Francesco MARRA | Curriculum

Education
11/1999 – 10/2002, PhD in Chemical Engineering, University of Salerno (completed February 2003).
09/1992 – 05/1999, Master degree in Chemical Engineering, University of Calabria.

Scientific production
ORCID 0000-0001-9397-6966
Scopus Author ID 7005436761

Work Experience
11/2024 - ongoing
Professor of Chemical Engineering Principles at the Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Salerno, Italy.
Teaching assignments - Thermodynamics of Chemical Engineering (12 ECST credits) and Principles of Chemical Engineering (3/12 ECTS credits).

10/2018 – 10/2024
Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering Principles at the Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Salerno, Italy.

Other ongoing positions and responsibilities within the academia and the scientific community
Member of the editorial board of Journal of Food Engineering, Elsevier.
Member of the editorial board of Journal of Food Process Engineering, Wiley.
Member of the teaching staff of the PhD course in Industrial Engineering of the University of Salerno.
Coordinator of the Special Interest Group # 6 “Virtualization in Food Engineering” within the international association ISEKI Food, Vienna, Austria.
Co-chair of the International School on Modeling and Simulation in Food and Bio Processes.

ASN – Italian National Scientific Qualification
Italian National Scientific Qualification for 1st level Professor, sector 09/D2 SYSTEMS, METHODS AND TECHNOLOGIES OF CHEMICAL AND PROCESS ENGINEERING - scientific-disciplinary sector ING-IND/24 PRINCIPLES OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING pursuant to art. 16 of Law 240/2010, achieved on 23/07/2018 valid until 23/07/2024.

Past training and work experience
01/2005- 09/2018 Permanent University Researcher of Principles of Chemical Engineering (ING-IND/24) at the Department of Industrial Engineering (Chemical Engineering section) of the University of Salerno, Italy. Confirmed in role in July 2008.
11/1999 - 10/2004 Research Fellow on the use of finite element method in food engineering, Department of Chemical and Food Engineering, University of Salerno, Italy.
06-11/ 1999 Scholar researcher at the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Calabria, Italy.

Research activities
He has devoted his research mainly to the use of mathematical modeling in digital tools, for the design of systems of the food industry, especially for heat transfer processes assisted by electromagnetic fields. In this, he has been working as a consultant in research projects of multinational companies, particularly in the field of solid-state microwave heating and radio-frequency thawing of meat. In such processes, transport phenomena and material properties must be considered in a multi-physics context. So, also the measurement and the evaluation of transport properties related to materials of interest to the food industry has been part of his research activities.
More recently, he is involved with the use of digital tools (based on both machine learning and mechanistic modeling) for food product design.
This beside, he has been working on the application of mechanistic modeling in bio-medical sector (the use of digital predictive tools for the diagnosis and the follow up of tumors in humans), the use of modeling and image velocimetry in the engineering of human GUT, the transport phenomena in microfluidics. He has participated in numerous international conferences, as chairman and as invited speaker and authored over 130 works among scientific papers, conference presentations and posters.

Research assignments abroad
August 2010 Research assignment for 3 weeks at University of California, Davis, CA, USA (UC Davis, prof. R Paul Singh), on mathematical modeling of the fluid dynamics of the human stomach.
June-December 2008 Research assignment for 6 months at University of California, Davis, CA, USA (UC Davis, prof. R Paul Singh), on mathematical modeling of the fluid dynamics of the human stomach.
March-July 2004 Research assignment for 5 months at University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland (UCD, prof. Brian McKenna), on mathematical modeling of food heating, promoted by radio-frequencies.

Other professional experiences and consulting positions
2019 Consultant for iBMB srl, start-up on predictive model for bio-systems, Potenza (Italy).
2018 Referee for the evaluation of an application for Postdoctoral Fellow, Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), Belgium.
2017 ITW Food Equipment Group, Glenview, IL, USA. Review of a company research project on rapid defrosting of meat products.
2015 Reviewer for the evaluation of proposals relating to grants for collaboration in research activities, call for applications from the University of Calabria (Italy) 2015.
2014 Reviewer for the project evaluation presented in the PRIN2012 call, intervention line A, PRIN starting - young researchers, MIUR, Italian Minister of University and Research.

