Conference Details - Speakers

Vladimir Bulovic is the Professor of Electrical Engineering at MIT, leading the Organic and Nanostructured Electronics laboratory, directing the MIT Microsystems Technology Laboratories, co-directing the eni-MIT Solar Frontiers Center and co-heading the MIT Energy Studies Program. Bulovic’s research interests include studies of physical properties of organic and organic/inorganic nanocrystal composite thin films and structures, and development of novel nanostructured optoelectronic devices. He an author of over 120 research articles (cited over 8000 times) and an inventor of over 45 U.S. patents in areas of light emitting diodes, lasers, photovoltaics, photodetectors, chemical sensors, programmable memories, and micro-electro machines, majority of which have been licensed and utilized by both start-up and multinational companies. He is a founder of QD Vision, Inc. of Watertown MA which is focused on development of quantum dot optolectronics, Kateeva, Inc. of Menlo Park CA which is focused on development of printed organic electronics, and Ubiquitous Energy, Inc. which is focused on the development of nanostructured solar technologies. Prof. Bulovic received his M.S. Degree form Columbia University in 1993 and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1998. He is a recipient of the U.S. Presidential Early Carrier Award for Scientist and Engineers, the National Science Foundation Career Award, the Ruth and Joel Spira Award, Eta Kappa Nu Honor Society Award and the Bose Award for Distinguished Teaching, he was named to Technology Review TR100 List, and in 2012 he shared the SEMI Award for North America in recognition of his contribution to commercialization of the quantum dot technology. In 2008 he was named the Class of 1960 Faculty Fellow in recognition of his contribution to Energy Education, in 2009 he was awarded the Margaret MacVicar Faculty Fellowship, MITs highest teaching honor, and in 2011 he was named the Faculty Research Innovation Fellow for excellence in research and international recognition.

Yann Cramer is General Manager, Innovation & Technology Sourcing, for Shell Lubricants. In the past five years he has brought his business experience, creative thinking, passion for innovation and drive for disciplined delivery to the re-design and execution of the R&D programme of lubricants. He has experienced first hand the joys and challenges of creating an innovation culture, the need to foster collaboration with external providers, and to integrate the various aspects of new product development through to manufacturing and commercialisation.

Yann joined Shell in 1988 and progressed through Supply Chain, Sales and Marketing roles in Shell Chemicals through to 2000 when he was appointed Global Strategy and Marketing Manager for Shell Bitumen working with products used in road construction. He joined Shell Lubricants in 2003 before assuming his current role.

Yann is a guest contributor on innovation to the competence development and career excellence forum www.MindTools.com, the editor of www.InnovToday.com, a blog dedicated to innovation skills and insights for leaders, managers and individuals, and a regular contributor to other blogs such as www.innovationexcellence.com

He is married with three children. To relax and recharge, he enjoys martial arts, creative writing, cooking, skiing and trekking.

John Deutch is an Institute Professor at MIT. Mr. Deutch has been a member of the MIT faculty since 1970, and has served as Chairman of the Department of Chemistry, Dean of Science and Provost. Mr. Deutch has published over 140 technical publications in physical chemistry, as well as numerous publications on technology, energy, international security, and public policy issues.

John Deutch has served in significant government and academic posts throughout his career. In May 1995, he was sworn in as Director of Central Intelligence following a unanimous vote in the Senate, and served as DCI until December 1996. In this position, he was head of the Intelligence Community (all foreign intelligence agencies of the United States) and directed the Central Intelligence Agency. From March 1994 to May 1995, he served as the Deputy Secretary of Defense. From March 1993 to March 1994, Dr. Deutch served as Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisitions and Technology.

From 1977 to 1980, John Deutch served in a number of positions for the U.S. Department of Energy: as Director of Energy Research, Acting Assistant Secretary for Energy Technology, and Undersecretary of the Department.

