Prof. Marco Piccardo, of the Department of Physics at Instituto Superior Técnico and head of the Multimode Photonics Group at INESC MN, has been elected as junior member of the Italian Academy of Engineering and Technology (ITATEC). Members are chosen exclusively on scientific merit through a highly selective process, making the election an important recognition in Italian applied science and engineering.

Founded in 2022 with the backing of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, ITATEC was established by some of the world’s foremost scientists, including Nobel laureate in Physics Giorgio Parisi. A defining feature of the Academy is its role as a bridge between academia and industry: alongside members elected on merit, it gathers leading technology stakeholders, among them ENI, Leonardo, Enel Green Power and STMicroelectronics, so that scientific insight translates into innovation that is both well-founded and industrially feasible. Internationally, ITATEC represents Italy within Euro-CASE, contributing to the European Commission’s scientific advice mechanism.