Professor Ignazio Maria Viola

Ignazio Maria Viola is Professor of Fluid Mechanics and Bioinspired Engineering at the School of Engineering of the University of Edinburgh; Distinguished Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University; Adjunct Professor at the Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna; and Fellow of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects (RINA). 

He publishes in Nature, Nature Communication, eLife, Renewable Energy, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Ocean Engineering, etc. For his publications, Viola was awarded two RINA Medals of Distinction and one Medal of Exceptional Merit, a Gold Rating for the Best Journal Article by the International Marine Energy Journal, as well as the Covid-19 Hero Medal of the School of Engineering of the U. of Edinburgh for significant contribution to solving Covid-19 challenges. 

Overall Viola has contributed to securing research grants in the excess of £18M of which £6M were allocated to his institution and £7M as Principal Investigator. He leads an ERC Consolidator Grant fellowship DANDIDRONE (€2m, 101001499), an ARIA grant SEED (£0.5m), the EPSRC project MORPHING BLADES (£1m, EP/V009443/1), and several other grants funded by industry, the Royal Society, etc. Viola is Co-Investigator and Director of Responsible Research and Innovation of the Centre for Doctoral Training in Wind & Marine Energy Systems & Structures (£6m, EP/S023801/1).  

He is the Functional Vice President Alt. of Knowledge Management of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME), and a member of several Executive Committees, including the Group on Energy Research and Applications of the American Physical Society, the UK Fluids Network, the UK Robotics and Autonomous Systems Network, and he is a member of the Academic Board of the National Robotarium. 

Viola is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Sailing Technology (SNAME), and Associate Editor of the Journal of Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering (ASME), and the Journal of Ocean Engineering and Marine Energy (Springer). He is a member of the Executive Committee of the conference series ECCOMAS International Conference on Computational Methods in Marine Engineering (MARINE), and Innovation in High-Performance Sailing Yachts (Innov'Sail). 

Curriculum Vitae

Research Group: VOILAb

• 2008, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Experimental and Numerical Aerodynamics of Sailing Yachts, Politecnico di Milano
• 2001, Master of Engineering, Naval Architecture, Università degli studi di Genova

CEng, Chartered Engineer Registered by the Engineering Council (UK), no. 584133 (2010) Dott. ing., Italian State Examination to practice as ‘Ingegnere’ (engineer) (2001) EUR ING, European Federation of National Engineering Associations, no. 31153 (2010) FRINA, Fellow of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects, no. 00174260 (member since 2009)

Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Sailing Technology, SNAME (2016-date) Associate Editor, Journal of Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering, ASME (2023-date) Associate Editor, Journal of Ocean Engineering and Marine Energy, Springer (2023-date)

Functional Vice President Alt. of Knowledge Management, Society of Naval Arch. and Marine Eng. (2024-date) Executive Committee, Group on Energy Research and Applications, American Physical Society (2023-date) Executive Committee, UK Fluids Network (2020-date) Executive Committee, UK Robotics and Autonomous Systems Network (2024-date) Academic Board, National Robotarium (2024-date)

• Fluid Mechanics
• Marine Energy
• Naval Architecture

Aerodynamics and hydrodynamics, including

• Aerodynamics
• Biomechanics
• COVID Aerodynamics
• Sail Aerodynamics
• Wind and Tidal Energy

• Research group: VOILAb
• Research Explorer (paper repository)
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Edinburgh Fluid Dynamics Group