In addition John Deutch has served on many commissions during several presidential administrations. He has served on the President's Nuclear Safety Oversight Committee (1980-81); the President's Commission on Strategic Forces (1983); the White House Science Council (1985-89); the President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (1997-2001), the President's Intelligence Advisory Board (1990-93); the President' Commission on Aviation Safety and Security (1996); the Commission on Reducing and Protecting Government Secrecy (1996); and as Chairman of the Commission to Assess the Organization of the Federal Government to Combat the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (1998-99).

John Deutch has received fellowships and honors from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1978) and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (Research Fellow 1967-69), and John Simon Guggenheim Foundation (Memorial Fellow 1974-1975). Public Service Medals have been awarded him from the Department of Energy (1980), the Department of State (1980), the Department of Defense (1994 and 1995), the Department of the Army (1995), the Department of the Navy (1995), the Department of the Air Force (1995), the Coast Guard (1995), the Central Intelligence Distinguished Intelligence Medal (1996) and the Intelligence Community Distinguished Intelligence Medal (1996). He received the Greater Boston Federal Executive Board's Speaker Thomas P. O'Neill Award for exemplary public service in 2002, the Aspen Strategy Group Leadership Award in 2004, and he was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2007. He is a member of the National Petroleum Council.

John Deutch earned a B.A. in history and economics from Amherst College, and both the B.S. in chemical engineering and Ph.D. in physical chemistry from M.I.T. He holds honorary degrees from Amherst College, University of Lowell, and Northeastern University. He serves as director for the following publicly held companies: Cheniere Energy, Citigroup, and Raytheon. He is a trustee of the Center for American Progress, Resources for the Future, the Urban Institute (life), and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Francesca Ferrazza is Vice President of eni in the Research and Technological Innovation Unit, and is Head of Technology Direction and External Cooperation. In particular, the focus of her work is on the Research Programme on Renewable Energy Sources and Environmental Technologies at Corporate level.

She has a background in semiconductor physics and over twenty years of experience in applied research and R&D management, specifically in the field of photovoltaics, in particular crystalline and thin film silicon technology. She is member of the European Photovoltaic Technology Platform, of many national and international scientific committees and working groups on renewable energy, including the European Photovoltaic Technology Conference and Exhibition as Topic Organizer and the IEEE PVSC as scientific member and International Committee co-Chair for over ten years, and the advisory group for Research Infrastructure of the European Commission (ESFRI). She has published many journal and conference articles and papers, book chapters, and is co-inventor of patents in the field of photovoltaics.

Professor Ghoniem is the Ronald C. Crane ('72) professor of Mechanical Engineering and the director of the Center for 21st Century Energy at MIT. He holds B.S. (1973) and M.S. (1975) degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Cairo University in Egypt and a Ph.D. degree from the University of California, Berkeley (1980). He served as a research scientist at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory from 1980-83. Since 1983 he has been at MIT where he established the Reacting Gas Dynamics Laboratory and has supervised a number of M.S. & Ph.D. students, post-docs and research scientists. He is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

William H. Green is the Hoyt C. Hottel Professor and Executive Officer of the MIT Dept. of Chemical Engineering. He is also the Editor of the International Journal of Chemical Kinetics. Before joining the MIT faculty in 1997, he was a Principal Investigator at Exxon’s Corporate Research Laboratory for six years. He is the author of more than 140 journal papers on chemical kinetics, spectroscopy, thermochemistry, and combustion/engine simulation. He has won several major awards, most recently the American Chemical Society’s Glenn Award in Fuel Chemistry in 2009.

Susan Hockfield has served as the sixteenth president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since December 2004. A strong advocate of the vital role that science, technology, and the research university play in the world, she believes that MIT can best advance its historic mission of teaching, research, and service by providing robust and sustained support for the ideas and energies of its faculty and students.

A noted neuroscientist whose research has focused on the development of the brain, Dr. Hockfield is the first life scientist to lead MIT and holds a faculty appointment as professor of neuroscience in the Institute's Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences.

