Short Curriculum Vitae

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F. Valentini (FV) is Associate Professor at the Physics Department at University of Calabria (Italy). His research activity is focused on the study of heliospheric plasmas, with specific interestfundamental plasma physics of the Earth’s magnetosphere, shock regions, solar wind, Sun-Earth interactions and applications to space weather, as well as synergies with astrophysics and laboratory plasmas. This activity is based on the combination of theoretical/numerical modeling and analysis and interpretation of in situ data from spacecraft.
FV is the main designer and developer of the Hybrid Vlasov-Maxwell (HVM) solver, an algorithm suitable for the description of the kinetic dynamics of plasmas. This code allowed for the first time the analysis of kinetic effects in turbulent plasmas, for example in the solar wind, and has been employed by several researchers within the scientific community of space physics over the past 12 years. Since 2007, when the final version of the code has been first released, about 60 papersinternational reviewed journals were published containing results obtained through the HVM solver.
Beside the implementation and use of advanced numerical tools for modeling the dynamicsplasmas, FV also works on experimental data analysis. He is one of the coordinators of the scientific project “Artificial Intelligence Data Analysis (AIDA)”, recently funded by the European Union within the Horizon 2020 program, and focused on advanced exploitation of in situ data from spacecraft, including ESA’s missions such as Cluster. Within AIDA, FV is coordinating the numerical simulation effort, providing support to data analysis interpretation and to the development of novel investigation techniques of artificial intelligence and machine learning.
FV has been also actively involved in space missions for several years. In 2009, he joined the science team of the ESA Cross-Scale mission proposal. Then, 2015-2018, he was one of the proposers of the THOR mission proposal and a member of the THOR Science Study Team, receiving funds from the Italian Space Agency to support the activities during THOR Phase 0/A. Recently, he joined the Debye scientific team (proposal submitted this year to ESA as F-class
candidate), as co-Investigator of the Particle Data Processor instrument. FV is also involved in the ESA Solar Orbiter mission, for which he is co-Investigator of the Solar Wind Analyzer (SWA) instrument. He is contributing valuable inputs to the science discussions and, by using his expertise both in theoretical/numerical modeling and observational analysis, hegiving important ideas to maximize the SWA and, more in general, the Solar Orbiter science return.
FV is also member of SWICO, the Space Weather Italian Community, whose aim is to foster research in the field of Space Weather, e. g. space physics and Sun - Earth relationship.
In 2019, FV joined as co-Investigator the scientific team of the proposal “Heliophysics Connections: Center for the Exploration of Coupling within the Sun-Earth System”, recently submitted to the “NASA Solicitation and Proposal Integrated Review and Evaluation System” (NSPIRES). Within this project, he will coordinate the numerical simulation support team.
FV has actively worked on the preparation of the white paper “Helioswarm” (​arXiv:1903.06890​), submitted to the ​PLASMA2020 NASA decadal survey committee, to support the idea of a Midex mission as a swarm of small satellites to measure turbulence properties.
FV acts regularly as reviewer for international panels in the fields of plasma physics and space physics, such as those at NASA, NSF/DOE (USA) and European scientific councils.
FV is Guest Editor of J. of Plasma Physics, editing topical issues in plasma and space physics.
 

Academic career

FV got his Master degree in Physics (“Laurea”) with a score of 110/110 cum laude in 2001 and his PhD degree in Physics in 2005 with excellent grade. He has been postdoc at the Physics Dept., University of California at San Diego (2005-2006), at the Physics Dept., University of Calabria (2006-2009) and at CNISM, Physics Dept., University of Pisa (2009-2010). FV is permanent researcher at University of Calabria since 2010. Recently, he achieved the Italian qualifications as Associate and Full Professor of Theoretical Matter Physics and of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Earth’s and planetary physics. FV has been Visiting Professor at the Observatory of Paris-Meudon (France) and at the University of California at San Diego (USA) several times in the past 15 years. FV is author of about ​100 scientific papers; number of citations 1408, h-factor ​21 (ISI Web Science – July 2019). The research work of FV has been presented at more than 100 national and international conferences (about 50 invited talks). Since 2001, FV teaches several courses at BS, MD and PhD levels and supervises regularly Bachelor, Master and PhD students.
 

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Education and past positions

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•  01/2020-present: Associate Professor, Department of Physics, University of Calabria (Italy).

• 11/2010-01/2020: Researcher/Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, University of Calabria (Italy).

