-2010), of the Board of Il Sole 24 Ore (2007-2009), of the Board of Fidia (2007-2011), of the Board of Telecom (2011), of the Board of Pirelli (2011) and of the General Committee of Unicredit Private Banking (2011).

He is Member of the Advisory Board of Innogest Fund and of the Advisory Board of Reply s.p.a. (2011).

Since November 2011 he was the Chairman of the Council of the European Space Agency (ESA) (now is a Member of the Board of the Friends of ESA).

Since December 2013 he is the Chairman of the “Smart Cities Council” of ANCI and Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Strategic Plan “Metropolitan Turin 2025”.

He is Member of the Board of Trustees of the American University of Rome (AUR) (2014 - today), Member of the Council of the Foundation of the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) (2013 - today), Member of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation Agnelli (2014 - today), Chairman of the Business School ESCP (2014 - today), Chairman of the Collège des Ingénieurs in Torino (2014 - today) and Chairman of the Foundation Bruno Kessler (FBK) in Trento (2014 - today).

He is Member of the Board of Fidia (2014).

He is Member of the Scientific Committee of the ENI Awards.

He is Member of Academia Europaea - Physics and Engineering Section (2010) and member of the Accademia delle Scienze (2008).

Margarida Isabel Mano Tavares Simões Lopes

Margarida Mano holds a PhD in Management, awarded by the University of Southampton, UK, and Master’s and Bachelor's degrees in Economics, from the University of Coimbra, Portugal. Since 1986, she has been a Professor of Economics and Management (strategic management, institutional assessment, quality management and economic policy) at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra.

In October 2020, she was appointed Vice-Rector for Quality, Innovation and Development of the Portuguese Catholic University.

She was Minister of Education and Science in the 20th Government of the Portuguese Republic (2015). From 2015 to 2019, she was a Member of the Portuguese Parliament, as independent deputy of the Social Democratic Party Parliamentary Group, and integrated the following committees: Committee on Education and Science (Vice-President); Committee on Budget, Finance and Administrative Modernisation, and Committee on Culture, Communication, Youth and Sport. From 2016 to 2019, as a Member of the Assembly of the Portuguese Republic, she was Chair of the Committee on Economic and Financial Affairs, Social Affairs and Education of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean (PA-UfM).

She was Vice-Rector of the University of Coimbra (2011-2015) and was responsible for the areas of strategic planning, financial affairs and social action.

Margarida Mano began her career in the banking sector, where she worked from 1987 to 1996. Since that time, she has held university management roles, namely Administrator (1996-2009) and Pro-Rector (2009-2011) of the University of Coimbra.

As an EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) Specialist, she has participated in several benchmarking and international cooperation projects aimed at public administration, particularly in the education sector.

At national level, she has been responsible for the implementation of prize-winning organizational change projects of the Best Practices in Public Administration Award and Excellence IPQ.

She was a founding member of RAUI (Ibero-American University Administrators Network), HUMANE (Heads of University Management and Administrators Network in Europe) and FORGES (Forum for Higher Education Management in Portuguese-speaking Countries and Regions). She has been an external invited expert on steering committees of several international panels and projects.

Margarida Mano is the author of several publications (books and articles).

Peter M. Barbosa

In 1991, Peter Barbosa received the Bachelor degree of Sciences in Electrical Engineering from the Federal University of Uberlândia, Brazil. In 1993, he received the MSc degree from the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil, and in 2002, he received the PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech, USA.

Since 2008, Dr. Peter Barbosa has been with Delta Electronics, first as Head of Product Development for Medium Voltage Drives at Delta Electronics, Taiwan, and since October 2019, as R&D Director at Milan M. Jovanović Power Electronics Lab, Delta Electronics, Raleigh, NC, USA. From December 2007 to January 2009, he was R&D Project Manager for high efficiency telecom rectifiers.

Dr. Peter Barbosa was previously with ABB Corporate Research, Baden, Switzerland from 2003 to 2007, where he was R&D Manager, Principal Scientist and Coordinator for University projects with ETH Zürich, TU Berlin, EPFL Lausanne, National Polytechnic Institute in Toulouse, and Virginia Tech.

From 1997 to 2003, he was with Virginia Tech, USA, as Technical Coordinator of the Centre for Power Electronics Systems (CPES www.cpes.vt.edu) and also Research Assistant at CPES.

His main professional interests are industrial technology development in areas such multilevel power converters for medium voltage drives and wind converters, transformer-less power conversion for high density medium voltage dc systems, traction power conversion, wide band gap device application, modulation and control of power electronics systems.

He is an IEEE Senior Member, Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics and Reviewer of various IEEE Transactions including Power Electronics, Industry Applications, and Industrial Electronics.