Dr. Hockfield encourages collaborative work among MIT's schools, departments, and interdisciplinary laboratories and centers to keep the Institute at the forefront of innovation. She believes that MIT's strengths in engineering and science uniquely position the Institute to pioneer newly evolving, interdisciplinary areas and to translate them into practice. Together with MIT's traditions of excellence in architecture and planning, management, and the humanities, arts and social sciences, these strengths will allow the Institute to continue to develop powerful solutions to our era's greatest challenges.

Under her leadership, MIT has launched a major Institute-wide initiative in energy research and education and continues to expand its activities at the intersection of the life sciences and engineering, with a particular focus on cancer research. The Institute has also embarked on a sustained effort to strengthen support for student life and learning, including undergraduate curriculum renewal, and is undertaking major campus construction and renovation projects with a combined value of approximately three-quarters of a billion dollars.

Believing that MIT has a responsibility to help develop new models of teaching and research for a global age, Dr. Hockfield has also worked to extend the university's long tradition of international engagement through initiatives in education and scholarship with partners around the world.

Before assuming the presidency of MIT, Dr. Hockfield was the William Edward Gilbert Professor of Neurobiology and provost at Yale University. She joined the Yale faculty in 1985 and was named full professor in 1994. While at Yale, she played a central role in the university's leadership, first as dean of its Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (1998-2002), with oversight of over 70 graduate programs, and then as provost, the university's chief academic and administrative officer.

Dr. Hockfield's research has focused on the development of the brain and on glioma, a deadly kind of brain cancer. She pioneered the use of monoclonal antibody technology in brain research, leading to her discovery of a protein that regulates changes in neuronal structure as a result of an animal's experience in early life. More recently she discovered a gene and its family of protein products that play a critical role in the spread of cancer in the brain and may represent new therapeutic targets for glioma.

Dr. Hockfield earned her B.A. in biology from the University of Rochester and a Ph.D. from the Georgetown University School of Medicine, while carrying out her dissertation research in neuroscience at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She was an NIH postdoctoral fellow at the University of California at San Francisco in 1979-80, and then joined the scientific staff at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York in 1980. She served as director of the Laboratory's Summer Neurobiology Program from 1985 to 1997, concurrent with her teaching post at Yale, and more recently as a trustee of the laboratory.

Dr. Hockfield holds honorary degrees from Brown University, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Tsinghua University (Beijing), University of Edinburgh and the Watson School of Biological Sciences at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her other honors include the Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal from the Yale University Graduate School, the Meliora Citation for Career Achievement from the University of Rochester, and the Charles Judson Herrick Award from the American Association of Anatomists for outstanding contributions by a young scientist.

Dr. Hockfield is a director of the General Electric Company, a trustee of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and a member of the Board of Overseers of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She has served on the National Advisory Neurological Disorders and Stroke Council of the NIH, as well as a number of other advisory boards. Her memberships in professional societies include the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Society for Neuroscience.

Dr. Hockfield lives in Cambridge with her husband, Thomas N. Byrne, M.D., and their daughter, Elizabeth.

Melanie A. Kenderdine joined the MIT Energy Initiative in March 2007. Kenderdine is a member of a three-person leadership team of the Initiative, responsible for its implementation and the development of long-range strategies for its activities, management and growth. Prior to joining MIT, she was vice president of the Gas Technology Institute for Washington operations, where she was involved in major initiatives to increase domestic natural gas supply, enhance energy efficiency and security and promote the research needs of the natural gas industry. From 1993 to 2001, Kenderdine served in several key posts at the U.S. Department of Energy, including director of the Office of Policy and senior advisor to the secretary. Kenderdine has testified before Congress on many occasions, has served on numerous energy task forces and is a frequent speaker at international energy conferences, including the World Petroleum Congress, IEA’s International Energy Experts Conference in Abu Dhabi and the Turkish War College in Istanbul.