•  12/2014: Visiting Researcher, Department of Physics, University of California-San Diego

•  01/2014: Visiting Researcher, Department of Physics, University of California-San Diego

•  01/2013: Visiting Researcher, Department of Physics, University of California-San Diego

•  10/2012: Visiting Researcher, Department of Physics, University of California-San Diego

•  12/2010: Visiting Researcher, Department of Physics, University of California-San Diego

•  12/2008–12/2009: Post-doc Research Associate, Department of Physics, University of Calabria (Italy)

•  06/2008–11/2008: short term contract, Department of Physics, University of Pisa (Italy)

•  05/2006–05/2008: Post-doc Research Associate, Department of Physics, University of Calabria (Italy)

•  10/2007-12/2007: Visiting Researcher, Department of Physics, University of California-San Diego

•  03/2005-04/2006: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Physics, University of California at San Diego

•  01/2005: PhD in Physics at University of Calabria (Italy). Title of Thesis: “Kinetic numerical simulations for collisionless plasmas”

•  05/2003–11/2003: Visiting Scholar, Observatory of Paris-Meudon (France)

•  03/2001: “Laurea” degree in Physics at University of Calabria (Italy), with a score of 110/110 cum laude

•  07/2000–11/2000: Visiting Scholar, Observatory of Paris-Meudon (France)

 

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Research interests

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The research activity of Dr. Valentini is focused on the development and use of numerical codes, suitable for studying the nonlinear dynamics of magnetized and non (or weakly) collisional plasmas and fluids. The main interest is the theoretical and numerical study of the development of turbulence in plasmas in the range of kinetic scales, the propagation of waves in plasmas, the nonlinear interaction of these waves with particlesand the formation of coherent nonlinear structures, solitons, etc. The dynamics of the plasma is analyzed numerically through the use of kinetic codes (Particle in Cell or Vlasov algorithms of the Eulerian type), developed and implemented by Dr. Valentini. In particular, for the study of the nonlinear dynamics at low frequencies (of the order of the ionic cyclotron frequency) and at typical ionic scales, he developed in 2007 a numerical code [the so-called Hybrid Vlasov-Maxwel (HVM) solver], which presents features still unique today in the analysis of the kinetic effects in non-relativistic magnetized plasmas. This code is currently used for the analysis of the role of kinetic effects during the the development of turbulence in non-collisional laboratory and space plasmas. At the moment, Dr. Valentini is coordinating the development of a new and innovative kinetic code, called Darwin Vlasov-Maxwell (DVM), which will allow to analyze the characteristics of the kinetic dynamics of a non-collisional plasma up to the electron kinetic scales and in multi-dimensional phase-space configuration.
Dr. Valentini also deals with the analysis of the kinetic dynamics of non-neutral plasmas, in the framework of a close collaboration with Prof. Thomas O'Neil and with Prof. Fred Driscoll, of the group of non-neutral plasmas of the University of California at San Diego. This collaboration, which is still active, began in 2005, when Dr. Valentini held a Post-Doc Research Associate position at the University of California at San Diego. In this research activity, the interest is directed to the theoretical analysis of the nonlinear dynamics of high frequency electrostatic modes and to their numerical modeling, through the use of Particle-In-Cell and Eulerian algorithms.

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Notable achievements

 

• During my Post-Doc at University of California, I worked on basic plasma physics topics, providing theoretical/modeling support to experiments with nonneutral plasmas. Main result of this research activity has been the identification of a novel branch of plasma waves, intrinsically nonlinear, dubbed electron acoustic waves. The existence of these electrostatic fluctuations has been demonstrated first through numerical simulations [Physics of Plasmas 13, 052303 (2006)] and then in experiments in Penning-Malmberg machines [Physics of Plasmas 16, 055705 (2009)]. Moreover, very recently, through experiments with nonneutral plasmas and kinetic simulations, together with my american colleagues we studied the parametric instability of plasma waves, pointing out the limitations of the fluid theory and the determinant role of wave-particle resonant interaction [Physical Review Letters 121, 235004 (2018)].

• I am the principal designer and developer of the Hybrid Vlasov-Maxwell (HVM) numerical solver [Journal of Computational Physics 225, 753 (2007)], a Eulerian algorithm which integrates the kinetic equations for a plasma at typical ion kinetic scales and is suitable for the description of the turbulent dynamics of the interplanetary medium and magnetospheric plasmas in full three-dimensional geometry, both in physical and velocity space. This low-noise numerical algorithm has allowed for the first time the study of kinetic effects at ion scales.

• The HVM algorithm has been employed by myself and my colleagues to characterized the role of kinetic effects in plasma turbulence [Physical Review Letters 108, 045001 (2012), Journal of Plasma Physics 81, 325820207 (2015)], showing how collisionless plasmas can be driven towards and survive in out-of-equilibrium states. We were able to point out the physical link between macro and micro scales in solar-wind turbulence [Physical Review Letters 101, 025006 (2008)], by identifying a novel type of electrostatic fluctuations, detected in numerical simulations [Physical Review Letters 102, 225001 (2009); Physical Review Letters 106, 165002 (2011)] and in solar wind measurements from the NASA/STEREO spacecraft in 2014 [The Astrophysical Journal Letters 788, L16 (2014)]. We also described the role of kinetic effects in enhancing locally plasma collisionality, and in driving dissipation even in systems typically considered as collisionless [Physical Review Letters 116, 145001 (2016)].

