Dr. Ignazio Maria VIOLA is an internationally renowned researcher in yachting technology, who leads a team of mathematicians and engineers in the UK to develop many innovations in the science of sailing.
His PHD thesis, which was undertaken at the Politecnico di Milano, was sponsored by Luna Rossa, an America’s Cup challenger, and was on how to develop high-performance sails with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and wind tunnel tests.
Ignazio was awarded a master degree in Genoa, Italy in 2001. Following his graduation, he worked in a yacht yard (MAS, Como) where, in three years, he became the Director of Mass Production. In the same period, he was the consultant for a Research and Development office (PRIMA R&D, Como), where he coordinated a team of engineers to develop patents for the yacht industry.
His specialist experience is in high-performance sailing yachts and, in particular, sail aerodynamics and hull hydrodynamics. He has collaborated with several America’s Cup Teams, Olympic Teams, yacht designers, sail designers and boat builders.
Ignazio has written more than 40 scientific publications and has received several academic awards, such as the RINA Medal of Exceptional Merit. He is a member of the Editorial Board of prestigious scientific journals and he is an elected member of the Specialist Committee on CFD of the International Towing Tank Conference (ITTC).
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