Karl F. Koster is the Executive Director of the MIT Office of Corporate Relations. The Office of Corporate Relations at MIT includes the Industrial Liaison Program, which celebrated 60 years of service to the Institute and its corporate partners in 2008.

In that capacity, he and his staff work with the senior administrative and faculty leadership of MIT in developing and implementing strategies for enhancing corporate involvement with the Institute. Mr. Koster has been involved with faculty leaders in identifying and designing a number of major international programs for MIT. Many of these programs focus on institutional development and are characterized by the establishment of strong, international, programmatic linkages between universities, industry, and governments.

Mr. Koster graduated from Brown University with a B.A. in geology and economics in 1974, and received a M.S. from the MIT Sloan School of Management in 1980. At the Sloan School he concentrated in international business management and the management of technological innovation. Prior to returning to MIT, Mr. Koster worked as a management consultant for seven years in Europe, Latin America, and the United States on projects for private and public sector organizations.

John H. Lienhard V is the Collins Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. During more than 24 years on the MIT faculty, Lienhard’s research and educational efforts have focused on heat transfer, desalination, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and instrumentation. He has also filled a number of administrative roles at MIT. Lienhard received his bachelors and masters degrees in thermal engineering at UCLA from the Chemical, Nuclear, and Thermal Engineering Department, where he worked on thermal instabilities in solar collectors and evaporating meniscus measurements for desalination systems. He joined MIT immediately after completing his PhD in the Applied Mechanics and Engineering Science Department at UC San Diego, where he did experimental work on thermally stratified turbulent flows.

Since coming to MIT, Lienhard has worked on liquid jet impingement, buoyant instabilities, high heat flux engineering, electronics thermal management, glass fiber formation, and thermally-driven desalination processes. He is a recipient of the 1988 National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award and the 1992 SAE Teetor Award. He has been the Director of the Rohsenow Kendall Heat Transfer Laboratory since 1997, and he is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He serves on the editorial boards of several international journals, including the International Journal of Thermal Sciences, Desalination and Water Treatment, Desalination, Experimental Heat Transfer, Frontiers in Heat and Mass Transfer, and Acta Mechanica.

Lienhard is the co-author of textbooks on heat transfer and on measurement and instrumentation. His heat transfer book has been available online at no charge since 2002, and more than 275,000 copies have been downloaded. His measurements book has sold more than 100,000 copies. He has created new courses on desalination, on thermal modeling, and on compressible fluid mechanics. He has also received several awards at MIT for his teaching. At MIT, Lienhard has served as Associate Head of the ME department, Undergraduate Officer, Head of the Fluids, Energy & Transport Division of ME, and as chair or member of innumerable committees. Professor Lienhard is currently the Director of the Center for Clean Water and Clean Energy at MIT and KFUPM, and he visits the Arabian Gulf often.

George Lo received his B.Sc. and Ph.D. from Imperial College, London, in 1973 and 1977. Before joining Siemens AG in 1987, he worked as systems analyst in London for Continental Oil Company Ltd. and Digital Applications International Ltd., designing process control, energy management and flexible manufacturing systems. In his 16 years with the Industry Sector of Siemens AG in Erlangen, George served as chief systems architect for several of the sector’s automation and control product innovations. In 2003, George joined Siemens Corporate Research in Princeton as the Global Technology Field leader for automation and control. In recognition of the impact of his research on Siemens business, Siemens named George one of Siemens’ Top Innovators in 2006. Starting in 2011, George assumed the role of Senior Principal for Corporate Research, responsible for initiating and driving innovation.

In recent years, George extended his research area to include functional modeling, product lifecycle management, high performance building, demand response, city lifecycle management and sustainable development.

Ernest J. Moniz is the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics and Engineering Systems, Director of the Energy Initiative, and Director of the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment at the MIT Department of Physics, where he has served on the faculty since 1973. Professor Moniz served as Under Secretary of the Department of Energy from 1997 until January 2001 and, from 1995-97, as Associate Director for Science in the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President. He currently serves on President Obama’s Council of Advisors for Science and Technology (PCAST).

