For a Human-Centered AI

Three new Directors of FBK have been appointed

December 17, 2021

Richard John Hall-Wilton, Massimo Leone and Mirco Tonin appointed today by the Board of Directors to lead the S&D, ISR and IRVAPP centers

Richard John Hall-Wilton, Massimo Leone e Mirco Tonin have been appointed as the new directors of Trento-based Fondazione Bruno Kessler’s Center for Sensors & Devices (S&D), Center for Religious Studies (ISR) and Institute for Evaluative Research on Public Policies (FBK-IRVAPP) respectively during today’s meeting of the Board of Directors.

The selection process had started in June and 75 candidates, of which 28 from abroad, had applied for the positions.

In particular, Richard John Hall-Wilton, head of the Detector group at the European Spallation Source , will succeed Gianluigi Casse as the director of the S&D Center, upon expiry of his term; Massimo Leone, full professor of Communication Philosophy and Cultural Semiotics at the Univerisity of Turin and visiting professor of Semiotics at the University of Shanghai (Cina) will direct ISR after the conclusion of Marco Ventura’s term; Marco Tonin, full professor of Economic Policy at the Free University of Bozen, will take the lead of IRVAPP after the interim directorship of FBK’s secretary general Andrea Simoni.

“After about a year from the activation of the new governance at Fondazione Bruno Kessler”, FBK president Francesco Profumo stressed, “with the restructuring of the centers we have come to the selection of these new directors. We are particularly happy with the outcome of the selection and wish the new directors all the best they can do for the Foundation. I am sure they will find a healthy environment, excellent and highly motivated researchers and that they will certainly be able to steer the Centers drawing from their experiences. From this point of view, the Foundation now has a consolidated history and I believe that even in this case there will be excellent results”.

The selection process allowed for the involvement of the Foundation’s staff who had the chance to watch the streaming of the interviews of suitable candidates. These appointments are part of the designing of an organizational and operational model that the Foundation launched in 2020 and which provides for a strong investment in strategic vision skills, in the consolidation of scientific skills, in the strengthening of managerial skills.

With a three-year term, the new directors will join their colleagues at the helm of the other FBK research centers: Silvio Ranise, director of the Cybersecurity Center, Marco Pistore, director of the Digital Society Center, Alessandro Cimatti, director of the Digital Industry Center, Stefano Forti, director of the Digital Health & Wellbeing Center, Stefano Merler, director of the Health Emergencies Center, Luigi Crema, director of the Sustainable Energy Center, Gert Aarts, director of the European Center for Theoretical Studies in Nuclear Physics and Related Areas (ECT*) and Christoph Cornelissen, director of the Italian-German Historical Institute.


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