2. Professors
  3. RIZZO Luigi
  4. Curriculum

Curriculum

Luigi RIZZO Curriculum

Last update July 23rd, 2025

Position, education and titles

  • 05/2016-, Associate Professor in Sanitary and Environmental Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Salerno.
  • 11/2005-04/2016, Assistant Professor in Sanitary and Environmental Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Salerno.
  • 12/12/2013. Italian National Scientific Qualifications awarded for both Associate and Full Professor positions in the Academic field 08/A2 (Sanitary and Environmental Engineering).
  • 01/04/2004, Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering, University of Salerno.
  • 1999-2000, Research assistant at Department of Civil Engineering, University of Salerno.
  • 1999, M.Sc. in Hydraulic Engineering at University of Salerno.

International appointments/expert

  • 10/2018-: Coordinator of the “International PhD School on Advanced Oxidation Processes”;
  • 02/2017- : member (external expert) of "Water reuse" working group of the European Commission “Scientific committee on health, environmental and emerging risks (SCHEER)”;
  • 03/2016- : external expert of the European Commission “Scientific committee on health, environmental and emerging risks (SCHEER)”;
  • 05/2015- : expert for COST Action;
  • 06/2014-09/2018 : Coordinator of "European PhD School on Advanced Oxidation Processes";
  • 03/2013 - 03/2016: member of “Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Heath Risks” (SCENIHR), European Commission Decision 2008/721/EC;
  • 2011-: expert for research proposal evaluation for national (2) and international (7) agencies;
  • 06/2010 – 12/2014, Italian expert for ESSEM (Earth System Science an Environmental Management Members) domain of COST Action.

Visiting scientist/professor

  • 2007-2014, Visiting professor in the context of Erasmus program in 6 European Universities;
  • 09/2008-02/2009, Visiting scientist at Plataforma Solar de Almeria (Spain);
  • 07/2005 e 11/2004-12/2004, Visiting scientist al “Water Chemistry Laboratory”, University of Wisconsin Madison (USA);

Teaching and academic appointments at University of Salerno

  • 04/2013 -01/2016, Member of the advisory board of Department of civil Engineering, Coordinator of the committee for International Relationships and member of the committee for Research;
  • 12/2005 -, Member of Ph.D. School in Environmental Engineering;
  • 2005/2006 -, Lecturer of courses related to Sanitary and Environmental Engineering.

Coordination/supervision of students, scientists, research groups and projects/technology transfer

  • 10/02/2023: co-author of the Italian patent N° 102021000001940 entitled "Advanced oxidation method for water treatment" (Submitted: 29/01/2021, Approved 10/02/2023);
  • 06/05/2021-: co-founder and president of the "AOP4Water" – University of Salerno academic spin-offaiming at developing processes, technologies and solutions for water and wastewater treatment even trough advanced oxidation processes (www.aop4water.com)
  • 09/2014-: supervisor of post-doc (4) and post-graduate students (3) as well as of visiting post-doc (2) and PhD students (6);
  • 05/2014 - 05/2018: WG4 leader, COST Action ES1403 (NEREUS);
  • 2002 -: supervisor and co-supervisor of PhD (10, 1 on going), MSc (49) and BSc (3) students;
  • 2009 -: coordinator/principal investigator in local/national (16) and international (10) research projects.

Editorial boards and scientific committees

  • 22/03/2023-: “Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering” (Elsevier publisher), Editor (associate editor from 01/01/2021 to 22/03/2023);
  • 2019-2023: editorial board member of "Catalysts" journal (MDPI)
  • 2010- : guest editor for the special issues published in Catalysts (MDPI), Water (MDPI), Chemosphere (Elsevier), Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering (Elsevier), Environmental science and Pollution Research (Springer), Desalination and Water Treatment (Elsevier);
  • 03/2013 -: Editor for “Water Science & Technology” and “Water Science & Technology: Water Supply” journals (IWA Publishing) (10/2011 - 03/2013, Associate Editor);
  • 2007 -: reviewer for 98 international journals (487 papers reviewed so far);
  • 2005 -: keynote/invited speaker in national (4) and international (20) conferences/meetings;
  • 2004 -: Scientific committee member and/or chairmen in 19 international conferences.
  • 07/2016 -02/2019: editorial board member for Heliyon journal (Elsevier).