After receiving a degree in physics and an MBA, Simone Mori held several positions at Enel SpA. Since 1996, he has been involved with the internal and strategic reorganization of Enel after the Italian electricity market liberalization and Enel’s privatization. In February 2004, he became responsible for Enel regulatory affairs, and in February 2007, he became head of the Regulation and Corporate Strategy Department, currently named Regulation and Environment. He coordinates all activities of the Enel Group in the field of regulation, in Italy and abroad. He is vice president of Assoelettrica, chairman of the Assolombarda Energy Merchandise, president of the energy sector of the Industrial Union of Rome, a member of the Energy Commission of Confindustria, and member of the CESI Board of Directors. He also teaches at the Faculty of Engineering of the “La Sapienza” University of Rome.

Sergey Paltsev is the lead modeler in charge of the MIT Emissions Prediction and Policy Analysis (EPPA) model of the world economy. His research covers a wide range of topics including energy economics, climate policy, taxation, advanced energy technologies, and international trade. He was lead author of the Joint Program's analysis of McCain-Liebermann 2003 Climate Stewardship Act, and analysis of the 2007 U.S. GHG Cap-and-Trade proposals. The results of the MIT studies are widely used in the U.S. Senate, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy. Before joining the MIT Program in 2002, Sergey Paltsev worked as a Consultant for International Management and Communication Corporation and the World Bank and as an Executive Director of the Program in Economics and Management of Technology at Belarusian State University.

Ignacio Pérez-Arriaga is Director of the BP Chair on Sustainable Development and Full Professor of electrical engineering at Comillas University, where he was Founder and Director of the Instituto de Investigación Tecnológica (IIT, Institute for Technological Research) for 11 years, and has been Vice-Rector for Research. For five years he served as Commissioner at the Spanish Electricity Regulatory Commission. He is life member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Engineering and Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). He is member of the European Energy Institute, a high-level think tank providing academic input into both European Community and national decision making on energy issues. He is Director of the Training Program for European Energy Regulators at the Florence School of Regulation within the European University in Florence. He is the author of the White Paper on the Spanish electricity sector, which has been delivered to the Spanish Government in July 2005.

He has been principal researcher in more than 40 projects and he has published more than 100 papers in national and international journals and conference proceedings. He has supervised 20 doctoral theses. He has worked and lectured extensively on power system dynamic analysis, monitoring and diagnosis of power system devices and systems, intelligent computer design of industrial systems, planning and operation of electric generation and networks, and regulatory, economic and environmental aspects of the energy sector. In this latter topic he has been a consultant for governments, international institutions, industrial associations, and utilities in more than 30 countries. His current research interests are centred on energy regulation, the design of regional electricity markets and energy sustainability. During the academic year 2008-09 he is invited professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEPR).

Francesco Profumo (M’88-SM’90) was born in Savona, Italy, in 1953. He graduated in Electrical Engineering from the Politecnico di Torino, Italy, in 1977. Since 1978 to 1984, he worked as Senior Engineer for the R&D Ansaldo Group in Genova (Italy).

In 1984 he joined the Department of Electrical Engineering of the Politecnico di Torino, where he was Associate Professor till 1995. He is Professor of Electrical Machines and Drives at Politecnico di Torino and Adjunct Professor at University of Bologna.

Since September 2003, Dr. Profumo was the Dean of the Engineering Faculty at the Politecnico di Torino and since October 2005 he is the Rector of the Politecnico di Torino.

Since August 2011 he has been appointed as President of CNR (National Research Council), from November 16 Prof. Profumo is the Minister of Education, University and Research.

He was Visiting Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA) in the years 1986-88, at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science of Nagasaki University (Japan) (years 1996-97), at the
Department of Electrical Engineering of Technical University of Prague (Czech Republic) (year 1999) and at the Department of Electrical Engineering of Technical University of Cordoba (Argentina) (years 2004 and 2005).