International research projects
May/2018- Scientific coordinator of the Italian research unit of the project MEFPROC Improving Sustainability in Food Processing using Moderate Electric Fields (MEF) for Process Intensification and Smart Processing; ERANET consortium, call SUSFOOD2.
June/ 017- Scientific director of the project “Study on the use of various emerging technologies (radio-frequency and ultrasound) for heating and cooking food”, funded under the VII executive program of scientific and technological cooperation between Italy and Argentina, Ministries of Foreign Affairs.
2009 Scientific director and host of the research activities of two international fellows (DF Olivera, Argentina, and S. Barrios, Uruguay), competitive call for cooperation with Istituto Italo Latino Americano year 2008.
2004-2007 Participation in the research project EIRE FIRM Ref No: 04 / R & D / D / 298 “Ohmic pasteurization and radio frequency defrosting of meat and meat products”, Ireland.
Responsible for framework agreements for international scientific cooperation with the University of California, Davis, California (United States of America), with North West Agricultural & Forestry University, Yangling, Shanxi (China) and with Corvinus University, Budapest (Hungary).

National research projects
2018-2020 Coordinator of research unit in the research project “MICROEXATIVA – Extraction of high value compounds from Cannabis Sativa”, POR 2018.
2017 ANVUR public notice no. 20/2017 of 15-06-2017, Funding of basic research activities, score 60/60.
2014-2016 Scientific director of the research project “Cooking and sanitization of pre-packaged meat products using innovative electro-assisted techniques”, funded by the Campania Region, competitive tender pursuant to Regional Law 5/2002.
2014-2015 Participation in the project Regional Observatory of the Campanian University System FESR-OSSREGVAL.
2013-2014 Participation in the project Safety, sustainability and competitiveness in Campania’s agri-food production (CARINA) funded under the ESF Networks of Excellence.
2012-2015 Participation in the research project PON 254 / Ric: structural strengthening project, “Creation of an Integrated Health Technologies Center (CETIS)”.
2012 Participation in the research project PON 01_02545 “Development of systems for the distributed production of hydrogen and syngas, based on autothermal multi-fuel catalytic reforming”.
2011-2015 Participation in the research project PON 01_02512/7 “Active bioregulators of the epigenetic mechanisms of inflammatory processes in chronic and degenerative diseases (BIAM-EPI)”.
2002-2005 Participation in the research project PRIN2002 -2002052349_005 “Recombinant proteins from prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells: production and modeling of the fermentation process in free and immobilized cell systems”.

Among other teaching experiences, he served at the University of Calabria (Master in Food Quality), University of Turin (Master "Michele Ferrero"), North West Agricultural & Forestry University, Yangling, Shanxi (China), UIB, Mallorca (Spain ), UC Davis, California (United States of America), UCD, Dublin (Ireland).

Spin-offs and start-ups
From 01/2018 Member of iBMB srl, start-up incubated at T3 (PWC Group) -University of Basilicata, Potenza .
21 October 2017 Member of the jury of Capristartup - Spinup Award 2016, 31st conference of Young Entrepreneurs Confindustria.
20-22 /04/2017 Member of the jury of Startupweekend Salerno, Techstar.
2012-2014 Partner of the spin-off CFDINNOVA srl , incubated at Basilicata Innovazione SpA in Potenza, managed by Innovation Factory scarl , Area SP, Trieste.

Editorial and review activity for international journals
Member of the editorial board of the Journal of Food Engineering, Elsevier, since 2018. Member of the editorial board of the Journal of Food Process Engineering, Wiley, since 2021. Guest editor of the special section on “Finite Element Modeling of Foods” in volume 71 (3) - 2005 - of Journal of Food Engineering, Elsevier. Editor of the special issue “Virtualization of processes in food engineering”, 2016, of Journal of Food Engineering, Volume 176, Pages 1-136 , Elsevier.
Reviewer for numerous international journals, including Journal of Food Engineering, Journal of Food Process Engineering, Chemical Engineering Science, AIChe Journal, Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, Food and Bioproducts Processing, International Journal of Food Microbiology, Food Chemistry, Food Control, Food Research International, Innovative Food Science and Emerging Technologies, International Journal of Refrigeration, Meat Science, Biosystems Engineering.

Language skills
Italian: Native speaker.
English: Advanced knowledge of written and oral language.