Salvatore Orlando

Curriculum Vitae

Last modified: 21 October 2023

CURRICULUM VITAE ET STUDIORUM

Place and date of birth: Termini Imerese (PA), ITALY, 04/02/1968
Nationality: Italian
Current position: Dirigente di Ricerca  since 01/01/2023
Affiliation: INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo
Work address: Piazza del Parlamento 1, 90134 Palermo
Phone/fax (office): +39-091-233 423 / +39-091-233 444
e-mail: salvatore.orlando [AT ] inaf.it
www: http://www.astropa.inaf.it/?p=9930

EDUCATION

  • 1997: Ph.D. in Physics; University of Palermo, Italy; Advisor: Prof. S. Serio;
  • 1993: Graduation in Physics “cum Laude”; Department of Physics, University of Palermo, Italy; Advisor: Prof. S. Serio.

QUALIFICATIONS

  • Since 2018: National Academic qualification as Full Professor (“abilitazione scientifica nazionale alle funzioni di professore universitario di I fascia”; Bando 2016, D.D. 1532/2016);
  • Since 2013: National Academic qualification as Associate Professor (“abilitazione scientifica nazionale alle funzioni di professore universitario di II fascia”; Bando 2012; DD n. 222/2012).

POSITIONS

  • Since Jan. 2023: Dirigente di Ricerca (equivalent to Full Professor) at the INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo, (Italy);
  • Since Dec. 2018: Primo Ricercatore (equivalent to Associate Professor) at the INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo, (Italy);
  • Oct. 1999 – Dec. 2018: Researcher astronomer at the INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo, (Italy);
  • Oct. 1997 – Sept. 1999: Research fellow at the European Space Agency (ESA), Space Science Dept. (Noordwijk, The Netherlands);
  • Mar. 1997 – Sept. 1997: Computer scientist at the INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo (Italy).

RESEARCH INTERESTS

  • Main research activity in the field of optically thin astrophysical plasmas  and in the field of thermal and non-thermal (synchrotron) emission processes.
  • Long-term experience (> 20 years) in multi-dimensional modeling of astrophysical phenomena including: 1) the dynamics of magnetic structures in the solar and stellar coronae; 2) the physics of accretion phenomena in young stellar objects; 3) the evolution of nova outbursts; 4) the progenitor star – supernova – supernova remnant connection; 5) the interaction of supernova remnants with the surrounding environment; 6) the effects of cosmic ray particle acceleration on the evolution of supernova remnants.
  • Development and application of hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) parallel numerical models on High Performance Computing (HPC) systems, and Grid/HPC infrastructures; among the codes and numerical modules developed: 1) the SIPHON code to study steady siphon flows in magnetically confined coronal plasma; 2) the EOLO code to study the solar wind; 3) the WAVES code to describe the propagation of Alfven waves in the solar wind; 4) the OPHELIA code to calculate the deviations from equilibrium of ionization (NEI); 5) numerical modules of the FLASH code to calculate magnetic-field oriented thermal conduction, viscosity, NEI effects.
  • Development of numerical tools for the synthesis of thermal and non-thermal emission (among which the REMLIGHT code for the synthesis of synchrotron radio, X-ray and inverse Compton gamma-ray emission) and coupling of these tools with hydrodynamic and MHD codes.

SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITIES

  • Author of 164 scientific articles in peer-reviewed international journals (first author in 37), among which seven in high impact journals (Science, Science Advances, Nature Astronomy, Nature Physics, Nature Communications);
  • 73 (36 invited) talks at international conferences and workshops;
  • 22 (10 invited) seminars at international research centers;
  • PI of two PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe) projects and Co-I of 1 PRACE project;
  • PI of 5 Key Projects, and of about 23 Standard Projects, and co-I of about 33 Standard Projects approved for allocation of computational resources at international supercomputing centers (CINECA, Italy; BSC, Spain; CINES, France);
  • Co-I of 15 proposals (among which 3 large programs) selected for observation programs with the world-class satellites Chandra, XMM-Newton and JWST.

