Mario Martinelli

Mario Martinelli was Full Professor of 'Optical Communications' at Politecnico di Milano for 22 years, from 2000 to 2022, the year he retired. In 1976 he graduated in Electronic Engineering from Politecnico di Milano. He began his research activity in 1977 at Laboratori CISE in Segrate (Milan) where he joined the Quantum Electronics Division. In 1980 he began dealing with activities related to fibre-optics, which led him to become head of the Coherent Optics Section in 1986. In 1981 he was a Visiting Researcher at London University College. In 1992 he became Associate Professor in Telecommunications (ING_INF 03) at Politecnico di Milano and in 1994 he was called upon, again by Politecnico di Milano, to activate the first course in 'Optical Communications'.

In 1993 he founded the Photonics Laboratory and in 1995 participated in the foundation of CoreCom, a research and education consortium between Politecnico di Milano and the Pirelli Cavi company created for conducting advanced research in optical processing and switching for future telecommunications networks. He managed CoreCom for 13 years, with a significant commitment to education and training: he was the supervisor of several dozen thesis students and PhDs and organised several specializing masters. In 2000 he became Full Professor at Politecnico di Milano.

From 2003 to 2005 he was a member of the Scientific Board for Valorisation of Research. In 2004 he was awarded the title of Fellow of the Optical Society of America for his scientific contributions in the field of optical communications, fibre-optic sensors and the study of the Faraday Mirror Effect. In 2009 he founded POLICOM, an optical communications laboratory at Politecnico di Milano. In 2015 he founded the spin-off COHAERENTIA aimed at the development, industrialisation and implementation of fibre-optic sensors. In 2016 he was appointed an ordinary member of Accademia Virgiliana.

Prof. Martinelli has taken part in the Board of numerous editions of major international conferences in the field of 'Optical Communications' and has been Chairman of the organising committee of the National 'Photonics' Conference for many years.

In 2017, he introduced the new 'Quantum Communications' course. The course marks the start of a new activity in the field of quantum communications that gains momentum with participation in a European EIT project (2018) and in 2020 generates an innovative research proposal for a quantum communications network in the urban environment of Milan called Politecnico di Milano Quantum Infrastructure, POLIQI.

Extract from the 2023 nomination statement