• In 2016, the HVM solver has been successfully employed by myself and a group of colleagues in the field of Astrophysical plasmas to study kinetic physical processes in turbulent dynamo generation in collisionless plasmas. The results of this research has been described in a scientific paper, of which I am a co-author, appeared in PNAS in 2016 [Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 113, 3950 (2016)].

• As a member of the ESA Science Study Team of the THOR mission proposal, and, in particular, as coordinator of the THOR Numerical Simulation Support Team, I provided support to the design of the scientific and technical aspects of the THOR spacecraft. Numerical simulations were successfully employed to provide predictions about typical regions of scientific interest in space. Moreover, by making use of the so-called Virtual Spacecraft Technique, numerical modeling gave for the first time the opportunity to simulate the response of real field and particle instruments onboard the THOR spacecraft [New Journal of Physics 18, 125001 (2016)]. The research activity developed to support the design phase of the THOR spacecraft led to a relevant scientific impact, with the publication of several papers and invited talks at several international conferences. Moreover, the Virtual Spacecraft technique is currently adopted within the Horizon 2020 AIDA project to setup Artificial Intelligence techniques for space data analysis.

• In the last three years, together with my colleagues, we developed the theory of velocity space cascade in plasmas and verified our theoretical predictions through the comparison with observational measurements from the NASA Magnetospheric Multi-scale (MMS) mission [Physical Review Letters 119, 205101 (2017)] and with synthetic data from simulations [Physics of Plasmas 25, 060704 (2018)]. Moreover, we proposed an efficient way of detecting the effects of the kinetic dynamics of ions in driving the magnetospheric plasma away from thermodynamic equilibrium and successfully applied this technique to observational data from NASA MMS spacecraft constellation [Physical Review Letters 122, 035102 (2019)].

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Invited Talks (International Conferences)

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• Valentini F., Kinetic Vlasov-Poisson code: numerical algorithm and parallelization strategy, Workshop on High Performance and grid Computing, 7-21 Marzo 2005, Cosenza (Italy).

• Valentini F., Veltri P., O'Neil T., Dubin D., Eulerian and Particle-in-Cell simulations of waves in plasmas: Bernstein modes and Electron Acoustic Waves, International Conference on Transport Theory, 24-30 Luglio 2005, Budapest (Ungheria).

• Valentini F., O'Neil T. M., Dubin D. H. E., Excitation of nonlinear Electron Acoustic Waves, NNP06, Workshop on Non Neutral Plasma Physics, 26-30 Giugno 2006, Aarhus (Denmark).

• Veltri P., Valentini F., Califano F., Mangeney A., Kinetic Effects in Small Scale Range of Solar Wind Turbulence, Solvay Workshop. A tribute to Professor Radu Balescu. The physics of charged particles: Radu Balescu's life passion, 6-8 Marzo 2008, Bruxelles (Belgium).

• Veltri P., Valentini F., Califano F., Mangeney A., Kinetic Effects in Small Scale Range of Solar Wind Turbulence, Dynamical Processes in Space Plasmas, 11 - 19 Maggio 2008, Israel.

• Valentini F., Califano F., Veltri P., Numerical analysis of kinetic effects on the short-scale termination of solar-wind turbulence through multi-dimensional Vlasov simulation, Vlasovia 2009, International workshop on the theory and applications of Vlasov equations, 31 Agosto - 4 Settembre 2009, Marsiglia (Francia).

• Veltri P. , Valentini F., Califano F., Electrostatic small scale range of Solar Wind Turbulence, International Conference, Solar wind -Space Environment interaction, 4-8 December 2009, Cairo (Egypt).

• Califano F. , Valentini F., 3D-3V Vlasov project supported by DEISA, International Workshop Girokinetics for ITER, 15 – 28 Marzo 2010, Vienna (Austria).

• Califano F., Valentini F., Veltri P., Perrone D., Turbulence transition across the ion cyclotron frequency: a Vlasov approach, 478th Heraeus Seminar, Fusion and Astrophysical plasmas, 18 – 20 Aprile 2011, Bad Honnef (Germany).

• Valentini F., Kinetic simulations in space plasmas, Plasma in Astrophysics and in the laboratory (PAL2), Torino, 23 – 24 Novembre 2011, Torino (Italy).

• Perrone D., Valentini F., Servidio S., Dalena S., Veltri P., Turbulence in two-dimensional multi-ions plasma: hybrid Vlasov numerical simulations, Workshop of the International Space Science Institute (ISSI): Microphysics of Cosmic Plasmas, 16 – 20 Aprile 2012, Bern (Switzerland).