GRANTS

  • 2023-2025: National Coordinator (PI) of the project “Supernova remnants as probes for the structure and mass-loss history of the progenitor systems”, funded by INAF in the framework of AstroFund 2023, Theory Grant;
  • 2023-2025: National Coordinator (PI) of the project “Life, death and after-death of massive stars: reconstructing the path from the pre-supernova evolution to the supernova remnant”, funded by MUR in the framework of PRIN “Progetti di Ricerca di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale”, Bando 2022, Prot. 20224MNC5A;
  • 2020-2023: National Coordinator (PI) of the project “From massive stars to supernovae and supernova remnants: driving mass, energy and cosmic rays in our Galaxy”, funded by INAF in the framework of “Progetti di Ricerca di Interesse Nazionale 2019” (PRIN-INAF 2019; Research Projects of National Relevance);
  • Italian Coordinator (co-PI) of the international project between Italy and France “New insights into the physics of accretion processes onto classical T Tauri stars: 3D MHD models and inclusion of radiative transfer”, funded by the laboratory of excellence Plas@Par;
  • 2016-2019: Italian Coordinator (co-PI) of the international project between Italy and France “Radiation magnetohydrodynamic models and spectral signatures of plasma flows accreting onto young stellar objects”, funded by the laboratory of excellence Plas@Par (http://plasapar.com) in the framework of the programme “Investments for the future” (2012-2019) of the french National Agency of Research (ANR);
  • Italian Coordinator (co-PI) of the international project for scientific cooperation (PICS) between Italy and France “Physics of accretion processes in young stars”, funded by CNRS in France;
  • 2018-2019: National Coordinator (PI) of the project “Connecting supernova remnants to their progenitor supernovae by combining three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations and analysis of high energy observations” funded by ASI (Accordo Attuativo ASI-INAF n. 2017-14-H.0);
  • Italian Coordinator (co-PI) of the international project for scientific cooperation (PICS) between Italy and France “Physics of accretion processes in young stars”, funded by CNRS in France;
  • 2015-2017: National Coordinator (PI) of the project “Filling the gap between supernova explosions and their remnants through magnetohydrodynamic modelling and high performance computing” (2015-2017) funded by INAF in the framework of “Progetti di Ricerca di Interesse Nazionale 2014” (PRIN-INAF 2014; Research Projects of National Relevance);
  • 2010: National Coordinator (PI) of the project “MHD modeling of accretion and outflow phenomena in young stellar objects” (2010) funded by the national Space Agency (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, ASI);
  • 2006-2010: Scientific Coordinator (PI) of the international Marie Curie programme for the Transfer of Knowledge, funded by the European Union, “Young Stellar Objects,their Surroundings and Jets: Advanced Observational and MHD Studies (PHOENIX; Award MTKDCT-2005-029768), in the framework of the FP6 programme “Marie Curie Actions – Human resources and mobility”;
  • co-I of 12 projects funded by MIUR, INAF, and ASI.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

  • Since 2020: Member of committee of Raggruppamento Scientifico Nazionale 4 – “Relativistic Astrophysics and Particles” – of INAF.
  • Since 2020: Member of Consiglio di Struttura of INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo.
  • 2020-2022: Chair of the Scientific Committee Basic, Space and Astrophysical Plasmas of the 48th European Conference on Plasma Physics, Maastricht (Netherlands), June 27 – July 1 2022;
  • 2014-2017: Member of the board of directors of consorzio COMETA a no-profit research center founded in 2005 to promote and coordinate studies and research in the field of High Performance Computing, Grid, Cloud, and GPU Computing;
  • 2013-2016: Member of the commission for High Performance Computing (HPC) of Unità Scientifica Centrale VI – “ICT – Information and Communications Technologies” – of INAF;
  • 2013-2016: Member of consortium SOLARNET, funded in the framework of the programme FP7 “Capacities” (Grant Agreement number 312495);
  • 2011-2013: Member of the Scientific and Technical Committee of consorzio COMETA;
  • 2008-2010: Member of the Joint Scientific and Technical Committee of consorzio COMETA and consorzio CILEA;
  • Member of the Working Group “Milky Way and observatory Science” of the Line Emission Mapper X-ray Probe (LEM) mission;
  • Member of the Working Group 3.4 “Supernova remnants and the Interstellar Medium” of the Athena Science Study Team (ASST), European Space Agency;
  • Member of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) consortium;
  • Member of the Scientific Organizing Committee (SOC) of 6 conferences;
  • Editor of Europhysics Conference Abstracts, Vol. 46A, ISBN: 979-10-96389-16-2, 48th EPS Conference on Plasma Physics, 27 June – 1 July 2022.

