Mattia de’ Michieli Vitturi

Short bio

• My research interests lie in the study and modeling of multiphase and geophysical systems, in particular with application to volcanic eruptions.
• As an applied mathematician and a full-time researcher at the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, I have a strong experience in collaborative and multidisciplinary research with many earth scientists and engineers in the USA and Europe.
• My teaching roles include teaching assistant, instructor, guest lecturer and lecturer for undergraduate classes for various science majors as well as advanced classes of Numerical Methods for earth science and mathematics graduate student.
• I have worked with other colleagues (in mathematics, physics, engineering, geophysics) in advising student research projects covering a wide variety of topics and I am currently advising two Ph.D. students, one M.Sc. student and I am the supervisor of two post-docs.

Education

• September 2004: Ph.D. in Mathematics, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy, Approximate Gradient-based Methods for Optimum Shape Design in Aerodynamics.
  Advisor: Dr. F. Beux (Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, Italy)
• June 1998: B.A. and M.Sc. in Mathematics, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy, Linear Quadratic Control of Parabolic Systems.
  Advisor: Prof. Paolo Acquistapace (University of Pisa, Dipartimento di Matematica)

Present Position and Professional Responsibilities

• January 2007–Present: Researcher, Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, Section of Pisa, Italy.
• 2007 Present: Full-time researcher in the “Physical-mathematical modeling of volcanic processes” Unit.
• 2012 – Present: Member of Arizona State University Graduate Faculty, Tempe, USA.
• 2011 – Present: Adjunct faculty, School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University, Tempe, USA.

Other Professional Appointments

• 2010 – 2012: Marie Curie researcher, Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, Pisa Section and School of Earth and Space Exploration of the Arizona State University, Pisa, Italy and Tempe, USA.
  Winner of a Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship funded by the European Community, with a project on “Magma Ascent Mathematical Modeling and Analysis”
• 2007: Numerical model consultant, Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Pisa, Italy.
  Development of mathematical models increasing the spatial resolution of portable capacitive sensors.
• 2007: Web consultant, McGraw-Hill, Italy.
• 2006 – 2007: Post-Doctoral Research fellowship, Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, Section of Pisa, Italy.
  Development and application of mathematical models for explosive eruptions.
• 2006: Research associate, Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Pisa, Italy.
  Numerical modeling and simulation of turbulent volcanic jets.
• 2005: Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Pisa, Italy.
  Numerical modeling and mathematical implementation of a constructed wetlands system with vertical subsurface flow.
• 2004 – 2005: Numerical models consultant, Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Pisa, Italy.
  Contract for the “Study and Development of a mathematical model of constructed wetlands with vertical subsurface flow”.
• 2004: Research associate, Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, Section of Pisa, Italy.
  Development in the framework of the European Project EXPLORIS (Explosive European Risk and Decision Support for EU Populations Threatened by Volcanoes) of a new “Immersed Boundaries” technique modeling the boundary condition of pyroclastic flows.
• 2004: Editorial and computer consultant, Department of Mathematics, University of Pisa, Italy.
  Editing of a publication on the non-Euclidean geometries.
• 2003 – 2004: Numerical consultant, Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Pisa, Italy.
  Collaboration in the framework of the EXPLORIS (Explosive European Risk and Decision Support for EU Populations Threatened by Volcanoes) European Project, on the “Development and implementation of discretization schemes and algorithms for the numerical simulation of pyroclastic flows”.
• 2002: Numerical models consultant, Institute of Geosciences and Georesources of the Italian National Research Council, Italy.
  Development of a new numerical code for pressure and temperature waves in porous media.

International Honours and Awards

• 2015: Wager Medal (Int. Assoc. Volcanology, IAVCEI), given every two years to a scientist up to 15 years after Ph.D. acquisition, who has made outstanding contributions to volcanology.
• 2012: Nominee for the Hisashi Kuno Award (American Geophysical Union).
• 2010: Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship (European Community), for research on magma ascent dynamics.

Teaching Experience

• 2016: Lecturer for the course “Computational Fluid Dynamics for Volcanology” at the Ph.D. school in Earth Sciences, University of Florence.
• 2015 – 2016: Lecturer at the University of Pisa for the Ph.D. course at the Department of Mathematics “Computational Fluid Dynamics for Volcanology”.
• 2015: Short course “Introduction to numerical models in Volcanology” Laboratoire Magmas et Volcans, Clermont Ferrande, France.
• 2015: Director and lecturer of the International School “Thermo-fluid Dynamics in Computational Volcanology” organized by the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, sezione di Pisa, in the framework of the European Initial Training Network NEMOH.
• 2014: Co-Advisor of the M.Sc. student F. Pardini of the Aerospace Engineering Degree of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Pisa, Italy, for a project on the uncertainty quantification in atmospehric dispersion simulations.
• 2013 – 2014: Organizer and lecturer of the course “The OpenFOAM framework for the development of numerical models for geophysical applications and research”, hosted at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, Pisa, Italy.
• 2013: Invited lecturer for the “Forward Modelling of Volcanic Processes” school organized by the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol.
• 2011 – present: Co-Advisor of the Ph.D student A. Spanu of the Ph.D. School of Mathematics for Industry of the Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy, for a project on the mathematical modeling of volcanic ash dispersion.
• 2010 – present: Advisor of the Ph.D student G. La Spina of the Ph.D. School of Mathematics of the University of Pisa, Italy, for a project on the mathematical modeling of magma ascent in the conduit.
• 2011 – 2012: Lecturer at the Arizona State University for the M.Sc. course on “Numerical Methods for Geophysical Fluid Dynamics”.
• 2011 – 2012: Guest lecturer at the Arizona State University for the M.Sc. course on “Volcanology”.
• 2010 – 2011: Guest lecturer at the Arizona State University for the M.Sc. course on “Geomorphology”.
• 2009 – 2012: Co-Advisor of the Ph.D student S. Colucci of the Department of Earth Sciences, Sapienza, University of Rome, Italy, for the part of the project involving the numerical simulations of explosive events.
• 2009 – 2010: Lecturer at the University of Pisa for the M.Sc. course at the Department of Mathematics on “Introduction to mathematical models in Geophysics and Volcanology”.
• 2008 – 2009: Co-supervision of the “Laurea” dissertation (US Master Level Equivalent): “Simulazioni matematiche di letti pilota di fitodepurazione con diverse macrofite” (Mathematical simulations of pilot constructed wetlan d beds with different macrophytes), G. Mannucci, University of Pisa.
• Jan – Feb 2009: Short course on Mathematical and Numerical Methods at the Arizona State University, USA.
• 2003 – 2004: Mathematics tutor at the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Natural Sciences.
• 2002 – 2005: Lecturer for the courses of Introduction to Mathematics (Degree in Environmental Sciences and Geosciences, University of Pisa).
• 2001 – 2005: Teaching assistant for the courses of Fundamentals of Mathematics (Degree in Environmental Sciences, University of Pisa).
• 1999 – 2000: Teaching assistant for the Courses of Fundamentals of Mathematics (Degree in Biological Sciences, University of Pisa).