Nicola Pugno

🏠 Address:	Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Ambientale e Meccanica Università di Trento, via Mesiano, 77 I-38123 Trento (Italia)
🏢 Office location:	III piano, Stanza 328
📞 Tel:	+39 0461 282525
📱 Mob:	+39 338 6275625
📠 Fax:	+39 0461 282599
✉ E-mail:	nicola.pugno@unitn.it
💬 Skype:	nicola.pugno

Publications

Full list of publications

New page for publications

15 SELECTED PAPERS

1. N. G. Di Novo, A. Bagolini, N. M. Pugno

   Single Condensation Droplet Self-Ejection from Divergent Structures with Uniform Wettability,

   ACS Nano, (2024), 18, 8626-8640

2. V. Fazio, N. M. Pugno, O. Giustolisi, G. Puglisi

   Physically based machine learning for hierarchical materials,

   Cell Reports Physical Science, (2024), 5, 101790

3. M. Hauck, L. M. Saure, B. Zeller-Plumhoff, S. Kaps, J. Hammel, C. Mohr, L. Rieck, A. Shaygan Nia, X. Feng, N. M. Pugno, R. Adelung, F. Schütt

   Overcoming Water Diffusion Limitations in Hydrogels Via Microtubular Graphene Networks for Soft Actuators,

   Advanced materials, (2023), 2302816

4. V. Fazio, D. Tommasi, N. M. Pugno, G. Puglisi

   Spider silks mechanics: Predicting humidity and temperature effects,

   Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids (2022), 164, 104857

5. F. Bosia, V. F. Dal Poggetto, A. S. Gliozzi, G. Greco, M. Lott, M. Miniaci, F. Ongaro, M. Onorato, S. F. Seyyedizadeh, M. Tortello, N. M.Pugno

   Optimized structures for vibration attenuation and sound control in nature: A review.,

   Matter (2022), 5, 10, 3311-3340

6. N. M.Pugno

   On the controversial role of earthquake triggering of the Rigopiano avalanche,

   Matter (2022), 5, 2, 372-376

7. L. D. Machado, R. A. Bizao, N. M. Pugno, D. S. Galvão

   Controlling Movement at Nanoscale: Curvature Driven Mechanotaxis,

   Small (2021), 17, 2100909

8. N. M.Pugno

   The centenary of Griffith's theory,

   Matter (2021), 4, 3811-3813

9. D. Liprandi, F. Bosia, N. M.Pugno

   A theoretical-numerical model for the peeling of elastic membranes,

   Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids (2020), 136, 103733

10. N. M.Pugno

    The commemoration of Leonardo da Vinci,

    Meccanica (2019), 54, 15, 2317-2324.

11. G. Costagliola, F. Bosia, N. M.Pugno

    A 2-D model for friction of complex anisotropic surfaces,

    JOURNAL OF THE MECHANICS AND PHYSICS OF SOLIDS (2018), 112, 50-65

12. N. M.Pugno

    The theory of multiple peeling,

    INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FRACTURE (2011), Guest Editor Nicola M. Pugno (2011), 171, 185-193

13. N. M.Pugno

    The design of self-collapsed super-strong nanotube bundles,

    J. OF THE MECHANICS AND PHYSICS OF SOLIDS (2010), 58, 1397-1410

14. N. M.Pugno, R. RUOFF

    Quantized Fracture Mechanics,

    PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE, pp. 2829-2845, 2004, Vol. 84, ISSN: 1478-6435

15. N. M.Pugno

    Book of Abstracts: "Bioinspired Nanomechanics: a discussion for the centenary of the Griffith's Theory" pp. 13-16, in "25th International Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics - Plenary Opening Lecture

15 NATURE AND SCIENCE JOURNAL PAPERS

1. S. Jaddi, M. W. Malik, B. Wang, N. M. Pugno, Y. Zeng, M. Coulombier, J. P. Raskin, T. Pardoen

   Definitive engineering strength and fracture toughness of graphene through on-chip nanomechanics,

   Nature Communications, (2024), 15, 5863

2. K. Arakawa, N. Kono, A. D. Malay, A. Tateishi, N. Ifuku, H. Masunaga, R. Sato, K.Tsuchiya, R. Ohtoshi, D. Pedrazzoli, A.Shinohara, Y. Ito, H. Nakamura, A. Tanikawa, Y. Suzuki, T. Ichikawa, S. Fujita, M. Fujiwara, M. Tomita, S. J. Blamires, J. Chuah, H. Craig, C. P. Foong, G. Greco, J. Guan, C. Holland, D. L. Kaplan, K. Sudesh, B. B. Mandal, Y. Norma-Rashid, N. A. Oktaviani, R. C. Preda, N. M.Pugno, R. Rajkhowa, X. Wang, K. Yazawa, Z. Zheng, K. Numata

   1000 spider silkomes: Linking sequences to silk physical properties. ,"Cover",

   Science advances (2022), 8, eabo6043

3. F. Schütt, M. Zapf, S. Signetti, J. Strobel, H. Krüger, R. Röder, J. Carstensen, N. Wolff, J. Marx, T. Carey, M. Schweichel, M. Terasa, L. Siebert, H. Hong, S. Kaps, B. Fiedler, Y. K. Mishra, Z. Lee, N. M. Pugno, L. Kienle, A. C. Ferrari, F. Torrisi, C. Ronning, R. Adelung

   Conversionless efficient and broadband laser light diffusers for high brightness illumination applications,

   Nature communications (2020), 11, 1437

4. Y. Wu, B. O. Okesola, J. Xu, I. Korotkin, A. Berardo, I. Corridori, F. L. Pellerej di Brocchetti, J. Kanczler, J. Feng, W. Li, Y. Shi, V. Farafonov, Y. Wang, R. F. Thompson, M. Titirici, D. Nerukh, S. Karabasov, R. O. C. Oreffo, J. C. Rodriguez-Cabello, G. Vozzi, H. S. Azevedo, N. M.Pugno, W. Wang, A. Mata

   Disordered protein-graphene oxide co-assembly and supramolecular biofabrication of functional fluidic devices,

   Nature Communications (2020), 11, 1182

5. Purdie, N. M.Pugno, T. Taniguchi, K. Watanabe, A.C. Ferrari, A. Lombardo

   Cleaning interfaces in layered materials heterostructures

   NATURE COMMUNICATIONS (2018), 9, 5387

6. S. Elsharkawy, M. Al-Jawad, M.F. Pantano, E. Tejeda-Montes, K. Mehta, H. Jama, S. Agarwal, K. Shuturminska1, A. Rice, N.V. Tarakina, R.M. Wilson, A.J. Bushby, M. Alonso, J.C. Rodriguez-Cabello, E. Barbieri, A. del Río Hernández, M.M. Stevens, N. M.Pugno, P. Anderson, A. Mata

   Protein disorder-order interplay to guide the growth of hierarchical mineralized structures

   NATURE COMMUNICATIONS (2018), 9, 2145

7. I. Polishchuk, A.A. Bracha, L. Bloch, D. Levy, S. Kozachkevich, Y. Etinger-Geller, Y. Kauffmann, M. Burghammer, C. Giacobbe, J. Villanova, G. Hendler, C.-Y. Sun, A.J. Giuffre, M.A. Marcus, L. Kundanati, P. Zaslansky, N. M.Pugno, P.U.P.A. Gilbert, A. Katsman, B. Pokroy

   Coherently aligned nanoparticles with a biogenic single crystal: A biological prestressing strategy

   SCIENCE (2017), 358, 1294-1298

8. F. Schütt, S. Signetti, H. Krüger, S. Röder, D. Smazna, S. Kaps, S.N. Gorb, Y.K. Mishra, N. Pugno, R. Adelung

   Hierarchical self-entangled carbon nanotube tube networks

   NATURE COMMUNICATIONS (2017), 8, 1215

9. G. Nardone, J.O.-De La Cruz, J. Vrbsky, C. Martini, J. Pribyl, P. Skládal, M. Pešl, G. Caluori, S. Pagliari, F. Martino, Z. Maceckova, M. Hajduch, A. Sanz-Garcia, N. M.Pugno, G.B. Stokin, G. Forte

   YAP regulates cell mechanics by controlling focal adhesion assembly

   NATURE COMMUNICATIONS (2017), 8, 15321

10. R. Meija, S. Signetti, A. Schuchardt, K. Meurisch, D. Smazna, M. Mecklenburg, K. Schulte, D. Erts, O. Lupan, B. Fiedler, Y.K. Mishra, R. Adelung, N. M.Pugno

    Nanomechanics of individual aerographite tetrapods

    NATURE COMMUNICATIONS (2017), 8, 14982

11. S. Lin, S. Ryu, O. Tokareva, G. Gronau, M.M. Jakobsen, W. Huang, D.J. Rizzo, D. Li, C. Staii, N. M.Pugno, J.Y. Wong, D.L. Kaplan, M.J. Buehler

    Predictive modelling-based design and experiments for synthesis and spinning of bioinspired silk fibres

    NATURE COMMUNICATIONS (2015) 6, 6892

12. J. Zang, Q. Wang, Q. Tu, S. Ryu, N. M.Pugno, M. Buehler, X. Zhao

    Multifunctionality and control of the crumpling and unfolding of large-area graphene

    NATURE MATERIALS (2013), 12, 321-325

13. P. H. Tan, W. P. Han, W. J. Zhao, Z. H. Wu, K. Chang, H. Wang, Y. F. Wang, N. Bonini, N. Marzari, N. M.Pugno, G. Savini, A. Lombardo, A. C. Ferrari

    The shear mode of multi-layer graphene

    NATURE MATERIALS (2012), 11, 294-300

14. S.W. Cranford, A. Tarakanova, N. M.Pugno, M.J. Buehler

    Nonlinear material behaviour of spider silk yields robust webs

    NATURE (2012), 482, 72-78

15. A. CARPINTERI, N. M. Pugno

    Are the scaling laws on strength of solids related to mechanics or to geometry?,

    NATURE MATERIALS, pp. 421-423, 2005, Vol. 4, ISSN: 1476-1122

SELECTED JOURNAL COVERS

News

Professor Pugno has been invited to be a keynote lecturer at the INdAM Meeting, Mathematical Models and Methods for Hierarchical Systems in Mechanics, which will take place in Cortona, Italy, from 21-th to 26-th September, 2025.

Professor Pugno is a Keynote/Invited Speaker of the session Multi-Scale Modelling of Additively Manufactured Materials to Link Material Processing and Mechanical Responses at The Fifth International Conference on Simulation for Additive Manufacturing , 9-11 September, Pavia, Italy

Professor Pugno is an invited lecturer in the NHISMEH25 - New horizons in Structural Mechanics, Elasticity and Homogenization - to celebrate Professor John R Willis' 85th birthday workshop from the IMT School for Advanced Studies 28-31 July, 2025.

Professor Pugno has been invited to participate Silk Proteins and the Transition to Biotechnologies Gordon Research Conference, 6-11 July, 2025, Bryant University, Smithfield, United States.

Prof. Pugno is a invited speaker for COMPOSITES, METAMATERIALS AND CELLULAR MATERIALS: EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES AND MODELING CHALLENGES (SS6) in the 18th International Conference on Advanced Computational Engineering and Experimenting (ACEX2025), 30 June - 4 July 2025, Naples, Italy

Innovative Materials minysimposium has been organised by Profs Alberto Corigliano, Nicola Maria Pugno, Aimilios Sideridis and Efstathios Theotokoglou in 1st HICOMP Conference, 19-21 June, 2025, Rhodes Island, Greece.