Awards

  • 06/11/2024: "Excellence in Leadership & Dedication Award" released by the Management Committee of the “International Ph.D. School on Advanced Oxidation Processes” (IPS-AOP), for the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the IPS-AOP, Thessaloniki, Greece, November 6th, 2024;
  • 06/11/2024: "Best poster award" for the research work entitled "Urban wastewater disinfection by FeCl3-activated biochar/peroxymonosulfate system: Escherichia coli inactivation and microplastics interference" by Mister Adeel, Claudia Cirillo, Maria Sarno, Luigi Rizzo, discussed by Mister Adeel at the 4th European PhD School on Advanced Oxidation Processes, Thessaloniki, Greece, November 6th
  • 11/10/2024: "Solidarity award" and "Best poster communication" for the research work entitled "Activation of peroxymonosulfate by FeCl3 modified biochar and sunlight for degradation of CECs: transformation products identification" by C. Frois, M. Adeel, I. Berruti, A. Agustin, P. Plaza-Bolaños, A. Aguera, L. Rizzo, S. Malato, C. Sirtori, discussed by Carla Frois at the 6th Iberoamerican Conference on Advanced OxidationTechnologies (CIPOA), 7-11 October, 2024.
  • 14/03/2023: Co-innovation award "Basilicata Pitch2Pitch" (Italian competition) for the "AOP4Water" academic spin-off of the University of Salerno, 20.000 € funding for a circular economy and wastewater valorisation project;
  • 26/10/2020: fifth prize (out of 140 initial proposals) and 75,000 € funding at the "Start-cup Campania 2020" award (Italian competition), for the "AOP4Water" academic spin-off of the University of Salerno;
  • 16/06/2016: Best poster award: “Photocatalytic Disinfection of Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria and Resulting Antibiotic Resistance Gene Transfer in Urban Wastewater”, Patrick SM Dunlop, M Ciavola, L Rizzo, DA McDowell, JA Byrne, 13th IWA Leading Edge Conference on Water and Wastewater Technologies, Jerez de la Frontera 13-16 June 2016, Spain;
  • 23/03/2016: “Excellent poster presentation”: “Photocatalytic conversion of glucose to H2 over LaFeO3 perovskite nanoparticles”, Giuseppina Iervolino, Vincenzo Vaiano, Diana Sannino, Luigi Rizzo e Paolo Ciambelli, International conference on nanotechnology based innovative applications for the environment, 20-23 March 2016, Rome, Italy.

Honours

  • 2024: research impact on policy: 71 citations across 60 policy documents, 29 policy documents which cite my work have been cited a further 673 times in 468 other policy documents, 1 name mention in 1 policy document according to Sage Policy Profiles (https://policyprofiles.sagepub.com/);
  • 2021: top 0.15% (46th out of 30530) of scholars on the topic of disinfection in the last 10 years, according to Expertscape (PubMed database);
  • 2021: 8306-th most cited author in the world and 82-th (out of 77304, second Italian in the ranking), for the Environmental Science category according to the "Top 100,000 scientists in the world on a single year (2020)" ranking (also known as Stanford's rank), by Baas et al., 2021, Scopus database (https://elsevier.digitalcommonsdata.com/datasets/btchxktzyw/3);
  • 2021: 55389-th most cited author in the world and 285-th (out of 77304) for the Environmental Science category according to the ranking of the "Top 100,000 scientists in the world on career", by Baas et al., 2021, Scopus database (https://elsevier.digitalcommonsdata.com/datasets/btchxktzyw/3);
  • 2020: Ranked 100th (out of 66925) for the category Environmental Science of the “Top 100.000 scientists (2019)” rank, finalized by Ioannidis et al., 2020 (PLoS Biol 18(10):e3000918. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000918), according SCOPUS citations database.
  • 2017: all publications (3) in peer review journal submitted to Italian Agency for University and research assessment (ANVUR) for 2011-2014 Research Quality Assessment (VQR) were awarded the top score (excellent).
  • 2013: all publications (5) in peer review journal submitted to Italian Agency for University and research assessment (ANVUR) for 2004-2010 Research Quality Assessment (VQR) were awarded the top score (excellent).
  • 2012: Cyprus Research National Award 'Nikos Symeonides' for PHAREM project coordinated by prof. Despo Fatta-Kassinos.
  • 2012: Finalist (among the first 10 of 95 proposals) at Start-cup Campania competition, with the proposal SoDASWaT, Solar driven reator for water treatment, and finalist at the competition La tua idea per il Paese promoted by ItaliaCamp.

Invited speaker, chairman, member of the scientific committee, conference organization

  • 2025: Chair of the 7th International Conference on Environmental Applications of Advanced Oxidation Processes (EAAOP-7), June 10-13, 2025, Paestum-Capaccio (SA);
  • 2021-: Plenary speaker at international conferences (4);
  • 2015-: Member of the organizing committee of national (1) and international (12) conferences and events;
  • 2005-: Keynote/invited speaker at national (5) and international (26) conferences and meetings and invited lectures at universities/research centers (9);
  • 2004-: Member of the scientific committee and/or chairman of 31 international conferences/events.

Publications

(Co-)author of 179 papers: 135 in “peer review indexed journals” (101 in Q1 journals), 12574 citations, h-index 51 (SCOPUS database), 24 in proceedings of international conferences, 15 book chapters and 5 in proceedings of national conferences. Co-editor of 3 books.