**About the Editors**

#### **Francesco Tornabene**

Francesco Tornabene is an Associate Professor at the School of Engineering, Department of Innovation Engineering, University of Salento. He was born on 13 January 1978 in Bologna, where he received his high school degree at Liceo Classico San Luigi, in 1997. In 2001, he achieved a National Patent Bologna (Italy) for the Industrial Invention: Friction Clutch for High Performance Vehicles Question BO2001A00442. From the University of Bologna, he received an Alma Mater Studiorum, a M.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering (Curriculum in Structural Mechanics) on 23/07/2003, with a thesis entitled: "Dynamic Behavior of Cylindrical Shells: Formulation and Solution". In December 2003, he was admitted to the PhD course in Structural Mechanics at the University of Bologna; in 2004, from the University of Bologna, he received a thesis in memory of Carlo Felice Jodi; in 2007, he received his Ph.D. degree in Structural Mechanics at the University of Bologna, with a thesis entitled "Modeling and Solution of Shell Structures Made of Anisotropic Materials". From 2007 to 2009, he received a research fellowship from the University of Bologna, working on the "Unified Formulation of Shell Structures Made of Anisotropic Materials. Numerical Analysis Using the Generalized Differential Quadrature Method and the Finite Element Method". From 2011 to 2012, he became a junior researcher within the research program entitled "Advanced Numerical Schemes for Anisotropic Materials"; from 2012 to 2018, he was an Assistant Professor and Lecturer at the Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna; since 2018 he has been an Aggregate Professor in Structural Mechanics and Lecturer at the University of Salento, Department of Innovation Engineering (Lecce). For a long time, his scientific interests have included include Structural Mechanics, Solid Mechanics, Innovative and Smart Materials, Computational Mechanics and Numerical Techniques, Damage and Fracture Mechanics. He is the author of more than 280 scientific publications and collaborates with many national or international researchers and professors all over the world, as visible from his scientific production. He is the author of 11 books (including "Meccanica delle Strutture a Guscio in Materiale Composito. Il metodo Generalizzato di Quadratura Differenziale" (2012); "Mechanics of Laminated Composite Doubly-Curved Shell Structures. The Generalized Differential Quadrature Method and the Strong Formulation Finite Element Method" (2014); "Laminated Composite Doubly-Curved Shell Structures I. Differential Geometry. Higher-Order Structural Theories" (2016); "Laminated Composite Doubly-Curved Shell Structures II. Differential and Integral Quadrature. Strong Formulation Finite Element Method" (2016), "Anisotropic Doubly-Curved Shells. Higher-Order Strong and Weak Formulations for Arbitrarily Shaped Shell Structures" (2018), among many others). He is a member of the Editorial Board for 44 international journals. He is also Editor-in-Chief for two international journals: *Curved and Layered Structures*, and *Journal of Composites Science*; furthermore, he is an Associate Editor for seven international journals. In the last few years, he has received various important awards, including "Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics" (years 2018, 2019, 2020), "Ambassador of Bologna Award for the organization of 21st International Conference on Composite Structures ICCS21, 4–7 September 2018, Bologna, Italy" (2019), "Member of the European Academy of Sciences" (since 2018). He collaborates as reviewer with more than 260 prestigious international journals in the structural mechanics field. Since 2012, his teaching activities have included Dynamics of Structures; Computational Mechanics; Plates and Shells; Theory of Structures; and Structural Mechanics. He is habilitated as Associate Professor and Full Professor in the area 08/B2 (Structural Mechanics) and as Associate Professor in Area 09/A1 (Aeronautical and Aerospace Engineering and Naval Architecture).

### **Rossana Dimitri**

Rossana Dimitri is an Associate Professor at the School of Engineering, Department of Innovation Engineering, University of Salento, Lecce, Italy (since 2019). From the University of Salento, she received an M. Sc. degree in "Materials Engineering" in 2004, a Ph.D. degree in "Materials and Structural Engineering" in 2009, and a Ph.D. degree in "Industrial and Mechanical Engineering" in 2013. In 2005, from the University of Salento, she received the "Best M. Sc. Thesis Price 2003–2004" in memory of Eng. Gabriele De Angelis; in 2013, she was awarded by the Italian Group for Computational Mechanics (GIMC) for the Italian selection of the 2013 ECCOMAS PhD Award. Her current interests include Structural Mechanics, Solid Mechanics, Damage and Fracture Mechanics, Contact Mechanics, Isogeometric Analysis, High-Performing Computational Methods, Consulting in Applied Technologies, and Technology Transfer. During 2010 and 2011, she received a research fellowship by ENEA Research Centre of Brindisi (UTTMATB-COMP) for the development and the characterization of some thermoplastic composites for thermal solar panels and adhesively bonded turbine blades under severe environmental conditions. During 2011 and 2012, she was a visiting scientist with a fellowship at the Institut fur Kontinuumsmechanik Gottfried Wilhelm ¨ Leibniz Universitat Hannover to study interfacial problems with isogeometric approaches. From ¨ 2013 to 2016, she was a researcher at the University of Salento, within the ERC starting research grant "INTERFACES" on "Computational mechanical modelling of structural interfaces based on isogeometric approaches". From 2013 to 2019, she has collaborated as researcher RTD-B with the University of Bologna and the Texas A&M University for a comparative assessment of some advanced numerical collocation methods with lower computational cost for fracturing problems and structural modelling of composite plates and shells, made by isotropic, orthotropic, and anisotropic materials. She is the author of 112 scientific publications, and she collaborates with many national or international researchers and professors worldwide, as visible from her scientific production. She also collaborates with different prestigious international journals in the structural mechanics field, as reviewer, member of the editorial board, and guest editor for different Special Issues.