Professor Pugno has been invited as a lecturer for AIAS doctoral school, 16-19 June, 2025.

PAST

An interview with Prof. Pugno from RaiNews about graphene.

The paper entitled 4D Printing of Humidity?Driven Seed Inspired Soft Robots has ranked within the top 10% of most-viewed papers published by the journal in 2023 as follwoing certificate.

The paper entitled The case study of a brittle failure of a mountain bike frame composed by carbon fiber reinforced plastic has ranked within the top 10% of most-viewed papers published by the journal in 2023 as follwoing certificate.

Prof. Pugno named a 2024 Highly Ranked Scholar by ScholarGPS.

Prof. Pugno is invited to the Virtual Conference on the Space Elevator, with the following Book of abstract 3-4 April, 2025.

Prof Pugno's certificate of Snow Observer from Aineva, March 25, 2025.

Professor Pugno will talk about the latest results of his laboratory in LENS event, 14 February, 2025.

A new research on the Ant-inspired traffic flow rules under CAVs environment has been appeared in the following news: telepacetrento, vitatrentina, rainews, ANSA Trento, buongiornosuedtirol, ladige, Unitn PressRoom 1, Unitn PressRoom 2, repubblica, virgilio, Tgr Rai Trentino, rainews, ilfoglietto, corrieredeltrentino, galileonet, quotidiano, ilmessaggero, scientificamerican, tv33 and facebook, 14 January, 2025.

New ranking by AD Scientific Index indicates Professor Pugno's rank, 4 January, 2025.

Professor Pugno and his postdoc, Nicolò di Novo, present their recent research in the STREAM, STRutturE intelligenti e funzionalizzAte per il Miglioramento delle prestazioni aerostrutturali, 13 December 2024.

Professor Pugno participate in Nonlinear Elasticity and All That conference, in honor of prof. Giuseppe Saccomandi 60th birthday, (Book of Abstract), 19-22 November 2024.

Nicolò Di Novo, one of Professor Pugno's postdoc, got the 2024 "Young Researchers for Innovation in Trentino area" Research Award, 27 September, 2024, which is also appeared in Trentino ufficiostampa.

A news about the recent paper in UnitnPressroom (Italian) and UnitnPressroom (English) , 23 September 2024, which is also appears in the ladige, il T quotidiano, Adn Kronos, CremonaOggi, Il Dolomiti, IlNordestQuotidiano, TV33 (1), MeteoWeb, Avvenire, VENERDÌ DI REPUBBLICA, Feltrino, TV33 (2), phys.org.

New ranking by Elsevier indicates Professor Pugno's rank in the world top 2% scientist, 16 September, 2024.

Nicolò Di Novo, one of Professor Pugno's postdoc, got the 2024 "Young Researchers for Innovation" Research Award, 10 September, 2024.

Prof. N. M. Pugno is a co-chairs of Mini-Symposia, on the following topic: Nonlinear mechanical models for biological and bioinspired materials, in the ICTAM 2024, 25-30 August, 2024, Daegu, Korea.

A news from Prof. Pugno, Non meritavo la multa e farò ricorso, has been published in l'Adige, 1 August, 2024.

New web site for ITALIAN ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT ASSOCIATION has been announced, 27 July, 2024.

Prof. Pugno has participated in an international project in which the researchers were able to conduct hundreds of experiments to measure the ultimate mechanical properties of graphene published in Nature Communications. UNITN - Pressroom (En), UNITN - Pressroom (It), Secolo Trentino, L'Adige, rivistanatura, Il T quotidiano.

Prof. Pugno presented his research activity at the students of the Casa Alpina San Secondo di Torino (Don Mario Foradini), Pragelato 9 July 2024.

Prof. N. M. Pugno is a member of Computational Mechanics of Materials Across the Scales committee and invited speaker, in the CIMTEC 2024, 20-24 June, 2024, Montecatini Terme, Italy.

The recent paper entitled with Topology in soft and biological matter posted as a news in UnitrentoMag, 28 May, Trento, Italy.

Professor N. M. Pugno Mentor of Team 1 for the Challenge - Vascular Surgery, Final Event 15 May 2024, Trento, Italy.

Professor Nicola M. Pugno Highly Ranked Scholar in All Fields (Prior 5 years) and in Civil and Environmental Engineering (Lifetime) according to ScholarGPS Highly Ranked Scholar.

Professor N. M. Pugno alongside with his postdoc, N. Di Novo attendance to the program show "MATTINO INSIEME", and talk about their recent paper and collaboration with FBK, 24, April, 2024, Trento, Italy.

The recent collaboration of Professor Pugno and his post-doc, N. Di Novo, with FBK has been published in a recent paper and tuned into a news, 26 March 2024. University of Trento, Media - Pressroom, Alto Adige, MeteoWeb, l'Adige, ildolomiti, T QUOTIDIANO, CORRIERE DI TRENTINO (1), CORRIERE DI TRENTINO (2), Giornale Di Brescia, "MATTINO INSIEME".

Project entitled "AMPHYBIA: Advanced Metamaterials from PHYsics and Biomechanics of Axolotls" will be presented in the Mechanics of soft, heterogeneous, and biological materials: state of the art and perspectives of the Italian Scientific Community, PRIN kick-off meeting, 15-17 February 2024, Bari, Italy.

Prof. Pugno has been selected as editorial board member for Engineering - Mechanics of the Top Italian Scientists Journal, December, 2023.

Prof. N. M. Pugno is a member of the scientific community as co-signatories of the Open Science Charter, December 2023.

Prof. N. M. Pugno is a Keynote speaker in the Bio-inspired and bio-integrated materials in accelerating technologies, 1-3 December, 2023, Suzhou, China.

Prof. Pugno (in the middle) with some his former phd students (prof. Chen, with the mask, and prof. Sun, at his left) now both professors in China, during the Cell Press conference.

Prof. N. M. Pugno presents the final results for the Life Green Vulcanm with the topic of "Calibration of physically-based rubber compound simulation tool", 14 November, 2023.

Prof. N. M. Pugno is a organizer and speaker in the BOHEME-METAVEH joint workshop, 2-3 November, 2023, Imperial College London, UK.

A comment from Prof. N. M. Pugno for the topic of Webs and Leaps: Hunting adaptations of spiders, 23 October, 2023, PNAS.

Prof. Giuseppe Puglisi as a adjucent scientist and Dr. Vincenzo Fazio as a our Ph.D. have the Physics-Based Machine Learning Lab seminar, 13 October, 2023, University of Trento, Italy.

Prof. N. M. Pugno invited to USA and Italy: Biomechanists Outlining New Directions (U&I: BOND) workshop, 24-27 September, 2023, Naples, Italy.

Prof. N. M. Pugno has a short presentation during Humboldt Colloquium: "Research Collaborations in Transition - Opportunities and Challenges for the Humboldt Network", with the following programm 21 - 23 September, 2023, Rome, Italy.

Prof. N. M. Pugno has a presenting project results in the Mid-Term Seminar Toward zero-net mobility, Summary of the seminar (Italian version), and Picture Gallary of the Seminar at Torino, 14 September, 2023

Prof. Pugno's Plenary Opening Lecture "Bioinspired Nanomechanics: a discussion for the centenary of the Griffith's Theory" at the International Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics ICTAM 2020+1. Extended Abstract. Milano, 23 August 2021. Bone related paper in arxiv: Toughening and mechanosensing in bone: a perfectly balanced mechanism based on competing stresses, arXiv:2206.14493v1.
The article The centenary of Griffith's Theory, where Prof. pugno reflects on some Griffith's based approaches to fracture mechanics, was published on Matter. UniTrentoMag, the official news magazine of Universiti di Trento, released a news article about the keynote. Furthermore, the journal Frontiers in Materials highlighted Prof. Pugno's keynote on its Twitter page.

Prof. N. M. Pugno invited as Humboldt Research Award winner by the President of Germany, 29 June 2023, Berlin, Germany.

Prof. N. M. Pugno invited in the round table NUOVE TECNOLOGIE IN CHIRURGIA VASCOLARE and speach about Compositi strutturali e stampa 3D in medicina, 27 June, 2023, Trento, Italy

Prof. N. M. Pugno is a invited speaker for XXII International Conference on Waves and Stability in Continuous Media (WASCOM), with the followind topic: Nanomechanics of Natural, Bioinspired, and Bionic Fibers and Related Composites, Conference program, 5-9 June, 2023, Bari, Italy.

Prof. N. M. Pugno invited to Frontiers Forum Live, 27-29 April, 2023, Fairmont Le Montreux Palace, Montreux, Switzerland & virtually.

Dr. Vinicius Dal Poggetto is a lecturer of a Ph.D. course in waves in metamaterials and periodic structures, 12-14 April, 2023, Trento, Italy, (Flyer).

Prof. N. M. Pugno invited to ICNF 2023 - 6th International Conference on Natural Fibers as a plenary/keynote speaker with a talk on: Nanomechanics of natural, bioinspired and bionic fibers and related composites, 19-21 June, 2023, Funchal, Madeira, Portugal.

Prof. N. M. Pugno attends Frontiers Session 2023 as editor in chief of frontiers in materials, 27-29 April, 2023.

Prof. N. M. Pugno attends the award cermony for the Humboldt Prize, 23-26 March 2023, a news in UniTrentoMAG, a news in The Italian Society of Construction Science, a news in Kiel Nano, Surface and Interface Science

An opinion from Prof. Pugno about "Piste piene di pietre: rovinati gli sci, non sono più tornato" has been published in l'Adige, 14 February, 2023.

Prof. Pugno and his colleague published an article entitled Cicalina della vite: un controllo sostenibile con le vibrazioni in VITO&VINO, February 2023.

The "Laboratory of bioinspired, bionic, nano, meta materias & mechanics" has been added to the project of the Institute of Scientific and Technological Research in Sport and Professor N. M. Pugno is one of its members.

Prizes for young researchers of the Trentino region assigned to our Gabriele Greco (related news 1 and news 2)and Diego Misseroni. Gabriele also won the prize for scientific popularization. Compliments!

Prof. Pugno appearing within the top 2% scientists in the world according to the World Ranking of Scientist by the Stanford University [ref1, complete database, ref2] along with other scientists from Università di Trento (see UniTn Press release [In Italian], rank list). Trento, 22 November 2022.
INFO:
Total number of international journal paper from 1999-2021: 573
Rank within the subfield: 129/121,447 (top 0.106%)

The final event of the 2018-2022 project of the department of excellence DICAM was held on Polo di Mesiano, 25 November, 2022.

Professor Nicola Pugno has received in 2022 the "Humboldt Research Award", a news in University of Trento, 15 February 2023.

Turning your breakfast food into a new material that can cheaply remove salt and microplastics from seawater. A news in the "Princeton University" and "Lab Manager" which referenced to the recent published paper.

Silk and magnetic nanostructures for the future materials (in Italian). A news in the "Università degli Studi fi Ferrara" and "aise.it" which referenced to the recent published papers: Ref1, Ref2

Observation of new material based on nature for vibration control (in Italian). A news in the "poliflash", the Politecnico di Torino Magazine, 27 Ocrober 2022, Related paper.

Gabriele Greco tells why the future technology lies on the spiders lives (in Italian). A news in the RaiNews.it, 30 September 2022.