EVALUATION OF RESEARCH

  • Referee for Nature Astronomy, Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Astrophysical Journal, The Astronomical Journal, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Journal of Geophysical Research, Physical Review Letters, Reviews of Modern Physics, and Serbian Astronomical Journal;
  • Referee in the evaluation of candidates to ESA postdoc fellowship programs;
  • Referee for supercomputing projects (ISCRA-CINECA);
  • Referee for proposals for observation programs (Canada France Hawaii Telescope; Rapid Eye Mount Telescope; Very Large Survey Telescope)
  • Referee for Agenzia Nazionale di Valutazione del Sistema Universitario e della Ricerca VQR 2011-14;
  • Referee for the programma for young researchers “Rita Levi Montalcini” of MIUR (2018);
  • Referee for PRIN 2012 e/o Futuro in Ricerca 2013;
  • Referee for the French National Research Agency (ANR) for the evaluation of funding proposals submitted within the Work Programmes: ANR2017, ANR2021, and ANR2023;
  • Referee for the Estonian Research Council (ETAg), the main research funding organization in Estonia, for the evaluation of funding proposals in 2020;
  • Referee for the Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and the Israel Science Foundation (ISF) for the evaluation of funding proposals submitted in the framework of the China Israel Research Program (CIRP), 2023.
  • Referee for the OPTICON trans-national Access programme, funded by an EC Horizon 2020 contract;
  • Referee for a PhD thesis in Physics in co-tutorship between the University of Porto (Portugal) and the Observatoire de Paris (France);
  • Included in the list of expert evaluators for Horizon 2020 panel COMPET-5-2015, and for FP7 Marie Curie actions, panel Mathematics-Physics (MAT-PHY) for projects within the People programme, Initial training network Program (ITN) and Industry academia Partnership and Pathways (IAPP).

SUPERVISION AND EVALUATION OF STUDENTS AND FELLOWS

  • Since 2016: Mentoring activity in the framework of AHEAD (Integrated Activities in the High Energy Astrophysics Domain) a project approved in the framework of the European Horizon 2020 program (Research Infrastructures for High Energy Astrophysics).
  • Since 2015: Co-supervisor of six Master Thesis in Physics at the University of Palermo (Italy);
  • Since 2003: More than 60 tutorships of students attending a stage for the degree course in Physics, held at INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo;
  • 2023: Member of the Doctoral Committee for a PhD thesis in Physics prepared at Ecole Polytechnique, within Doctoral School Ecole Doctorale de l’Institut Polytechnique de Paris (France);
  • 2022: Member of the Scientific Evaluation Committee for the “Astronomy” PhD course within the Doctoral Programme “UNIPhD – Eight century legacy of multidisciplinary research and training for the next-generation talents” coordinated by the University of Padua (Italy) and supported by the European Union under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) COFUND scheme;
  • 2020: Tutor of two students from the Trinity Collage Dublin (Ireland), in the framework of the “Summer of HPC” a PRACE programme that offers summer placements at HPC centres across Europe to late stage undergraduates and/or master students;
  • 2020: Member of the Doctoral Committee for a PhD thesis in Physics in co-tutorship between the University of Porto (Portugal) and the Observatoire de Paris (France);
  • 2016-2019: Member of the teaching body (collegio dei docenti) for cycle XXXII of PhD in Physics at the Dip. of Physics and Chemistry, Palermo University;
  • 2016-2019: Co-supervisor of an international PhD Thesis in Physics in co-tutorship between the University of Palermo (Italy) and the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris (France);
  • 2015-2018: Co-supervisor of a PhD Thesis in Physics at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain);
  • 2015-2016: Tutor of two international internships for PhD students in Physics of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain);
  • 2015: Tutor of the international internship for Master in Physics of the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris (France) entitled “Simulating mass accretion of young stars: shocks and radiation”, in the framework of the Labex Plas@Par;
  • Substitute member of the Doctoral Committee (Tribunal de la Tesis Doctoral) for two PhD thesis at the Facultad de Ciencias Físicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain);
  • Supervisor and scientific responsible of Postdoctoral Fellows: Dr. Tatiana Yelenina (2007-2008; Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo); Dr. Rachel Curran (2008-2009; Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo); Dr. Germano Sacco (2008-2009; Consorzio COMETA); Dr. Maria Letizia Pumo (2015; Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo); Dr. Oleh Petruk (2016-2017; Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo); Dr. Sabina Ustamujic (2019-2022; Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo); Dr. Vincenzo Sapienza (2024; Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo).