His 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.

He published more than 250 papers in International Conferences and Technical Journals. He is reviewer of several technical journals: IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, IEE Proceedings – Part B and EPE Journal.

Dr. Profumo is an active member of the IEEE-IAS Drives Committee and he served as Chairman of the same Committee (2004-2005) and Editor of IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications (2002- 2003). He was also AdCom member of the IEEE PELS.

He is a member of the Technical Program Committee of several International Conferences in the Power Electronics and Motor Drives field and he was the Technical Co-Chairman of the PCC’02 in Osaka (Japan) in 2002. In 2006 he was the Technical Co-Chairman of the Conference IPEMC’06 in Shanghai (China). He is member of the Board of Directors of EPE Association.

Dr. 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 and by the Honorary Doctor Degree, Politechnica of Tirana (Albania), October 1, 2009.

Further awards: China Awards by the Fondazione Italia-Cina in 2009, Certificate of Appreciation by the Fulbright Commission in 2009, Orden Universidad Javeriana by the Javeriana University (Bogotà, Colombia) in 2010, Escudo de Oro by University of Antioquia (Medellin, Colombia) in 2010.

Further more, he received the Gold Lions Award in Torino in 2008, the Valdo Fusi Award in 2010 and the Guido Carli Award in 2011. He is member of the selection Committee of the ENI Awards.

He was the Chairman of the G8 University Summit 2009 in Italy (May 2009) and he is the President of the Columbus Association (Association of 55 Latin American and European Universities).

Prof. Profumo is the Chairman of the Administration Board of the Politecnico di Torino since October 2005.

Prof. Profumo was member of the Administration Board of Unicredit Private Bank (2008-2010) and Il Sole 24 Ore (2007-2009) and he is member of the Adminstration Board of Fidia s.p.a. (2007-2010).

Since 2011 to day, Dr. Profumo is member of the Administration Board of Fidia s.p.a., of the Administration Board of Telecom and of the Administration Board of Pirelli.

Since 2011, he is member of the Division Committee of the Private Banking of Unicredit Banca.

Prof. Profumo is also member of the Advisory Board of the Innogest Fund and of the Reply S.p.a. He is member of the Academy of Science in Italy (since 2007) and member of the Academia Europaea - Physics and Engineering Section since 2010.

He is a Registered Professional Engineer in Italy.

Mr Recchi was born in 1964 and he is Chairman of the Board of eni since May 2011.

He is Vice Chairman of GE Capital SpA; member of the board of directors, the compensation and audit committees for Exor Spa (listed at Milan Stock Exchange); member of the European Advisory Board for Blackstone and member of the Massachussetts Institute of Technology E.I. External Advisory Board.

He is also member of the executive committees of Confindustria (the Confederation of Italian Industries, where he is Chairman of the Foreign Investment Committee), Assonime (Association of Italian Joint Stock Companies), Aspen Institute Italia; member of the Trilateral Commission; member of the board of directors of FEEM-eni Enrico Mattei Foundation and of the Italian Institute of Technology.

He graduated in Engineering at Politechnic of Turin. In 1989 started his career as entrepreneur at Recchi SpA, a general contractor active in 25 countries in the construction of high-tech public infrastructures. Since 1994 he served as Executive Chairman of Recchi America Inc., the U.S. branch of the Group and as Managing Director for the overseas activities of Ferrocemento-Recchi Group (now Condotte S.p.A.).

In 1999 he joined General Electric, where he held several managerial positions in Europe and in the USA. He served as Director of GE Capital Structure Finance Group; Managing director for Industrial M&A and Business Development for GE EMEA; President & CEO of GE Italy. Until May 2011 he was President & CEO of GE South Europe.