Congratulations to Nicolò Giuseppe Di Novo for having successfully defended his PhD thesis on " WATER SELF-EJECTION, FROSTING, HARVESTING AND VIRUSES VIABILITY ON SURFACES: MODELLING AND FABRICATION", 24 October 2022, Trento, Italy.

Congratulations to Daniele Liprandi for having successfully defended his PhD thesis on " NUMERICAL MODELS FOR ADHESION AND FRACTURE OF BIOLOGICAL AND BIO-INSPIRED COMPOSITE STRUCTURES", 24 October 2022, Trento, Italy.

Congratulations to Sara Residori for having successfully defended her PhD thesis on " FABRICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF 3D PRINTED METALLIC AND NON-METALLIC GRAPHENE COMPOSITES", 24 October 2022, Trento, Italy.

Ultra-light aerogels derived from egg white, CNRNano, 11 October 2022, related paper.

Horizons in Materials: high-impact, authoritative, and accessible review articles at the forefront of materials science. Watch Nicola Pugno - Field Chief Editor and Professor at @UniTrento - discuss the cutting-edge work presented in this article collection.

Forced to change house as a consequence of benzene: Related news in the L'Adige newspaper, 28 July 2022

Welcome friends from Ucraina! Related news in the L'Adige newspaper, 15 March 2022.

The condolence message from the Queen Mary University of London: Her Majesty The Queen, Elizabeth II: 1926-2022.

Professor Pugno invited Dr. Mahmood Heshmati as a visiting associate professor from Kermanshah University of Technology, who presented a workshop about " Design, Analysis and Applications of Modern Engineering Materials: Nanocomposites, Composites, Functionally Graded and Porous Materials" at DICAM, Trento, 23 August 2022. Workshop vidoe

A news from Prof. Pugno, Costretto a traslocare per colpa del benzene, has been published in l'Adige, 28 July, 2022.

Professor Nicola Pugno is a member of committee for Space Science and Technology - SST doctoral programme.

Introducing TRIBO spotlighted on The EnginSoft's Simulation Based Engineering & Sciences Magazine. Full magazine.

Engineered Spider Silk study highlighted on Nature Italy. Related paper.

Our new system T-Rem3die for innovative sutures in Chirurgy wins the Ancalau prize for innovation, June, 2022. Related news articles: poliflash.polito.it, gazzettadalba.it, and ideawebtv.it.

Prof. N. M. Pugno invited to International Intelligent Materials (IIM 2022) as a speaker with a talk on: Mechanics of tetrapods and related networks, 30 June, 2022, ATLANTIC Hotel Kiel, Germany.

Prof. Pugno's interview within the Life Green Vulcan Project, 10 May, 2022.

Prof. Pugno is organizing a session at the EMMC18 - 18th European Mechanics of Materials Conference that will be held 4-6 April 2022, Oxford, UK.

Nicola Castagna and Nicola Pugno, When teacher and student exchange their role (In occasione dei 150 anni della Sat - Societa degli Alpinisti tridentini e dei 70 anni del Trento Film Festival, UniTrentoMag dedica alcuni articoli alla montagna e a chi ne è protagonista), UniTrentoMag, 3 March, 2022.

Prof. N. M. Pugno is a Co-signatories of the commentariy about The missing link of science in policy - 1M scientists and 100M hours could be part of the answer, 28 February, 2022

Congratulations to Elena Missale for having successfully defended her PhD thesis on " NUMERICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF TYRE COMPUNDS FRICTIONAL PROPERTIES", 24 January 2022, Trento, Italy.

A Prof. Pugno's contribution for the 5 years from the Rigopiano's tragedy. Original paper (English), Italian version of the paper, Trento, 18 January 2022.
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Dr. Rachele Nieri, PhD student of the Prof. Pugno's lab, gave a talk about vibrational communication in social wasps "Biotremology of social wasps: A neglected communication channel" for the BioTremoTalks, a series of seminars about biotremology hosted by the National Institute of Biology, Slovenia. 21 October 2021.

PhD students from Prof. Pugno's research group held games, experimental demonstrations and poster presentations at Sharper Night Trento 2021, held in the rooms of the Museo delle Scienze. Photo Gallery. 21 September 2021, Trento.

Prof. Pugno appears in the article Come mai le spugne vivono undicimila anni? [In Italian], published by the national newspaper LaStampa. 13 September 2021, Torino.

Nicolò di Novo, PhD student of the Prof. Pugno's lab, wins the 2021 Enzo Ferroni Award with the presentation Growth and self-ejection of single condensate droplet on nanostructured microcones. 13 September 2021, Athens, Greece.

Congratulations to Eleonora Isotta for having successfully defended her PhD thesis on "NANOSTRUCTURED THERMOELECTRIC KESTERITE CU2ZNSNS4", 7 September 2021, Trento, Italy.

ICTAM 2021+1 keynote presentations by Dr. Seyed Kamal Jalali, PhD students Daniele Liprandi and Sara Residori. Milano, 22 August 2021.

Boheme - Bio-Inspired Hierarchical MetaMaterials, the FET Project cohordinated by Prof. Pugno's research group, cited in FetFx. 3 June 2021.

Dr. Gabriele Greco presenting his talk "Cosa ci insegnano i ragni?" at CambiaMenti - Voci della ricerca, a selection of seminars and interviews funded by Fondazione Caritro. Trento, 25 May 2021.

Prof. Pugno's Equality & Diversity Briefing certificate, Challenging Unconscious Bias certificate, Health and Work Safety and Work Safety certificate obtained in 2021.

Università di Trento is the beneficiary of 31 of the European Research Council grants. Prof. Pugno appears in five of the thirty-one ERC funded projects, leading four of them. Unitn press release [in Italian]. Full list of ERC grants won at Unitn. Trento, 6 May 2021.

PhD student Nicolò Giuseppe Di Novo and Prof. Pugno published the article Modelling of virus survival time in respiratory droplets on surfaces: a new rational approach for anti-virus strategies. In this article, they discuss the dependence on climate conditions and surface properties of viruses survival (including Sars cov 2). Press release by Università di Trento (in Italian). 16 April 2021, Trento.

Prof. Pugno and his friends use bicycle and ski to do sport in the covid period, a news in l'Adige, 29 March 2021.

Prof. Pugno presenting an educational talk "I Fantastici 4" at Liceo Da Ponte, 21 March 2021, Bassano del Grappa, Italy

The LIFE GREEN VULCAN official site is now online. The LIFE GREEN VULCAN project aims at increasing the reuse rate of rubber waste with an innovative and environmentally friendly devulcanisation technology. Co-funded by the LIFE Programme of the European Union, project will enable a circular and low-carbon economy by expanding the recycling rate of End-of-Life tyres. 16 March 2021.

Prof. Pugno appeared on the "Voice of Islam" podcast episode "Drive Time Show: Spider Webs and then Lying"

Voice Of Islam, Drive Time Show Podcast 09-03-2021 - Spider Webs and then Lying

Maria Consolata Pugno, Prof. Diego Misseroni and Prof. Pugno published the article Air-encapsulating elastic mechanism of submerged Taraxacum blowballs. The article appeared on national and international science magazines and sites. International: Phys, Eurekalert, Hightech, Agenparl. National: Ansa, Sky TG24, Rivista Natura, Askanews, la Voce del Trentino, VitaTrentina, IlSole24Ore. Press release by the University of Trento

Dott. Gabriele Greco and Prof. Nicola Pugno published the article How spiders hunt heavy prey: the tangle web as a pulley and spider's lifting mechanics observed and quantified in the laboratory. The article made the cover of the issue of the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.

Furthermore, the article appeared on the Science Magazine: Watch this tiny spider grab a bug 50 times its weight, thanks to some fancy string pulling and on New Scientist: Some spiders use their silk to hoist helpless prey so it cannot escape. A dedicated video has been made by BBC Earth. The article also appeared on the following magazines and newspapers: Inverse, LiveScience, ScienceNews, SmithsonianMag, Phys.org, NPR, GreenReport and others. On the following local newspapers (In Italian): Dolomiti, L'Adige. 2 February 2021, Trento.

Finally, Dr. Greco appeared on the Italian national scientific news program Leonardo.

Prof. Pugno guest at the Matching day "Scenari futuri tra umanesimo, scienza e tecnologia". Prof. Pugno will present "Leonardo e "l'imitazione della natura": la commemorazione di Nicola Pugno ai 500 anni dalla morte" [in Italian]. 28 January 2021.

Prof. Pugno's Laboratory appearing on the Italian economics newspaper "Il Sole 24 Ore" in the "Science & Research - Academic Excellence Realities" section (newspaper article). 18 December 2020.

Prof. Pugno appearing within the top 2% scientists in the world (top 0.12% in his field) according to the World Ranking of Scientist by the Stanford University [link to ref], along with other scientists from Università di Trento (see UniTn Press release [In Italian], l'Adige [in Italian], rank list). Trento, 2 December 2020.

Informative lecture for kids about spiders and spider mechanics held by Dr. G. Greco. Pergine Valsugana, 20 October 2020.

The registrations for the Honours programme "Modelling & Simulation" are now open. The deadline is the 31 October 2020 4 P.M. CET. More info are available here. Trento, 3 September 2020.

Congratulations to Andrea Rodella for having successfully defended his PhD thesis on "ANALYTICAL AND NUMERICAL MODELLING OF UNDULATORY LOCOMOTION FOR LIMBLESS ORGANISMS IN GRANULAR/VISCOUS MEDIA", 26 August 2020, Trento, Italy.

Global Shapers Hub Trento appears on the Agenda 2030 of the Provincia di Trento for the sustainability and development of the region [in Italian], Trento, 12 August 2020.

Dr. Miniaci on the local news for the commendation given by his birthplace for his scientific awards, including a Marie Curie Award and the FET Open grant BOHEME - Bio-Inspired Hierarchical MetaMaterials [in Italian], Albanella, 31 July 2020.

Superquark, the most famous Italian science documentary television series, talks about meteors and about PRISMA, the italian network for meteor observation (Link to the PRISMA official site). Rome, 29 July 2020.

Prof. Pugno's article Exploring Event Horizons and Hawking Radiation through Deformed Graphene Membranes on the Italian national newspaper "la Repubblica" [in Italian], Roma, 14 July 2020.

Prof. Pugno's article Mechanobiology predicts raft formations triggered by ligand-receptor activity across the cell membrane about the attacking mecanisms of the Covid-19 virus appears on the international newspaper EurekaAlert, in the Italian news agencies ANSA, Askanews and on the newspapers Sky TG 24, Tecnomedicina, Il Riformista, Dolomiti, TrentoToday, Il Napolista. Press release by the University of Trento, 9 June 2020, Trento.

Frontiers in Materials introduces a new research topic "Covid-19: Materials Science and Engineering Challenges" which will lead to the release of a special issue regarding the 2020 pandemic, 4 June 2020.

The special issue of Frontiers in Materials Frontiers in Materials: Rising stars has been released, 31 April 2020. Download PDF

Congratulations to Dr. Gabriele Greco for having successfully defended his PhD thesis on "Experimental nanomechanics of natural or artificial spider silks and related systems", 22 April 2020, Trento, Italy.

Congratulations to Dr. Lorenzo Preti for having successfully defended his PhD thesis on "New multi-doped apatites as 3-D porous devices with multifunctional ability for regenerative medicine", 22 April 2020, Trento, Italy.

