Full Professor, Vice-Dean at Ecole polytechnique de Bruxelles, Co-head of BRITE, Co-chair of the SWIFFT collective, Investigator at WEL Research Institute
E-mail: alessandro.parente@ulb.be
Phone number: 02.650.2673
Location: Solbosch campus, building U, entrance A, 5th floor
Loop profile: 222920
Career Summary:
Alessandro Parente earned his Master's (2005) and PhD (2009) in Chemical Engineering from the Università di Pisa. He was a Research Associate at the University of Utah (2007–2009) and joined the von Karman Institute in 2009.
Since 2010, he has been at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, where he became a Full Professor in 2019. Co-chair of the Brussels Institute for Thermal-Fluid Systems and Clean Energy (BRITE) since 2021, his research spans experimental and numerical studies of reacting and non-reacting flows, with applications in air quality and industrial decarbonization. He is a fellow of the Combustion Institute and has received 2 ERC grants. Currently, he leads efforts in using machine learning to enhance fluid flow simulations and develop digital twins, coordinating several projects in the field, including a European-wide network (cypher.ulb.be) for decarbonising hard-to-abate sectors.
Main Research Interests:
Thermo-fluid systems, with applications ranging from atmospheric flows to air pollution in urban environments, from sustainable combustion technologies to process industries.
Involvement in Projects and Grants:
Awards and Distinctions:
2024:
- National Candidate, Frontiers Planet Prize, for the work on “Data-driven models and digital twins for sustainable combustion technologies”.
- Prix de la diffusion scientifique ULB, for the podcast “À la salle des profs”, in collaboration with the ULB Département des sciences de l’information et de la communication.
- Fellow of the Combustion Institute, for pioneering advances in data-intensive frameworks for the development of sustainable combustion technologies.
2023:
- Nominated by École polytechnique de Bruxelles and Université libre de Bruxelles for the Triple E Awards in the “Community Engagement Initiative of the Year” category; resulted in 2nd place overall and Public Choice Award for integrating energy transition awareness throughout the engineering curriculum.
- Distinguished Paper Award (Numerical Combustion), 39th International Symposium on Combustion.
2021:
- Distinguished Paper Award (Stationary Combustion Systems and Low Carbon Combustion Technologies), 38th International Symposium on Combustion.
2017:
- Outstanding Paper Award, International Conference on Applied Energy (ICAE).
- Included in the Cartaditalia list of emerging under-40 Italian researchers worldwide – New Frontiers of Italian Scientific Research, published by the Italian Cultural Institute of Brussels.
2011:
- Fonds Renard Fellowship for research in fluid mechanics.
2005–2008:
- PhD Scholarship, Italian Department of Education (MIUR), Italy.