Franco Bonollo (born 1962) graduated in Chemical Engineering at Padova University (1988). He worked for 3 years as industrial researcher in the metallurgical department of ENI Group,; he started his academic activity in 1991. He is actually Professor of Metallurgy at the Engineering Faculty of Padova University. His main research topics are foundry and solidification of light alloys, aluminium matrix composites, innovative welding processes, simulation of metallurgical processes. He is author or co-author of about 150 scientific and technical papers and of three books on numerical simulation of foundry processes and on application of Aluminium alloys. Since 1997 he has been president of the Italian Board for Standards in foundry of Aluminium alloys and since 2002 he has been president of the Light Alloys Technical Committee of the Italian Association of Metallurgy. He is Chairman of the International conference "High Tech Die Casting", kept biannually. He is member of the Scientific Committee of the magazines "La Metallurgia Italiana" and "DieCasting and Foundry technologies". He is referee for various international magazines. He won for two times (2000 and 2004) the "Daccò Prize", which is yearly assigned for the best Italian paper on foundry topics. He has been scientific coordinator of two EU Leonardo Project: Coprofound (1999-2001, on Numerical Simulation of Foundry Processes) and METRO (2005-2006, on Metallurgical Training On-line). He was leader of the WP "Quality Mapping" inside the EU Project IDEAL (2002-2005, on the optimisation of cast Aluminium automotive components). He is also responsible of various research projects, carried out in cooperation with Italian and European industrial Companies.

Selected publications last 5 years:

F. Bonollo and S. Odorizzi (editors). Numerical Simulation of Foundry processes. SGE (Italy), 2001.

F. Bonollo and M. Rosso. New diecasting processes: a critical review. Aluminium Age, Vol 1: 34-39 (2003).

F. Bonollo, A. Moret, S. Gallo and C. Mus. Cylinder liners in Aluminium matrix composite by centrifugal casting. La Metallurgia Italiana Vol 96 (6): 49-55, 2004.

F. Bonollo, J. Urban, B. Bonatto and M. Botter. Gravity and Low pressure die casting of aluminium alloys: A technical and economical benchmark. La Metallurgia Italiana Vol 97 (6): 23-32, 2005.

M. Di Sabatino L. Arnberg and F. Bonollo. Simulation of fluidity in Al-Si alloys. Metallurgical Science and Technology, Vol. 23 (1): 3-10, 2005.

F. Piasentini, F. Bonollo and A. Tiziani. Fourier thermal analysis applied to sodium eutectic modification of an Al-Si7 alloy. Metallurgical Science and Technology, Vol. 23 (2): 11-20, 2005.

F. Bonollo, A. Tiziani and M. Penasa. CO₂ laser welding of aluminium matrix composites. International Journal of Materials and Product Technology, Vol 17 (3-4): 291-302, 2002.

P. Ferro, A. Zambon and F. Bonollo. Investigation of electron-beam welding in wrought Inconel 706 - Experimental and numerical analysis. Materials Science and Engineering A, Vol 392 (1-2): 94-105, 2005.

P. Ferro, F. Bonollo and A. Tiziani. Laser welding of Cu-Ni alloys: a numerical and experimental analysis. Science and Technology of Welding and Joining, Vol 10: 1362-1718, 2005.

I. Magnabosco, P. Ferro, A. Tiziani and F. Bonollo. Induction heat treatment of a ISO C45 steel bar: Experimental and numerical analysis. Computational Materials Science, Vol 35 (2): 98-106, 2006.