Prof. Pugno's collaboration with Politecnico di Torino and Azienda Sanitaria Locale TO4 lead to the development of a new medical device, T-REM3DIE. Il Sole 24 Ore, Polito News. Torino, 11 April 2020.

Prof. Pugno's pubblication Conversionless efficient and broadband laser light diffusers for high brightness illumination applications on Nanowerk, 18 March 2020.

Prof. Pugno's call for Global Shapers on the University Web Megazine [In Italian], 9 March 2020, Trento.

Prof. Pugno's pubblication Disordered protein-graphene oxide co-assembly and supramolecular biofabrication of functional fluidic devices on Science Daily and SciTech Daily, 5 March 2020.

Prof. Pugno, Ilaria Corridori and Francesco Anesi wrote an article on the local newspaper "L'Adige" calling for young people to participate to the newborn Global Shapers Hub in Trento, 4 March 2020. (Article, first page column) [In Italian].

Prof. Pugno on the regional TV news Buongiorno Regione Trentino Alto Adige (20:50) and TGR Trentino (08:10) talking about BOHEME - Bio-Inspired Hierarchical MetaMaterials, 31 January 2020. Download video [In Italian]

The Kickoff meeting of BOHEME - Bio-Inspired Hierarchical MetaMaterials was held in Trento. On the same occasion, a new name is given to the laboratory of Prof. Pugno: "LB²NM³ - Laboratory of Bio-inspired, Bionic, Nano, Meta Materials & Mechanics". Trento, 23, 24 January 2020. Photo Gallery

ANSA press release about the fall of a meteor in Italy during New Year's Eve [in Italian]. The meteor observations in Italy are made and coordinated by PRISMA. For recent news about the research on Meteors see the Proceedings of the International Meteor Conference 2018.

Prof. Nicola Maria Pugno, to commemorate Leonardo da Vinci (also considered the father of Bioinspiration and Biomimetics) 500 years from his death, proposes the texts prepared by Prof. Giuseppe Maria Pugno, in the 500th anniversary of Leonardo's birth, in 1952 and others related to Solid and Structural Mechanics.

• Giuseppe Maria Pugno.

  Da Dante a Leonardo (Sguardo alla storia del pensiero scientifico di due secoli).

  Atti e rassegna tecnica della society degli ingegneri e degli architetti in Torino, 1956, 6 (5), 140-150.

• Giuseppe Maria Pugno.

  I codici vinciani e la scienza delle costruzioni.

  Atti del convegno nazionale per l'istruzione dei geometri e dei periti edili, 1948, 1-39.

• Giuseppe Maria Pugno.

  Leonardo da Vinci ed Enrico Betti.

  Ruata, 1952, 1-9.

• Giuseppe Maria Pugno.

  Leonardo e le macchine.

  Atti della societïy degli ingegneri e degli architetti in Torino, 1956, 10 (3), 73-82.

• Giuseppe Maria Pugno.

  Da Dante a Leonardo, sviluppo bicentenario del pensiero scientifico.

  Conferenza tenuta nell'aula magna delle scuole di applicazione d'arma, 1959, 1-28.

• Giuseppe Maria Pugno.

  Leonardo da Vinci e l'idraulica.

  Conferenza Unione Cattolici Artisti Italiani, Sezione di Vercelli. Chieri, G. Astesano (1956), 8, 53.

Prof. Pugno co-organizer of the Mechanics of Nanocomposites and Hybrid Materials Symposium (see in PDF) at the 2019 MRS Fall Meeting. Making a keynote speach "The Leonardo da Vinci's Legacy, 500 Years After His Death". 1-6 December 2019, Boston, USA.

Prof. Pugno co-organizer of the Workshop on Advances in Numerical Modelling of Adhesion and Friction, dedicated by Prof. Pugno to Leonardo da Vinci in commemoration of the 500th anniversary of his death. 18-19 November 2019, Trento, Italy.

Prof. Pugno interviewed by the national newspaper "Corriere della Sera" regarding the "Vibrobug" project. La sostenibilità parte dal vino. Focus by Investintrentino. [In italian], 29 October 2019, Trento, Italy.

Prof. Pugno interviewed by the local newspaper "L'Adige" regarding the FET OPEN grant "Bhoeme", Bio-Inspired Hierarchical MetaMaterial. Mesiano, uomini del ragno da premio [in italian], 1 August 2019, Trento, Italy.

Congratulations to Luigi Calabrese for having successfully defended his PhD thesis on "Development of Devices Based on Electrically Actuated Soft Elastomers", 24 July 2019, Trento, Italy.

Congratulations to David Novel for having successfully defended his PhD thesis on "Mechanical and physical characterization of graphene composites", 24 July 2019, Trento, Italy.

Protein disorder-order interplay to guide the growth of hierarchical mineralized structures is the most read Nature Communications chemistry and materials science article published in 2018.

Frontiers journals lead in citations and rank at the top of impact metrics. Frontiers in Materials has a new Impact Factor of 2.689.

Prof. Pugno in the scientific committee of Graphene 2019, 25-28 June 2019, Rome, Italy.

Prof. Pugno co-chair with Prof. Motta, and with PhD Student of the Lab Gabriele Greco in the Local Committee, of the Frontiers in Silk Science and Technologies - 3rd Trento Innovation Conference on Material Engineering (TICME), 12-15 June 2019, Trento, Italy. Making a keynote speach titled "Spider lifting". Co-guest editor of the related special issue on Frontiers in Silk Science and Technologies
(Programme PDF)
Press release by the University of Trento [in Italian]

Press article by Agenzia ANSA titled Dai cammelli alle meduse, l'arca di Noè dei biomateriali, regarding the work of Prof. Pugno and Prof. Motta [In Italian].

Prof. Pugno member of the Local committee of RAMSS 2019 - RECENT ADVANCES IN MECHANICS OF SOLIDS AND STRUCTURES and speaker: "Could a spider lift Davide Bigoni?". 6-7 June 2019, Trento, Italy. (Programme PDF)

Congratulations to Martina Azzolini for having successfully defended her PhD thesis on "Monte Carlo simulations of electron transport in 3D solids and Molecular Dynamics simulations of the mechanics of 2D materials", 29 May 2019, Trento, Italy.

Congratulations to Tommaso Morresi for having successfully defended his PhD thesis on "From atoms to extended structures via ab-initio and multi-scale simulations", 29 May 2019, Trento, Italy.

Informative lecture for kids about spider mechanics and spider lifting held by N. M.Pugno and G. Greco for the 4th grade students of the primary school "Istituto Sacro Cuore". A mechanical experiment was shown thanks to the setup realized by D. Misseroni. 22 May 2019, Trento, Italy.

Patent on mechanical characterization of nanomaterials by M. Pantano, N. M.Pugno and G. Speranza chosen as one of the most promising italian projects at InnovAgorà, 7 May 2019, Milan, Italy.

Congratulations to Roberto Guarino for having successfully defended his PhD thesis on "Modelling and Simulation in Tribology of Complex Interfaces", 2 May 2019, Trento, Italy.

PRIN 2017 grant by the Ministero dell'Istruzione, Università e Ricerca coordinated by Prof. Pugno

Self-organized and self-propelled aero-GaN mentioned in research update in PhysicsWorld, 6 Feb, 2019. Related paper.

Prof. Pugno in the Advisory Editorial Board of Matter.

Configurational switching in living cells featured on ANSA, Italia2TV, Notizie Ora, L'Adige [in Italian]. Watch related video [in Italian]. See related paper.

PhD student of the Lab Benedetta Calusi interviewed on root growth in Memex - Galileo [in Italian], Rai Scuola, 21 November 2018. Link [from min 19:25].

PhD student of the Lab Simone Ghio interviewed on bio-inspired surfaces in Memex - Galileo [in Italian], Rai Scuola, 16 November 2018. Link [from min 18:50].

PhD student of the Lab Alice Berardo interviewed on knots in Memex - Galileo [in Italian], Rai Scuola, 14 November 2018. Link [from min 28:05].

PhD student of the Lab Roberto Guarino interviewed on spider sensors in Memex - Galileo [in Italian], Rai Scuola, 9 November 2018. Link [from min 20:00].

PhD student of the Lab Gabriele Greco interviewed on spider silk and webs in Memex - Galileo [in Italian], Rai Scuola, 5 November 2018. Link [from min 21:25].

PhD student of the Lab Luigi Calabrese interviewed on robotics in Memex - Galileo [in Italian], Rai Scuola, 31 October 2018. Link [from min 19:55].

PhD student of the Lab Gabriele Greco interviewed on spiders in Memex - Galileo [in Italian], Rai Scuola, 26 October 2018. Link [from min 19:35].

Dr. Bosia interviewed on metamaterials in Memex - Galileo [in Italian], Rai Scuola, 24 October 2018. Link [from min 04:55].

Prof. Pugno interviewed on bio-inspired nanomechanics in Memex - Galileo [in Italian], Rai Scuola, 19 October 2018. Link [from min 19:05].

Researcher of the Lab Dr. Maria F. Pantano interviewed on MEMS in Memex - Galileo [in Italian], Rai Scuola, 10 October 2018. Link [from min 04:30].

Prof. Pugno interviewed on graphene nanomechanics in Memex - Galileo [in Italian], Rai Scuola, 3 October 2018. Link [from min 19:45].

Frontiers in Materials has received its 2017 Impact Factor of 2.008.

PhD and PostDoc positions available at Quantum Science and Technology in Trento, Italy.

Multilayer stag beetle elytra mechanical properties featured on ANSA, Sky TG24, Corriere del Trentino, La Voce del Trentino [in Italian]. See related paper.

Superior mechanical performance of folded graphene featured on nanowerk, Phys.org. See related paper.

Growth of hieararchical mineralized materials through protein order-disorder interplay, highlighted on Phys.org, DailyMail. In Italian: Alto Adige, l'Adige. In Spanish: El Pais. See related paper.

Low-frequency sound control by means of bio-inspired and fractal designs, highlight on acoustics.org. See related papers: 1, 2.

Prof. Pugno co-guest editor with Dr. Bosia of the special issue "Bioinspired dry and wet adhesion" on Bioinspiration and Biomimetics.

Prof. Pugno particpant in the Frontiers Forum 2018, 22-24 June 2018, Verbier, Switzerland.

Congratulations to Alice Berardo for having successfully defended her PhD thesis on "A numerical and experimental study on the friction of complex surfaces", 14 June 2018, Trento, Italy.

Congratulations to Benedetta Calusi for having successfully defended his PhD thesis on "Penetration mechanics of plant roots and related inspired robots", 14 June 2018, Trento, Italy.

Prof. Pugno invited ERC grantee at the Transport Research Arena 2018, 16-19 April 2018, Wien, Austria.

Congratulations to Simone Ghio for having successfully defended his PhD thesis on "Design and microfabrication of multifunctional bio-inspired surfaces", 9 April 2018, Trento, Italy.

Congratulations to Andrea Pedrielli for having successfully defended his PhD thesis on "Modeling and simulations of low dimensional and nanostructured systems of the nanoscale", 9 April 2018, Trento, Italy.

Prof. Pugno interview on bionic silk on Zoomin.TV.

Prof. Pugno interview on the aerographite tetrapods at Smart City on Radio 24, 12 January 2018 [in Italian].

