**About the Editors**

#### **Elio Santacesaria**

Elio Santacesaria obtained a chemistry degree at the Pavia University in 1966, with a thesis developed under the guidance of the Nobel prize winner, Giulio Natta. He worked as researcher at the Polytechnic of Milano from 1969 to 1986, conducting research in the fields of: chemistry of propellants, catalysis, kinetics, reactors design and simulation, and separation science. In 1986, he became the chair of Industrial Chemistry at the University of Naples "FEDERICO II". He continued research in almost all the aforementioned areas. Santacesaria had been a National Coordinator of research on "Colloid, Interphase and Surfactants" and founded the Italian Group of Colloid and Interphase Science (GICI) of the Italian Chemical Society. He has been the Coordinator of this group for more than ten years (1985–1995). He has been the organizer of many national and international congresses, workshops, and post-doctoral schools. He was elected President of the Industrial Chemistry Division of the Italian Chemical Society for 2004–2009. He has been the Dean of the Industrial Chemistry Degree Course from 1994 until 2009. He has collaborated with many Italian and foreign chemical industries. He has published more than 260 papers on qualified journals and 30 Patents. In 2011, he was awarded the "Emanuele Paterno" Gold Medal by the Italian Chemical ` Society. In November 2012, he retired from the university and became responsible for the Company Eurochem Engineering Ltd located in Milano. In September 2016, he was awarded the Giacomo Fauser Silver Plate entitled to by the Italian Group of Catalysis (GIC) of Italian Chemical Society (SCI) for a related conference.

#### **Riccardo Tesser**

Riccardo Tesser received an Industrial Chemistry master's degree from the University of Napoli in 1989. He has ten years of industrial experience working in the Montefibre Research Centre (NA), conducting research activities and developing technological improvements in dimethyl terephthalate production and batch and continuous PET polymerization. He achieved an Associate Professor position in the Chemical Sciences Department of the University of Naples "Federico II" in Industrial Chemistry. His main fields of research in industrial chemistry are industrial catalysis and kinetic studies, reaction and reactor modeling of multiphase systems, kinetic investigation of catalytic reactions, optimization algorithms in chemical engineering and the design and realization of lab-scale pilot plants. More recently, his main field of activity has been in biofuel production and the use of renewable resources as raw materials for the chemical industry. The results of these scientific activities have been published in 164 papers in a wide range of international, peer-reviewed chemistry journals and three books, and he has 11 international patents.

#### **Vincenzo Russo**

Vincenzo Russo obtained a PhD in Chemical Sciences at the University of Napoli Federico II (Italy) in 2014 and a PhD in Chemical Engineering at Abo Akademi (Finland). He has ˚ been an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Sciences of the University of Naples Federico II since November 2019. His research activity can be summarized as "Bridging the Fundamentals of Molecular Phenomena with Modern Concepts of Chemical Reactor Engineering". He approaches his research topics with sound methodology, starting with the investigation of the chemical and physical phenomena occurring in the reaction network. He carries out detailed kinetic investigations, quantitatively describing the experimental data in lab-scale reactors, both continuous and discontinuous. He bases kinetic models on the investigation of both the physical properties of the catalysts tested (homogeneous or heterogeneous) and the mass and heat transfer phenomena involved in the reaction network. Studying advanced reactor modeling activity has led him to the design and optimization of pilot-scale chemical plants, allowing the scale-up of the overall process. Finally, he tests and designs novel reactor concepts with the aim of optimizing and intensifying the chemical plant (i.e., reactive chromatography and microreactors). The results of these scientific activities have been published in 130 papers in a wide range of international, peer-reviewed chemistry journals, three books and four book chapters.