Mr Recchi, has been member of the Honorary Committee for the Rome Candidacy to the 2020 Olympic Games, member of the board of Permasteelisa Spa (listed at Milan stock exchange), Advisory Board member for Invest Industrial (private equity) and visiting professor in Structured Finance to Turin University.

Mr. Recchi is occasionally editorial commentator for financial papers (Il Sole 24 Ore, Corriere della Sera, MF and Harvard Business Review).

Adèle Naudé Santos was appointed dean of the School of Architecture and Planning in February of 2004. Most recently she was professor at the University of California, Berkeley, College of Environmental Design where her academic focus has been the design of housing environments. Her interdisciplinary courses in urban design encourage architecture, landscape, and urban design students to collaborate and address unsolved problems in the urban environment.

Previously she was the founding dean at the University of California at San Diego School of Architecture and professor of architecture and urban design at the University of Pennsylvania where she was also chair of the architecture department for six years. She also taught at Harvard University Graduate School of Design and at Rice University. She has had numerous visiting appointments throughout the United States and the world, including Italy and in her native South Africa.

Professor Santos has an AA Diploma from the Architectural Association in London. She also received a Master of Architecture in Urban Design from Harvard University as well as a Master of Architecture and a Master of City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania.

In addition to her academic work, she is principal architect in the San Francisco-based firm, Santos Prescott and Associates. Her architectural and planning projects include affordable and luxury housing and institutional buildings in Africa; affordable housing in Japan; the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia; the Center for the Arts at Albright College, Reading, PA; the Yerba Buena Gardens Children's Center in San Francisco; and City Links, A Vision Plan for San Diego; Franklin/LaBrea Affordable Housing in Hollywood, CA. She recently exhibited in a solo show at the Museum of Modern Art in Kitakyushu, Japan.

She has received numerous awards and honors including being named Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1996. Professor Santos has won numerous competitions for projects including the Perris Civic Center (CA), three facilities at Arts Park (CA), the Affordable Prototypical Multi-Family Housing for Franklin/LaBrea in Los Angeles, and Penn Children's Center (PA).

She serves as a juror for numerous national and international design competitions and award programs and has published extensively in journals and books.

She holds N.C.A.R.B. Certification, is a registered architect in Massachusetts, and is a Member of the Pennsylvania Society of Architects, the American Institute of Architects, and the Architect's Registration Council, in the United Kingdom.

Dr. Gregory Stephanopoulos is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT. He received his B.S. Degree from the National Technical University of Athens, M.S. Degree from the University of Florida and his Ph.D. Degree from the University of Minnesota, all in Chemical Engineering. He joined, upon finishing his doctorate in 1978, the Chemical Engineering Faculty of Caltech and in 1985 he was appointed Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT where he has been ever since. He served as Associate Director of the Biotechnology Process Engineering Center (1990-97) and member of the International Faculty of the Technical University of Denmark (2001-). He is also the Taplin Professor of HST (2001-), Instructor of Bioengineering at HMS (1997-), and the W. and H. Dow Professor of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology.

Professor Stephanopoulos' current research focuses on metabolic engineering and its applications to the production of fuels, biochemicals and specialty chemicals, as well as mammalian cell physiology as it pertains to diabetes and metabolism. Professor Stephanopoulos has co-authored or -edited 5 books and ~300 papers and 25 patents. He has supervised 50 graduate and 40 post-doctoral students and is presently the editor-in-chief of the journal Metabolic Engineering; he also serves on the Editorial Boards of 7 scientific journals. He has been recognized with the Dreyfus Foundation Teacher Scholar Award (1982), Excellence in Teaching Award (1984), Technical Achievement Award of the AIChE (1984), PYI Award (1984), AIChE-FPBE Division Award (1997), M.J. Johnson Award of ACS (2001), and the R.H. Wilhelm Award in Chemical Reaction Engineering of the AIChE (2001). In 1992 he chaired the FPBE Division of AIChE and was elected a Founding Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. In 2002 he received the Merck Award in Metabolic Engineering and was elected to the Board of Directors of AIChE. In 2003, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and in 2005 was awarded an honorary doctorate degree (doctor technices honoris causa) by the Technical University of Denmark. In 2007 he won the C. Thom Award from SIM and the Founders Award from AIChE.