Congratulations to Marica Broseghini for having successfully defended his PhD thesis on "MODELLING OF HIGH-ENERGY GRINDING PROCESSES", 14 December 2017, Trento, Italy.

Brittle starfish inspires tough ceramics, highlight on ScienceDaily, QMUL. In Italian: MeteoWeb, ANSA. See related paper.

Prof. Pugno interview on the brittle starfish at Smart City on Radio 24, 8 December 2017 [in Italian].

Patent on mechanical characterization of nanomaterials granted (priority date 28 September 2017). Link.

2D material armors featured on ANSA [in Italian]. See related paper.

Hierarchical self-entangled carbon nanotube tube networks featured on ANSA [in Italian]. See related paper.

Prof. Pugno interviewed on travel design.

Dr. Federico Bosia interviewed on Unica Radio, 10 November 2017 [in Italian].

Spider weight lifting featured on ANSA, Il Mattino, La Stampa, Trentino, Il Secolo XIX [in Italian]. See related paper. Video demonstration in English. Video demonstration in Italian.

Spider web labyrinthine metamaterials featured on Phys.org, Materials World. See related paper.

Conductive paraffin/graphene composites featured on c&en. See related paper.

Prof. Pugno co-guest editor with Dr. Bosia and Prof. Fraldi of the special issue "Mechanics of Extreme Materials" on Meccanica.

Prof. Pugno co-guest editor with Prof. Valentini of the special issue "Mechanics, Electrical and Optical Properties of Nano-Thin Films" on Nanomaterials.

The special issue of Frontiers in Materials Advances in Mechanical Metamaterials has been released, 19 September 2018.

Prof. Pugno in the local organizing committee and co-organizer of the mini-symposia "Graphene and related materials and systems" and "Mechanics of silk: from molecules to orb-webs" at the 10th European Solid Mechanics Conference, 2-6 July 2018, Bologna, Italy. Flyer.

Prof. Pugno in the scientific committee and organizer of the mini-symposium "Mechanics of extreme materials: graphene-related, composite, meta- and biological/bioinspired materials" at the 1st International Conference on Materials, Mimicking, Manufacturing from and for Bio Application, 27-29 June 2018, Milan, Italy. Flyer.

Prof. Pugno in the international advisory board of the "6th International Conference Novel Functional Carbon Nanomaterials" of the 8th Forum on New Materials at CIMTEC 2018, 10-14 June 2018, Salsomaggiore Terme, Italy.

Prof. Pugno co-guest editor with Prof. Valentini of the "Focus Collection on Bionic Nanotechnology" on Nanotechnology.

Prof. Pugno co-chair with Prof. Nicolosi of the Winter School on structural characterization of graphene-based materials, 5-10 February 2018, Obergurgl, Austria. Flyer. Programme.

Prof. Pugno academic visitor to the Department of Materials, University of Oxford, for the period 1 December 2018 - 30 November 2022.

Prof. Pugno jury member of the South Tyrol Scientific Award.

Prof. Pugno, Fellow of the Young Academy of Europe since 2013, has been invited to join in 2017 the EU Academy of Sciences (EUAS).

Prof. Pugno invited at the Nano2All - Societal engagement on responsible nanotechnology stakeholder congress (and replaced by PhD Student of the Lab Roberto Guarino), 21 October 2017, Trento, Italy. Website. Flyer.

Frontiers - Driving innovation and quality in scholarly publishing seminar, 18 October 2017, Trento, Italy.

Prof. Pugno scientific coordinator of the Graphene Composite Innovation Day, 12 October 2017, Trento, Italy. Highlight on the local newspapers L'Adigetto e Trentino.

Prof. Pugno appointed as new Field Chief Editor of Frontiers in Materials. Press release.

Prof. Pugno interviewed in Memex - I luoghi della scienza [in Italian], Rai Scuola, 26 September 2017.

PhD Student of the Lab Gabriele Greco interviewed in Memex Doc - L'uomo dei ragni [in Italian], Rai Scuola, 17 September 2017. Video.

Prof. Pugno interviewed on UniTrentoMag [in Italian], 14 September 2017.

Spider silk turns bionic through nanomaterials highlighted on Phys.org, The Sydney Morning Herald, CBC Radio, Graphene Flagship News, ScienceDaily, Science Newsline, Mail Online, Futurism, ZDNet, cemag.us, GIZMODO, NEW ATLAS, scimex, Institution of Mechanical Engineers. In Italian: La Repubblica (pdf), il Dolomiti. In Spanish: Computer Hoy. In Danish: illvid.dk. See related paper.

Highlight on the Lab research activities [in Italian], 1 August 2017. Article.

Congratulations to Stefano Signetti for having successfully defended his PhD thesis on "Computational models for impact mechanics and related protective materials and structures", 29 June 2017, Trento, Italy. Video.

Prof. Pugno particpant in the Frontiers Chief Editor Summit 2017, 16-18 June 2017, Champéry, Switzerland. Program.

Prof. Pugno comments a research work on octopus-inspired adhesives, 14 June 2017.

Fermented graphene composite foams featured on nanowerk. See related paper.

Prof. Pugno awarded with the "2017 Griffith Medal & Prize", highlighted on QMUL press release [1], QMUL press release [2], @ERC_Research. In Italian: UniTrentoMag, il Dolomiti, scienzadellecostruzioni-segreteria.it, ASI. See related Wikipedia page.
Invited at the IOM3 Premier Awards Dinner, 11 July 2017, London, UK. Picture 1. Picture 2. Picture 3. Picture 4. Picture 5.

PhD Student of the Lab Stefano Signetti contributes to the study of the nanomechanics of individual aerographite tetrapods. In Italian: UniTN, UniTN press release, ANSA, il Dolomiti, La Voce del Trentino, MeteoWeb, L'Adige, askanews.it, Buongiorno Südtirol, OcaSapiens (la Repubblica). In English: Research Italy, Phys.org, nanowerk, Uni Kiel press. In German: idw. Picture 1, picture 2, picture 3, picture 4. See related paper. Interview on Radio Popolare, 14/04/2017 [in Italian, from min. 23:45].

Prof. Pugno interviewed in Biomimetica - Il meccanismo della vita [in Italian], Rai Scuola.

Researcher of the Lab Dr. Maria F. Pantano wins the First Prize in the "2016 Zwick Science Award Competition" for her contribution to the design of MEMS for the tensile testing of nanomaterials. Picture 1. Picture 2.

Conductive graphene-based inks highlighted on Materials World magazine. See related paper.

H2020 FET Proactive project NEUROFIBRES "Biofunctionalised Electroconducting Microfibres for the Treatment of Spinal Cord Injury" (2017-2020) just started. In Spanish: infomédula. In Italian: UniTN press release, Trentino, Corriere del Trentino, il Dolomiti, Galileo, Il Foglietto. Prof. Pugno interview on Radio 24, 04/04/2017 [in Italian].

ERC Starting Grant project BIHSNAM "Bio-Inspired Hierarchical Super Nanomaterials" (2012-2016) just concluded, with 141 papers published in international journals and cited 2239 times, with an average Impact Factor of 4.345 and a cumulative Impact Factor of 612.599, see details. Open source codes available by contacting nicola.pugno@unitn.it: fracture (hierarchical fibre bundle model, hierarchical lattice spring model), friction (spring-block model), adhesion (multpile peeling code), impact (multilayer impact code). We thank again ERC for having provided the "Equipment to Run the Competition". Highlight on TuttoScienze (La Stampa) [in Italian].

Prof. Pugno co-organizer of the mini-symposium "Mechanics of extreme materials: graphene-related, composite, meta- and biological/bioinspired materials" at the XXIII Conference - The Italian Association of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, 4-7 September 2017, Salerno, Italy. Program.

The GBDT (Graphene-Based Thermal Detector) project featured on the TIFPA Activity Report 2015-16.

Congratulations to Dr. Federico Bosia for the "2016 Most Prolific Author Award" at the Solid State Physics Group of the University of Turin, Italy. Picture. Short interview on ERC participation [in Italian].

Rosita and its friends have joined the Lab: One hundred and one spiders.


Grammostola rosea is a beautiful 16-year-old spider, the first of the one hundred and one spiders of the Rosita's group. [Responsible: G. Greco]

Rudolph's antlers inspire next generation of unbreakable materials on Fox News, ScienceDaily, EurekAlert!, siliconrepublic. In Italian: Corriere della Sera, Sky TG24, MeteoWeb. See related paper.

Prof. Pugno mentioned as winner of a Horizon 2020 Proof of Concept. In Italian: L'Adigetto.it, 22 December 2016.

Prof. Pugno jury member of the South Tyrol Scientific Award, 15 December 2016.

La Crisis de la Razón by Pablo Domínguez Prieto [in Spanish], discussion as last lesson of the Solid Mechanics course, 14 December 2016, University of Trento, Trento, Italy.

Interview for the UnitrentoMag Metamateriali: potranno aiutarci a difenderci dai terremoti? [in Italian], 10 November 2016.

The Lab research activities on spider silks and webs mentioned on Sette (Corriere della Sera) [in Italian], 4 November 2016.

Graphene helps silicone rubber composites heal on Materials Today. See related paper.

Large scale mechanical metamaterials as seismic shields highlighted on IOP, JPhys+, Phys.org, EurekAlert!, ScienceDaily, E&T, Physics World, The Engineer, Geology Page. In Italian: LSWN, Origami (La Stampa), UniTrentoMag. In Portoguese: INOVAÇÃO tecnólogica. See related paper.

Spider web-inspired acoustic metamaterials highlighted on Phys.org, SCIENCENEWS Journal, FCC Public, SONIC-SHIELD. In German: pressetext. In French: Futura Sciences. In Chinese: cailiaoniu.com. In Turkish: Kymia Haberleri. See related paper.

E-letter on Science Advances: Evidence of self-inconsistent sections in "Toughness of carbon nanotubes conforms to classic fracture mechanics".

International Workshop Advances in mechanical metamaterials, 10-11 October 2016, University of Trento, Trento, Italy. Programme. Book of abstracts.

The Laboratory of Bio-Inspired & Graphene Nanomechanics at Vivi Park, 24-25 September 2016, Trento, Italy. Flyer [in Italian].

Falling Walls Lab Naples, 20 September 2016, Napoli, Italy. Flyer.

4th International Conference on Nanomechanics and Composites, 14-17 September 2016, Vicenza, Italy.

Secondo Natura. Prof. Pugno mentioned on La Repubblica [in Italian], 10 Semptember 2016.

Prof. Pugno organizer of the mini-symposium "Computational bio and bio-inspired mechanics from nano to micro" at The 12th World Congress on Computational Mechanics, 24-29 July 2016, Seoul, Korea.

PhD Student of the Lab David Novel wins the Poster Award at the Graphene Conference 2016 with his research on graphene reinforced nanofibres. Highlight on UniTrentoMag [in italian].

Graphene Conference 2016, 19-22 April 2016, Genova, Italy. Programme.

The special issue of Frontiers in Materials New Frontiers in Multiscale Modelling of Advanced Materials has been released, 14 December 2015.

L'affascinante mondo dei materiali bio-inspirati. The Laboratory of Bio-Inspired and Graphene Nanomechanics highlighted on Le Scienze [In Italian].

Prof. Pugno in the Organizing Commettee of the 4th International Conference on Nanomechanics and Nanocomposites, 14-17 September 2016, Genova, Italy.

ERC Grants at the Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering, University of Trento.

