Plenary speakers

José Delgado Rodrigues

National Laboratory for Civil Engineering
Consultant in stone conservation
Portugal

José Delgado Rodrigues, now retired, works as consultant in stone conservation in Cultural Heritage. He is graduated in Geology, University of Coimbra, in 1967. “Especialista” in Engineering Geology by Laboratório Nacional de EngenhariaCivil (LNEC), in 1976, with the thesis “Rock weathering in Engineering Geology. Application to Portuguese case-studies”. Principal Research Officer of LNEC with the research programme “Research on rock materials with application to rockfill structures” (1985-2006).

He is President of the LNEC Scientific Council (2001-2004), Invited Professor of Universidade Nova de Lisboa (2000-2006), Director of the Department of Geotechnique, LNEC (2003-2006), Secretary-General of ISRM –International Society for Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering (1991-2003), President of SPG -Portuguese Society of Geotechnique (1989-1993), Scientific Int. Permanent Committee for the Organisation of Congresses on Degradation and Conservation of Stone (member) (1976-2004), Member of the Permanent Scientific Committee of World Monuments Fund Portugal. Acted as invited professor in courses worldwide.

Author or co-author of about 170 LNEC internal reports. Author or co-author of about 200 papers published in scientific national and international journals or presented to congresses and symposia. Co-ordinator of the project EU “GRANITIX and LNEC leading scientist of other EU projects: LAMA, HARDROCK, ONSITE, MCDUR, COMPASS, LABSTECH, PRODOMEA, EU-ARTECH. Acted as invited professor in courses of: Community of the Mediterranean Universities: University School of Monument Conservation (Heraklion, 1993; Lago di Garda, 1995), Course Scuola di Chimica per i Beni Culturali, University of Venice (Venice, 1994), ICCROM Course on Stone Conservation (Roma 1995, Venice 2001, 2003, 2009, Roma 2011, 2013), ICCROM Course on Architectural Conservation, ARC96 and ARC98 (Rome 1996 and 1998), 1st Course on the Conservation of Monuments in Central and Ocidental Asia (Persepolis, Iran, 1998), in the graduate course in Geology in the Universidade de Coimbra, (1980/83), in the Master Course in Rehabilitation of Architectonic and Landscape Heritage, in Évora University, ad hoc courses on stone conservation in the University of S. Paulo, Brazil, 2006 and in Lima, Peru, 2008. Scientific coordinator of the CHARISMA International Course on Stone Conservation, Lisbon, May 2012, Torun (Poland) 2013, and Amsterdam 2014. Coordinator of the Course on Stone Conservation, Belo Horizonte (Brazil) 2014, 2018, 2022. Delivered theXV Manuel Rocha lecture of SPG, and the 40thonline lecture of the ISRM. Fellow of ISRM. “Mentor researcher” at The Getty Conservation Institute, 2007. Research Scholar at the Getty Conservation Institute to deepen knowledge in deterioration and conservation of granitic materials and to structure a publication in this same subject, 2017. Consultant for Monuments conservation in Portugal, Spain, Brazil, UAE, Bahrein. Fellow of the International Society for Rock Mechanics.

Francesca Cappitelli

University of Milan
Italy

Francesca Cappitelli is Full Professor of Microbiology at the University of Milan, Italy. She has received her PhD in Conservation Science at School of Humanities -Conservation, Royal College of Art, London, UK (2002). Her research focuses are the study of biofilm and the interaction of microbes with the cultural heritage.

Since 2015 she is Coordinator of the Cultural Heritage Center of her University of Milan and Editor-in-Chief of Annals of Microbiology. For the period 2021-2023 she is President of the Italian Scientific Habilitation, Committee of Agricultural Microbiology. She is currently member of PhD Board of the Italian National doctorate in ‘Heritage Science’. Francesca authored 113 papers in peer-reviewed journals indexed in Scopus/WoS and edited 2 international books, publishing extensively with collaborators of diverse disciplines, sciences and humanities alike.

She teaches Microbiology to bachelor students in Conservation Science; Postgraduate students at the School of Historical and Artistic Heritage, University of Milan; and abroad (in 2023 Biology and Cultural Heritage Conservation, at the School of Art and Archaeology Zhejiang University, China). Francesca has coordinated a number of Italian and international projects. She has been reviewer of research projects on cultural heritage microbiology submitted to Austrian, Czech, European, Flanders, France, Hong Kong, Israel, Italian, Poland, North American and Swiss institutions. She co-organised the “European Conference on Biodeterioration of Stone Monuments”, Cergy-Pontoise and Rome (2016 and 2022), “Conservation Science 2007”, Milan, and “Science, Technology and Cultural Heritage”, (2005), Catania, Italy. Francesca has been an invited speaker at the international conferences in Israel, US, Vatican City, Turkey, and Sweden. Francesca has acted as an External reviewer for internal promotion applications to Associate Professor, at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and the University of Swabi, Pakistan.

Silvia Prati

University of Bologna
Italy

Silvia Prati is Associate Professor of Chemistry for the Environment and Cultural Heritage at the University of Bologna (Department of Chemistry) and Deputy for the Didactic Activities. She is member of the PhD Board of the National PhD on Cultural Heritage in Italy, of the PhD Board of the School in Environmental and Cultural Heritage from the University of Bologna, of the board of Working Party on Cultural Heritage from EuChemS and of the board of the Italian Society of Environmental and Cultural Heritage Chemistry.

She leads the WP “Green Cleaning Method” in the Horizon Europe project “Green Strategies To Conserve The Past And Preserve The Future Of Cultural Heritage, GOGREEN” and of the WP “Development of cleaning procedures” in the National PRIN Project “Sustainable Preservation Strategies for Street Art, SuperStar”.

Her research activities are related to the development of advanced analytical methods for the investigation of artistic and historical objects and of innovative materials for restoration. In particular she is involved in the setting up of methods based on the integration between hyperspectral spectroscopic techniques and advanced data processing elaboration. Moreover, in the frame of national and international projects she coordinates the activities related to the design and testing of new green materials for restoration which are respectful of the work of art, of the operator and of the environment. Her scientific production consists of 106 papers published in peer reviewed journals (h-index 31, 2413 citations).

Matija Strlič

University College London
United Kingdom
University of Ljubljana
Slovenia

Matija Strlič is Professor of Analytical Chemistry at University of Ljubljana and Honorary Professor at University College London. His main research interests are the development of heritage science infrastructure, as well as modelling of heritage materials, environments, values and decision making.

He has published more than 170 peer-reviewed papers and is Editorial Board Member of Heritage Science, Polymer Degradation and Stability and Studies in Conservation. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and of the International Institute for Conservation. His track record includes more than 50 national (Slovenia and UK) and international (EU and bilateral) projects.

He has worked on the development of Strategic Research Agendas for several national and international funding and policy making bodies. In 2015, he received the Ambassador of Science of the Republic of Slovenia Award for the outstanding achievements in science and international collaboration.