TEACHING ACTIVITY

  • 2001-2002. Teaching assistant for the course Biophysics and Bioinstrumentation, for the Master of Science in Biotechnology, A.A. 2001/2002, University of Palermo, Italy;
  • 2010-2011. Lecturer of the course of Parallel Algorithms, for the Master of Science in Computer Science, A.A. 2010/2011, University of Palermo, Italy;
  • 2005-2011. Support activities in the course of numerical simulations of physical processes between 2005 and 2011, for the Master of Science in Physics, University of Palermo, Italy;
  • 2004. Lecturer at the “Advanced Course on Parallel Computing and Scientific Applications”, Catania, Italy, 29 September 2004;
  • 2006. Lecturer at the II JETSET (a research-training network, funded by the European Union under FP6) school “Jets from Young Stars II: Clues from High Angular Resolution Observations”, Marciana Marina, Isola d’Elba, Italy, 4-8 September 2006;
  • 2014. Lecturer of the course “Circumstellar disks and jets in young stellar objects” in the framework of the program “Messaggeri della conoscenza” funded by MIUR, University of Palermo, Italy, March 2014;
  • 2016. Lecturer at the international school “HPC methods for Computational Fluid Dynamics and Astrophysics”, CINECA, Bologna, Italy, 2-4 November 2016;
  • 2021. Lecturer at the international “ACO Virtual Reality school” with a course on “The Art and Science of Model Visualization”, University of Padua, Italy, 5-9 July 2021.
  • 2021. Lecturer of the workshop “Realization of interactive 3D models in virtual reality: introduction to ParaView and Sketchfab”, in the framework of the project “Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality for Science, Education and Outreach”, INAF, Italy, November 2021.
  • 2023. Lecturer at the national school “Scuola Italiana di modelli 3D e realtà virtuale e aumentata per l’Astrofisica e l’Inclusione nella Scienza”, INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo, Italy, 18-22 September 2023

PUBLIC OUTREACH ACTIVITIES

MAIN INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS

  • Lviv Astronomical Observatory (Ukraine)
  • RIKEN – Astrophysical Big Bang Laboratory (Japan)
  • Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik (Germany)
  • FLASH center, the University of Chicago (USA)
  • Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (USA)
  • Naval Research Laboratory (USA)
  • Penn State University (USA)
  • Laboratoire d’Etudes du Rayonnement et de la Matiere en Astrophysique (LERMA) (France)
  • Observatoire de Paris (France)
  • École polytechnique, Université Paris-Saclay (France)
  • Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain)
  • Universidad de Valencia (Spain)

EXTERNAL LINKS

  • 3D interactive graphics for public outreach on Sketchfab
  • Scientific illustrations and visualizations on Artstation