Spiders Ingest Nanotubes, Then Weave Silk Reinforced with Carbon on "Best of 2015" of MIT Technology Review.

Tecnologia Made in Italy Prof. Pugno interview on Radio Made in Italy.

Bionic spider webs and other super-materials on the European Commission Newspaper [see pag. 42].

Interview to Prof. Pugno featured in Beyond carbon fiber: What will be the fibers of choice for future composites?.

Prof. Pugno in the Organizing Commettee of Graphene 2016, 19-22 April 2016, Genova, Italy.

Call for abstracts: Computational Bio and Bio-inspired Mechanics from Nano to Micro at the 12th World Congress on Computational Mechanics. 24-29 July 2016, Seoul (Korea). Deadline for abstract submission: 30 November 2015.

Prof. Pugno winner of the third ERC Proof of Concept.

The project Rubber-based soles for winter sports with enhanced grip through FEM optimized fibre orientation (authors: Martino Colonna, Nicola Pugno, Stefano Signetti) wins the Vibram® special prize at Milano Montagna Vibram® Factory 2015. Press release [in italian]. Highlighted by Wired.it, Skialper, Vibram. Picture of the award ceremony.

The Laboratory of Bio-Inspired & Graphene Nanomechanics at the Researchers' Night 2015, 25 September 2015, Trento (Italy). Programme.

Mega Engineering: Damming the Atlantic on The New Scientist. See the related chapter about the Mediterranean Sea Terrace Proposal.

Prof. Pugno comment on Bendy kirigami graphene structures on BBC News.

ESMC 2015 Focus Issue on Micro and Nano Mechanics and Systems, FRONTIERS IN MATERIALS. Deadline for paper submission: 30 November 2015.

Special Issue on Micro-structured bioinspired functional surfaces, BIO-INSPIRED MATERIALS. Deadline for paper submission: 31 October 2015.

Prof. Pugno interview on the Artificial Spiderweb at Moebius on Radio 24, 20/06/2015 [in Italian].

Prof. Pugno at the ERC celebrations for 5000 funded grants, 16 June 2015, Solvay Library (see the video) and European Parliament (see the video), Bruxelles, Belgium. ERC press release, ERC Newsletter, UniTn press release (in Italian). Highlight in the newspaper Trentino (in Italian).

Prof. Pugno interview on theLimpet Teeth at Smart City on Radio 24, 05/06/2015 [in Italian].

Predictive modelling-based design and experiments for synthesis and spinning of bioinspired silk fibres. See related paper. Highlight on MIT News, Tech Times, ResearchItaly. In Italian: L'Adige, Trento Today, Meteoweb, Greenreport.it, Controcampus.it, Il Fatto 24 Ore, L'Adigetto. UniTn press release (in Italian).

Falling Walls Lab Trento 2015. Prof. Pugno president of the judging committee, 3 July 2015, Trento, Italy. Press release. Highlight on Le Scienze (in Italian). Result of the Italian selection: UniTn press release (in Italian). Nicola Pugno member of the jury at the Falling Walls Lab Final Event in Berlin, November 8 2015.

Silk reinforced with graphene or carbon nanotubes spun by spiders. Highlight on Science, New Scientist, MIT Technology Review, Discovery News, Wired, Sky News, NBC News, Daily Mail, Huffington Post, Engadget.com, IB Times, Motherboard, NanotechWeb.org and many others. London newspaper. In Italian: Il Messaggero, Le Scienze, Focus, Corriere Innovazione. Cited by Dailymail.

Nicola Pugno member of the jury at the TEAM DESIGN competition of EBEC Trento, 16-17 March 2015, Teatro Sanbàpolis, Trento, Italy. EBEC Website.

Prof. Pugno interview at 24 Mattina Radio 24. Talk on "Extreme Science", highlighting on Prof. Pugno's ERC Grants with Dr. Federico Bosia (Department of Physics, University of Torino), 27/03/2015 [in Italian].

Skype call with Samantha Cristoforetti from ISS, Trento Science Museum (MUSE), 24 March 2015.

Conference: 21^th Conference of the International Society for Skiing Safety, 8-13 March 2015, San Vito di Cadore - Cortina D'Ampezzo (Italy).

Prof. Pugno interview on new nanomaterials on Radio 24, 07/03/2015 [In Italian].

Fondazione Bruno Kessler and University of Trento in the European action plan for graphene, Graphene Flagship press release, FBK/UniTN press release (in Italian). Corriere della Sera, Trentino, L'Adigetto, Il Trentino, Ansa, (in Italian).

Discovered the strongest natural material known to men. Focus on Science, The New Scientist, Discovery News, National Geographic, The Science Times and The Independent (2). See also BBC, CNN, The Guardian, The Washington Post, The Telegraph, Sky News, IolMobile, etc.
In Italian: Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica (2), Wired, LSWN, Le Scienze, Focus, TuttoScienze - La Stampa.
Press release on UniTrentoMAG (in Italian).
Comment by Prof. Peter Fratzl.
Focus on TGR Leonardo (20/02/2015) [In Italian, from min. 5.03 to 7.19].
Satirical cartoon on The Independent and news (19/02/2015) .
Satirical cartoon on The Telegraph (19/02/2015).

New method to evaluate the exfoliation and fragmentation results of 2D materials. See related paper.

Nicola Pugno member of the Strategic Vision Committee of the Fond of Fund Venture Capital (FOF VC), of the Fondo Italiano d’Investimento SGR S.p.A..

ESMC 2015 - 9th European Solid Mechanics Conference, Micro and Nanomechanics Symposium, July 6-10 2015, Madrid, Spain. Extended abstract deadline

Nicola Pugno member of the new scientific and technical committee of the Italian Space Agency (ASI).

Nicola Pugno Academic Editor of PLoS ONE, Public Library of Science, from 2014.

Nicola Pugno Editorial Board Member in Biological Physics of Scientific Reports, Nature Publishing Group, from 2014.

Nicola Pugno member of the jury at the Falling Walls Final Event in Berlin, November 8 2014. The jury will be headed by Professor Carl-Henrik Heldin, Chairman of the Board of the Nobel Foundation. Programme - Pictures of the event.

First Falling Walls Lab at University of Trento. Press release (in italian). The results of the Italian selection: UniTn Web Magazine, press release and news on the newspapers L'Adigetto and Il Corriere del Trentino (in Italian). Pictures of the event.

Assemblea di Ateneo 2014 - L'Università incontra/incontra l'Università, July 16, 2014, Trento (Italy). Video: La ricerca all'Università di Trento (in Italian, min 9:55).

3rd International Summer School on Smart Materials, Structures & Systems, July 21-25, 2014, Trento (Italy).

Workshop: New frontiers in multiscale modelling of advanced materials @ ECT* Villazzano, Trento (Italy), June 17-20, 2014. Flyer - Call for Papers: Research Topic on Frontiers in Materials

Grafene, la parola magica, Prof. Pugno interview at RAI News 24 (04-04-2014, in Italian).

2014 MRS Spring Meeting and Exhibit: Symposium on Soft Nanomaterials, April 21-25, 2014, San Francisco, CA (USA). Call for Papers: JOURNAL OF MATERIALS RESEARCH Focus Issue on Soft Nanomaterials.

On the definition of life, see comment n. 56.

Nicola Pugno Editor-in-Chief of Frontiers in Materials - Mechanics of Materials, Frontiers & Nature Publishing Group, from 2014.

Nicola Pugno Editor-in-Chief of Bio-Inspired Materials, de Gruyter, from 2014.

Biomimetica: la natura come modello - Il Giardino di Albert - Prof. Pugno interview at RSI RETE DUE (22-02-2014, in Italian) [up to min. 19.31].

Workshop: La ricerca italiana in Europa: una sfida da vincere - Generazione ERC: i giovani e la ricerca di eccellenza in Italia, February 11, 2014, Rome (Italy).

Third ERC grant assigned to Prof. Pugno.

Second ERC grant assigned to Prof. Pugno.

Prof. Pugno discovers The “Egg of Columbus” For Making The World’s Toughest Fibres (see also Astri e particelle in Le Scienze Blog).

Congress: CERMODEL2013 Modelling & Simulation Meet Innovation in Ceramics Technology Trento (Italy), July 10-12, 2013.

2nd International Summer School on Smart Materials & Structures. July 22-26, 2013, Trento (Italy).

N. M.Pugno, Effetto Loto. LE SCIENZE (2013), n 537, 58-63 (Maggio 2013).

Prof. Pugno Invited Member of the Young Academy of Europe. Picture.

Characterization of spider silk highlighted in World's strongest spider web. See related paper.

The secret of spider web anchorages robustness. UniTN press release (in Italian). Highlited by Italian press agency ANSA and newspaper La Repubblica, L'Adige, and Corriere della Sera. Interviews on italian radios RadioInBlu (19 March 2013), Radio24 (28 March 2013), Radio Padania (17 May 2013)

From the lotus to the graphene tunable leaf. UniTN press release (in Italian). Highlited by Italian press agency ANSA and newspapers La Stampa, Il Sole 24 Ore, La Repubblica.
Radio interview (in Italian) on Radio Monte Carlo (21 January 2013). TV interview on Rai, SpaceLab Rai News (30 January 2013), RAI UnoMattina (1 February 2013), SuperQuark (RAI 1), Geo Scienza (RAI 3)

Highlight in "Trentino" (in italian, March 19, 2013).

Interview in local newspaper "Trentino" (in italian, January 31, 2013).

Welcome to Trento in "L'Adige" (in italian, January 31, 2013).

Advances in Bio-inspired Materials, a special issue of Materials, Special Guest Editor Prof. Nicola Pugno.

Press releases in 2012 by ANSA about the Prof. Pugno research on spiderweb iper-elasticity (1, 2) and super materials.

Highlight by ANSA (23 November, 2012), in "Trentino" (21 December, 2012), and Montagna.tv (5 December 2012). The unacknowledged risk of Himalayan avalanches triggering at Winter Universiade Conference 2013, International Interdisciplinary Conference on University Sport: Inspiring Innovation (December, 9-10, 2013, Rovereto (Italy).

Interview in "Le Scienze" (in italian, October 2012).

Space elevator study highlighted on Nature Research Highlights. See related paper.

• Bio-Inspired and Nanoengineering Consulting @ University of Trento We have created a team of Engineers, Technologists, Scientists and Medical Doctors for finding ultimate solutions for High-Tech Industries.

Frontiers in Materials: Special Issues

• Covid-19: Materials Science and Engineering Challenges. Open call for abstract and manuscripts.
• Frontiers in Silk Science and Technology. Submissions closed.
• Frontiers in Materials: Rising Stars, 17 April 2020.
• Advances in Mechanical Metamaterials, 19 September 2018.
• New Frontiers in Multiscale Modelling of Advanced Materials, 14 December 2015.