Professor Stephanopoulos has taught a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses at Caltech and MIT and co-authored the first textbook on the subject of Metabolic Engineering. He introduced and directed three MIT summer courses on the subjects of Metabolic Engineering (1995-99), Bioinformatics (2000-04) and Biomass-to-Biofules Conversion (2008-).

He is presently directing a research group of approximately 25 researchers comprising ~15 graduate students, as well as post-doctoral fellows and visitors.

Giuseppe Tannoia graduated in Geology at the Pavia University in 1983. After a period as researcher in the CNR (National Research Agency) he joined eni in 1985 as reservoir geologist. He spent more than 15 years in overseas assignments covering technical and managerial position in exploration, development and operations. In 2000 was manager of eni technical services in London, then General Manager of Lasmo Grand Maghreb Ltd in Libya and then Director of Agip Oil, in Libya. During his stay in Libya has completed several projects, including the Elephant development, Abu Attifel revamping, Bouri field subsea development. He 'was chairman of Greenstream from 2002 to 2004. From 2005 to 2011 covered top management positions in both technical services and assets management being Senior Vice President for South Europe region, eni E&P activities. From September 2011 he is responsible for research and technological innovation of the eni E&P Division.

Kripa Varanasi is a Doherty Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. He received his B.Tech from IIT, Madras and his MS (ME and EECS) and Ph.D from MIT. Prior to joining MIT, Dr. Varanasi was a lead research scientist and project leader in the Energy & Propulsion and Nanotechnology programs at the GE Global Research Center, Niskayuna, NY, and was the PI for the DARPA Advanced Electronics Cooling program. The primary focus of his research is in the development of nano-engineered surface, interface, and coating technologies that can dramatically enhance performance in energy, water, agriculture, transportation, buildings, and electronics cooling systems. He is enabling this approach via highly interdisciplinary research focused on a nanoengineered surfaces and interfaces, thermal-fluid science and new materials discovery combined with scalable nanomanufacturing. His work spans various thermal-fluid and interfacial phenomena including phase transitions (condensation, boiling, freezing), nanoscale thermal transport, separation, wetting, catalysis, flow assurance in oil and gas, nanofabrication, and synthesis of inorganic bulk and nanoscale materials guided via computational materials design. Dr. Varanasi has filed more than 30 patents in this area. He was awarded the First Prize at the 2008 ASME Nanotechnology Symposium and won several awards at GE Research Labs including Technology Project of the Year, Best Patent Award, Inventor Award, and Leadership Award. Most recently he received the MIT Energy Initiative award, MIT-Deshpande Award, 2010 IEEE-ASME ITherm best paper award, NSF Career Award and DARPA Young Faculty Award.

More details at varanasi.mit.edu

Ellen Williams joined BP as Chief Scientist in January, 2010. She is responsible for supporting the basic science that underpins the company’s technology programs, as well as its major university research programs around the world. She also provides strategic scientific advice to BP’s senior executives on matters of Group significance.

Prior to joining BP, Ellen worked for over thirty years in academia, obtaining her Ph.D at Caltech in 1981, and then moving to the University of Maryland, where she rose to become a Distinguished University Professor in the Institute of Physical Science and Technology and the Department of Physics. Her research specialty in nanoscience lies at the intersection of physics, chemistry and materials science. In support of her research interests, she founded the University of Maryland Materials Research Science and Engineering Center and served as its director for 15 years. In parallel, Ellen has worked extensively in providing technical advice to the U.S. government, primarily through the Departments of Energy and Defence.

Ellen has published widely in her research specialty, and has served on a large number of professional committees. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Physical Society, American Vacuum Society and American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has been recognized by awards from the American Physical Society and the Materials Research Society.