Recent, past and future invited lectures

• Professor Pugno has been invited to be a keynote lecturer at the INdAM Meeting, Mathematical Models and Methods for Hierarchical Systems in Mechanics, which will take place in Cortona, Italy, from 21-th to 26-th September, 2025.
• Professor Pugno is a Keynote/Invited Speaker of the session Multi-Scale Modelling of Additively Manufactured Materials to Link Material Processing and Mechanical Responses at The Fifth International Conference on Simulation for Additive Manufacturing , 9-11 September, Pavia, Italy
• Professor Pugno is an invited lecturer in the NHISMEH25 - New horizons in Structural Mechanics, Elasticity and Homogenization - to celebrate Professor John R Willis' 85th birthday workshop from the IMT School for Advanced Studies 28-31 July, 2025.
• Professor Pugno has been invited to participate Silk Proteins and the Transition to Biotechnologies Gordon Research Conference, 6-11 July, 2025, Bryant University, Smithfield, United States.
• Prof. Pugno is a invited speaker for COMPOSITES, METAMATERIALS AND CELLULAR MATERIALS: EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES AND MODELING CHALLENGES (SS6) in the 18th International Conference on Advanced Computational Engineering and Experimenting (ACEX2025), 30 June - 4 July 2025, Naples, Italy
• Innovative Materials minysimposium has been organised by Profs Alberto Corigliano, Nicola Maria Pugno, Aimilios Sideridis and Efstathios Theotokoglou in 1st HICOMP Conference, 19-21 June, 2025, Rhodes Island, Greece.
• Professor Pugno has been invited as a lecturer for AIAS doctoral school, 16-19 June, 2025.




PAST
• Prof. Pugno is invited to the Virtual Conference on the Space Elevator, with the following Book of abstract 3-4 April, 2025.
• invited speaker speaker at the Computational Mechanics of Materials Across the Scales in the CIMTEC 2024, 20-24 June, 2024, Montecatini Terme, Italy.
• invited keynote speaker at the Bio-inspired and bio-integrated materials in accelerating technologies, 1-3 December, 2023, Suzhou, China
• Prof. N. M. Pugno presents the final results for the Life Green Vulcanm with the topic of "Calibration of physically-based rubber compound simulation tool", 14 November, 2023.
• Prof. N. M. Pugno is a organizer and speaker in the BOHEME-METAVEH joint workshop, 2-3 November, 2023, Imperial College London, UK.
• Prof. N. M. Pugno invited to USA and Italy: Biomechanists Outlining New Directions (U&I: BOND) workshop, 24-27 September, 2023, Naples, Italy.
• Prof. N. M. Pugno has a presenting project results in the Mid-Term Seminar Toward zero-net mobility, Torino, 14 September, 2023
• short presentation at the Humboldt Colloquium: "Research Collaborations in Transition - Opportunities and Challenges for the Humboldt Network", 21 - 23 September, 2023, Rome, Italy.
• invited in the round table NUOVE TECNOLOGIE IN CHIRURGIA VASCOLARE, 27 June, 2023, Trento, Italy
• plenary/keynote speaker at ICNF 2023 - 6th International Conference on Natural Fibers 19-21 June, 2023, Funchal, Madeira, Portugal.
• invited speaker at the XXII International Conference on Waves and Stability in Continuous Media (WASCOM), Programme, 5-9 June, 2023, Bari, Italy.
• invited lecture at Soft Robots for Environmental Intelligence Workshop, 3 April 2023, Marina Bay, Singapore.
• invited lecture at KiNSIS meets Humboldt Evening, 28 March 2023, Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel, Audimax, Lecture Hall A, Christian-Albrechts-Platz 2, 24118 Kiel, Germany.
• Invited guest at the Round table of the "Festival della scienza di foligno", 23 April 2022, Foligno, Italy.
• Invited speaker at the "2022 International Workshop on Multiscale Innovative Materials and Structures" (MIMS22), 29 September - 1 October 2022, Cetara, Italy.
• invited lecture at International Intelligent Materials (IIM 2022) conference, 29 June - 1 July 2022, ATLANTIC Hotel Kiel, Germany. Programme.
• Congratulations to ILARIA CORRIDORI for having successfully defended her PhD thesis on "MECHANICS OF BIOFUNCTIONALIZED BIOCONDUCTING MICROFIBERS FOR THE TREATMENT OF SPINAL CORD INJURY", 23 November 2021, Trento, Italy.
• Invited speaker at the International Symposium on Biopolymer Material Informatics. 4 November 2021, Kyoto, Japan (virtual).
• Invited speaker at the INdAM meeting "Active Materials: from Mechanobiology to Smart Devices", 20-24 September 2021, Cortona, Italy.
• Opening plenary lecture at the 25th International Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, 22-27 August 2021, Milano, Italy (virtual).
• Invited speaker at the first Gordon Research Conference on Silk Proteins and the Transition to Biotechnologies, 15-20 August 2021, South Hadley, MA, USA (virtual).
• Invited speaker at the meeting A cracking approach to inventing tough new materials: fracture stranger than friction organised by the Royal Society, 19-20 October 2020, London, UK (virtual).
• Invited speaker at the University of Oxford's Department of Materials, 7 November 2019, Oxford, UK. Title of the keynote: "The Leonardo's legacy: Bio-Inspired Nanomechanics"
• Invited speaker at the Leonardo's legacy: past, present and future of made in Italy bioinspired machines workshop at the 2019 I-RIM Conference, organized in Commemoration of Leonardo da Vinci. Title of the keynote: "The Leonardo's legacy in the solid and structural mechanics: from the studies of Giuseppe Maria Pugno to my research on bioinspired nanomechanics", 19 October 2019, Rome, Italy.
• Invited speaker at the 8th International Conference on Carbon NanoParticle based Composites at the Queen Mary University of London, 17 July 2019. Programme.
• Silkene, invited lecture at "Le vie della seta" conference [in Italian], 27 November 2018, Rovereto, Italy. Programme [in Italian].
• Invited speaker at the Polytechnic of Turin workshop on PhD studies in Structural Engineering, 23 November 2018, Torino, Italy. Programme [in Italian]. Flyer [in Italian].
• Keynote speaker at TNT - Trends in Nanotechnology 2018, 3-7 September 2018, Lecce, Italy.
• Bionicomposites, keynote lecture at the 10th European Solid Mechanics Conference, 2-6 July 2018, Bologna, Italy.
• Bionicomposites, plenary lecture at The First International Conference on Materials, Mimicking, Manufacturing from and for Bio Application, 27-29 June 2018, Milano, Italy.
• Honorary and invited speaker at Jedrzey Sniadecki BioMedical Workshop (3rd edition), 4-5 June 2018, Bydoszcz, Poland. Programme.
• Frontiers in nanomechanics, Skype lecture at the UTP University of Science and Technology, 8 May 2018, Bydgoszcz, Poland. Flyer. Letter of appreciation.
• Invited speaker at RoboSoft 2018, The first IEEE-RAS International Conference on Soft Robotics, 24-28 April 2018, Livorno, Italy. Programme.
• ERC Project Bihsnam, invited presentation at the Transport Research Arena 2018, 16-19 April 2018, Wien, Austria.
• Bioinspired nanomechanics, seminar at the University of Ferrara, 23 March 2018, Ferrara, Italy. Flyer.
• Materiali bioispirati [in Italian], invited talk at I Venerdì dell'Universo, 23 March 2018, Ferrara, Italy.
• Mechanics of 2D materials and related 3D composites, lecture at the Winter School on structural characterization of graphene-based materials, 5-10 February 2018, Obergurgl, Austria. Flyer. Programme.
• Keynote speaker at the 7th International Conference on Mechanics of Biomaterials and Tissues, 10-14 December 2017, Hawaii, USA.
• Mechanics of 2d materials and related 3d composites at EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Graphene Technology, 23 November 2017, University of Cambridge, UK.
• Neurofibres: An interdisciplinary approach for spinal cord regeneration, talk (together woth PhD Student of the Lab Ilaria Corridori) at the workshop "NeuroSpine - Regeneration & ehabilitation in spinal cord injury", 16 November 2017, CNR-ITB, Segrate, Italy. Program.
• Bio-inspired products, talk at the Graphene Composite Innovation Day, 12 October 2017, Trento, Italy.
• Nanomateriali per la medicina [in Italian], talk at the workshop "La ricerca sulla lesione al midollo spinale", 6 October 2017, ASST Grande Ospedale Metropolitano Niguarda, Milan, Italy. Flyer. Program.
• Bio-inspired and graphene nanomechanics, invited talk at the University of Oxford, 13 July 2017, Oxford, UK.
• Horizon 2050: Super-materials for zero footprint, invited talk at the European Business Summit, 22-23 May 2017, Bruxelles, Belgium. Program. Picture.
• Viaggio verso marte: tecnologie, materiali e istruzioni per l'uso [in Italian], invited talk with Prof. Roberto Battiston at the VII Festa di Scienza e Filosofia, 29 April 2017, Foligno, Italy.
• Invited speaker at Graphene 2017, 28-31 March 2017, Barcelona, Spain. Flyer. Program.
• Extreme mechanics in nature, seminar at the Centre for Integrative Biology (CIBIO) of the University of Trento, 24 March 2017, Trento, Italy. Flyer.
• L'affascinante mondo dei materiali bioispirati, 20 February 2017, Liceo Prati, Trento, Italy.
• New materials could help medicine, talk at the H2020 FET Proactive NEUROFIBRES kick-off meeting, 30-31 January 2017, Hospital Nacional de Parapléjicos, Toledo, Spain. Programme. Group picture.
• Concepts and bio-inspired materials for mobility, invited external plenary talk at the Pirelli Annual Material Meeting, 13 December 2016, Milano, Italy.
• Nano and bio-inspired extreme mechanics, lecture at the Nanoscience Laboratory kick off meeting, 25 November 2016, Trento, Italy. Flyer.
• Mechanics of 2d materials and related 3d composites at EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Graphene Technology, 15 November 2016, University of Cambridge, UK.
• On other (non meta) extreme materials investigated in Trento talk at the international workshop Advances in mechanical metamaterials, 10-11 October 2016, Trento, Italy.
• Invited speaker at Beilstein Nanotechnology Symposium 2016, 27-29 September 2016, Potsdam, Germany. Group picture.
• Plenary lecture on Supercomposites for Automotive at ICAutoC 2016 International Conference on Automotive Composites, 21-23 September 2016, Lisboa, Portugal.
• Invited speaker at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 27 July 2016, Daejeon, South Korea. Flyer.
• Workshop at 1st International Symposium on Biotremology, 5-7 July 2016, Fondazione Edmund Mach, San Michele all'Adige, Italy. Flyer. Programme.
• Forum Super materiali biologici o bio-ispirati, 31 May 2016, Parco della Fondazione E. Salvadori-Zanatta, Meano, Italy. Higlight in Trentino [in Italian].
• Ispirazioni dalla natura: come nasce un biomateriale at Pint of Science 2016, 23 May 2016, Cafè de la Paix, Trento, Italy. Higlight in Corriere del Trentino e L'Adige [in Italian]
• Mechanics of 2d materials in 3d composites at 2nd Sino-Italian Workshop on Graphene and Related 2D Materials, 23-24 April 2016, Genova, Italy.
• Nanomeccanica e Bioispirazione, Seminari Carlo Emanuele e Maria Rosa Tiscornia, Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Chimica e Ambientale, Università di Genova, 20 April 2016, Genova, Italy.
• Invited talk at REDS2ALPS, 28-30 January 2016, Bolzano, Italy. Flyer 1. Flyer 2. Programme. UNITN Press Release. Interview.
• Destinazione Marte: osare con nuovi materiali bioispirati invited talk with Roberto Battiston, President of the Italian Space Agency, at TEDxTrento 2015, 28 November 2015, Teatro Sociale, Trento, Italy. Highlight on web: La Voce del Nord Est. Highlight on newspapers: Trentino [1] [2] [3], Corriere del Trentino [1] [2], Vita Trentina, L'Adige. Flyer. Video.
• Invited talk on Aerospace Related Materials at NanotechItaly 2015, 25 November 2015, CNR Bologna, Italy.
• Mechanics of 2d materials and related 3d composites at EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Graphene Technology, 11 November 2015, University of Cambridge, UK.
• Invited talk at XI Convegno Nazionale Materiali Nanofasici, 26-28 October 2015, CNR Roma, Italy.
• Invited talk at Milano Montagna, 8-10 October 2015, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano (Italy).
• Invited talk on Nanomechanotribology at NanoItaly 2015, 22 September 2015, Università La Sapienza, Roma, Italy.
• Invited talk at NanomediCEN 2015, 21 September 2015, Milano, Italy.
• Invited lecture on Mechanics of 2D materials and 3D composites at GraphITA 2015, 14-18 September 2015, CNR Bologna, Italy. Programme. Nature events.
• Lecture on "The potential of bio-inspired materials in sports equipment" at the Doctoral Course The future of sports translating technology into performance, 7-11 September 2015, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy.
• Invited talk at the Annual Meeting 2015 of the Young Academy of Europe, 7 September 2015, Darmstadt, Germany.
• Scientific board and invited lecture at International Symposium on Nanoengineered Composites, 15-17 July 2015, Risø, Roskide, Denmark. Programme.
• From bioinspired to bionic materials at Webvalley 2015, 28 June 2015, San Lorenzo in Banale, Italy. Final presentation.
• La comunicazione della ricerca tra prospettive e linguaggi, 25 June 2015, Dipartimento di Scienze Congnitive, Università di Trento, Rovereto, Italy.
• Plenary lecture at Materiais 2015 - VII International Materials Symposium, 21-23 June 2015, Porto, Portugal. Invited speakers. Programme.
• Invited lecture for the ERC celebrations for 5000 funded grants and at the European Parliament, 16 June 2015, Solvay Library & European Parliament, Bruxelles, Belgium. ERC press release, UniTn press release (in Italian).
• Nanoingegneria at La Giornata Della Scienza Galileo Ferraris, 10 April 2015, Aula Magna Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy (~ 1400 students).
• Invited lecture: Nanomechanics of Biomaterials. At REDEOR - Unified scientific approaches towards regenerative orthopaedics and dentistry, 25-27 March , 2015, Italy.
• I supermateriali, Incontri Tematici at Collegio di Merito Bernardino Clesio, 24 March 2015, Trento, Italy. Interview.
• Mechanics of 2d materials and related 3d composites at EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Graphene Technology, 23 February 2015, University of Cambridge, UK. Slides of the course.
• Invited lecture at Graphene-based technologies, 20 February 2015, Queen Mary University of London, UK. Programme.
• Meccanica del grafene e dei suoi compositi at Grafene: le prospettive italiane, 6 February 2015, Università di Milano, Italy. Picture of the event
• Il rischio misconosciuto delle valanghe himalayane: scienza e esperienza si incontrano. Nicola Pugno, Silvio Mondinelli (alpinista himalayano) e Giulio Caresio (giornalista freelance), Milano Montagna, 16-18 October 2014, Milano, Italy. Programme - Press release - Picture
• Nanoscience and Nanotechnology 2014. Opening Plenary Lecture (via Skype). 6 October 2014, INFN, Frascati, Italy. Programme
• Invited speaker at 100th National Congress of the Italian Physics Society, 26 September 2014, Pisa, Italy. Programme
• Invited speaker at IED Square 2014, 22 September 2014, Milano, Italy.
• STAMM 2014, Lecture at the XIX Symposium on Trends in Application of Mathematics to Mechanics, 8-11 September 2014, Poitiers, France.
• Smart solutions from the Plant Kingdom: beyond the animal models - Superhydrophobicity in plants, ACCADEMIA DEI GEORGOFILI, 9 June 2014, Firenze, Italy.
• Super Materials, ImaLab lecture at Interpack 2014, 8-14 May 2014, Düsseldorf, Germany. Picture
• L'evoluzione odierna dell'arte della Meccanica di Leonardo, la Nanomeccanica, Festival di Scienza e Filosofia, 10-13 April 2014, Foligno, Italy.
• L’avvento della Nanomeccanica, ACCADEMIA NAZIONALE DEI LINCEI, 10 January 2014, Roma, Italy.
• The unacknowledged risk of himalayan avalanches triggering, 5TH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS MOUNTAIN SPORT AND HEALTH (MSH) 2013, 9-10 December 2013, Rovereto, Italy.
• Mechanics of graphene, nanoscrolls and composites for an optimal design in industrial applications., Invited speaker at REGINA 2013 - New challenges for REsearch on Graphene: from growth and state-of-the-art towards INdustrial Applications, 3-4 December 2013, Trieste.
• Invited Speaker at NanotechItaly2013, 27-29 November 2013, Venice.
• Lessons of Nanomechanics from Nature, 26 November 2013, Trento, Italy.
• Nanotecnology and Bio-inspired materials, Lecture at the European Academy of Bolzano, 21 November 2013.
• The sustainable link in a new approach between Europe and the Arab Nations, Round Table (including Nobel Laureate Mario J. Molina), 26 October 2013, Rimini, Italy.
• Invited lecture on Bioinspired Materials at 1st Euregio Research Cooperation Day, Highligth of Research at the University of Trento, 24-25 October 2013, Bolzano-Bozen.
• The “Egg of Columbus” For Making The World’s Toughest Fibres (Opening Lecture, via skype, at Nanoscience and Nanotechnology 2013, 30 September 2013).
• Graphene and bio-inspiration. 25TH ANNIVERSARY CONFERENCE OF THE ACADEMIA EUROPAEA (AE) (preliminary program), AE-LETTERS (for AE members elected in 2012 and Young AE members), Wroclaw, Poland, 16-19 September 2013.
• Prof. Pugno at the Annual Meeting of the Young Academy of Europe 2013
• I Super-materiali del domani. TEDxMilano2013 “Ieri, Oggi, Domani”, June 1, 2013, Piccolo Teatro Grassi, Milan, Italy.
• Tavola Rotonda sul progetto Grafene, con Andrea Ferrari, Vittorio Pellegrini e Nicola Pugno, moderata da Piero Bianucci. May 16, 2013, Salone del Libro, Turin, Italy.
• Biology inspired Supermaterials: from the Space Elevator to Spiderman, LAGRANGE LECTURE (N. 4), Magnus-Haus Berlin Am Kupfergraben, Tuesday, May 7, 2013, Berlin. The discussion will be chaired by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Eberhardt Scientific Director Magnus-Haus.
• I Fantastici 4 (nanomateriali), GIOVEDÌ SCIENZA, February 7, 2013, Teatro Colosseo, Turin, Italy.
• FALLING WALLS CONFERENCE: FUTURE BREAKTHROUGHS IN SCIENCE AND SOCIETY, 9 November 2012, Berlin, Germany. World class researchers present their "ideas that could dramatically transform life worldwide" (Scientific American) every 9 November in Berlin to an exclusive audience from science, business, politics, culture and society. Sponsorized also by ERC and Nature. See highlight on ERC Facebook Page
• Come costruire la tuta dell'uomo ragno, FESTIVAL DELLA SCIENZA, October 29 2012, Palazzo Ducale, Sala del Maggior Consiglio, Genoa, Italy.
• Plenary lecture on Nanomechanics of graphene at GRAPHEL, 27-30 September 2012, Mykonos, Greece.
• Designing nature-inspired super materials, in IdeasLab Harnessing Science with Nature Magazine (Facilitated by Dr. Campbell, Editor-in-Chief, Nature Magazine), WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM, 11-13 September 2012, Tianjin, China.
• From mind to market: energy materials (Facilitated by Dr. DiChristina, Editor-in-Chief, Scientific American), WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM, 11-13 September 2012, Tianjin, China.
• Fracture and adhesion of super-nanomaterials, 19th European Conference on Fracture, 26-31 August 2012, Kazan, Russia.
• The fantastic 4 (nanomaterials): graphene (the strongest), spider-silk (the toughest), gecko foot (the most adhesive) and lotus leaf (the most anti-adhesive). First International Conference on Mechanics of Nano, Micro and Macro Composite Structures, June 18-20, 2012, Turin, Italy.
• Chi tesse la tela dell’uomo ragno?, SETTIMANA DELLA SCIENZA, March 15 2012, Teatro del Popolo, Gallarate, Italy.
• I fantastici 4 (nanomateriali), Winner of "PREMIO GIOVEDÌ SCIENZA", March 7 2012, Teatro Colosseo, Turin, Italy.
• Chi tesse la tela dell’uomo ragno?, GIOVEDÌ SCIENZA, January 12 2012, Teatro Colosseo, Turin, Italy.

Movies

 

• Prof. Pugno talk at the Solvay Library for the celebration of the 5000th ERC Grantee, 17 June 2015, Bruxelles, Belgium.
  
• PLENARY LECTURE: FALLING WALLS CONFERENCE. FUTURE BREAKTHROUGHS IN SCIENCE AND SOCIETY, 9 November 2012, Berlin, Germany.
  

Curriculum

Curriculum vitae

Research topics

1. Bio-inspired hierarchical super nanomaterials (e.g. self-healing)
2. Super-strong graphene, nanotubes and related bundles and composites (e.g. flaw tolerant)
3. Smart adhesion of insects, spiders and geckos and related gecko-inspired nanostructured surfaces (e.g. peeling theories)
4. Self-cleaning & anti-adhesive super-hydrophobic leaves and related lotus-inspired nanostructured surfaces (e.g. anti-ice)
5. Spider-silk and web and related spider-inspired super-tough materials and structures (e.g. anti-catastrophes)
6. Design and fabrication of Nano Electro Mechanical Systems (e.g. nanotubes or graphene based)
7. Hierarchical fibre bundle -or lattice spring- models, ropes, tissues and cellular solids (e.g. role of hierarchy)
8. Graphene nanoscrolls and related systems (e.g. nanomotors)
9. Nanomedicine: tumor cellular growth, nanovector therapeutics, scaffolds for the regenerative medicine (e.g. tumor cell dynamic resonances)
10. Nanoindentation and related size- and shape-effects (e.g. universal scaling laws on hardness)
11. Quantized Fracture Mechanics, in quasi-static, dynamic and fatigue regimes (e.g. role of defects in graphene)
12. Nanoscale Weibull & Fractal Statistics and related size-effects on material strength (e.g. nanotubes statistics)
13. Multiscale fragmentation under impact and explosions and structural dynamics (e.g. universal scaling laws on energy dissipation)
14. Nanotribology (e.g. of graphene, biological or hierarchical surfaces)
15. Bionicomposites (e.g. bionic silk spun by spiders fed with nanomaterials)
16. Metamaterials (e.g. seismic shielding)

Adjunct Scientists

Anna Rising 2024	Giuseppe Puglisi 2023	Rainer Adelung 2022	Antonella Motta 2021	Federico Bosia 2020
Massimiliano Fraldi 2019	Luca Valentini 2018	Barbara Mazzolai 2017	Costas Galiotis2016	Stanislav Gorb2015
Horacio Espinosa2014	Andrea Ferrari2013	Rodney Ruoff2012	Huajian Gao2011	Markus Buehler2010
Francesco Pugno2009

Sponsors

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Solid and Structural Mechanics Group of the University of Trento