• Valentini F., Vlasov equation: theory and simulation, First European School on: Fundamental processes in Space Weather: a challenge in numerical modeling, , 04 – 09 Giugno 2012, Spineto (Italy).

• Servidio S., Dmitruk P., Valentini F., Greco A., Veltri P., Carbone V., Donato S., Wan M., Shay M., Cassak P., Matthaeus W. H., Overview on numerical studies of reconnection and dissipation in the solar wind, Solar Wind 13, 18 – 22 June 2012, Kona-Kailua, Big Island, Hawaii (USA).

• Servidio S., Dmitruk P., Valentini F., Greco A., Veltri P., Carbone V., Donato S., Wan M., Shay M., Cassak P., Matthaeus W. H., Magnetic Reconnection in a Turbulent Environment, Solar Heliospheric & Interplanetary Environment (SHINE), 25 – 29 June 2012, Wailea Maui, Hawaii (USA).

• Servidio S., Valentini F., Califano F., Veltri P., Local kinetic effects in a turbulent plasma: numerical simulations, AGU Fall Meeting 2012, 03 – 07 December 2012, San Francisco, California (USA).

• Perrone D., Valentini F., Servidio S., Dalena S., Veltri P., Kinetic multi-component simulations for the solar wind small-scale turbulence: ion temperature anisotropy, Seminario ad invito presso l'Observatoire de Paris, 3 Giugno 2013, Meudon (France).

• Perrone D., Valentini F., Servidio S., Dalena S., Veltri P., Generation of ion temperature anisotropy in kinetic hybrid-Vlasov simulations, AGU Fall Meeting 2013, 09 – 13 December 2013, San Francisco, California (USA).

• Veltri P., Valentini F., Servidio S., Perrone D., Pezzi O., Maruca B., Califano F., Matthaeus W.H., Kinetic Effects in Solar Wind Low Frequency Turbulence: Vlasov Simulations vs data Analysis, Dynamical Processes in Space and Astrophysical Plasmas, 16 – 22 March 2014, Ein Bokek, Dead Sea (Israel).

• Valentini F., Servidio S., Matthaeus W., Osman K., Perrone D., Califano F., Veltri P., Vlasov Plasma Turbulence in the Solar Wind at Proton Kinetic Scales, AGU fall meeting 2014, 15 - 20 December 2014, San Francisco, California (USA).

• Servidio S., F. Valentini, P. Veltri, W. H. Matthaeus, P. Dmitruk, A. Greco, K. T. Osman, D. Perrone, F. Califano, V. Carbone, Magnetic reconnection and kinetic effects in Vlasov turbulence, EGU General Assebly 2015, 13-17 Aprile 2015, Vienna (Austria).

• O. Pezzi, F. Valentini, S. Servidio, D. Perrone, A. Greco, K. Osman, F. Califano, W.H. Matthaeus and P. Veltri, Kinetic effects in Vlasov Turbulent Plasmas, International Conference Solar Heliospheric & Interplanetary Environment (SHINE), 6-10 Luglio 2015, Stowe VT (USA).

• F. Valentini and the THOR team, Numerical simulation support to the ESA/THOR mission, 12th International Symposium for Space Simulation (ISSS-12), 06-10 Luglio 2015, Praga (Repubblica Ceca).

• Servidio S., F. Valentini, Matthaeus W. H., Greco A., Veltri P., Dimitruk P., Cassak P., Shay M., Perrone D., Califano F., Carbone V., Osman K., Gosling J., Magnetic reconnection in plasma turbulence: from MHD to Vlasov models, Magnetic reconnection in plasmas, 27/07/2015 – 21/08/2015, Nordita, Stockolm (Sweden).

• F. Valentini and the THOR team, Numerical simulation support to the ESA/THOR mission, International Conference “Turbulence and dissipation in collisionless astrophysical plasmas”, 20-25 Settembre 2015, Cargese (Corsica).

• F. Valentini and the THOR team, Kinetic physics at ion scales in the solar wind: Numerical support to the ESA/THOR mission, “International Max Planck - Princeton Centre workshop”, 12-15 Gennaio 2016, Berlino (Germania).

• A. Vaivads, A. Retinò, J. Soucek, Yu. V. Khotyaintsev, F. Valentini, P. C. Escoubet and the THOR team, Turbulence Heating Observer – THOR, “13th Annuam Meeting of the Asia Oveania Geosciences Society”, 31 Luglio – 5 Agosto 2016, Beijing (China).

• A. Vaivads, A. Retinò, C. P. Escoubet, Y. Khotyaintsev, J. Soucek, F. Valentini, C. Chen, A. Fazakeley, B. Lavraud, M. F. Marcucci, Y. Narita, R. Vainio, M. Gehler, A. Wielders and THOR team, Turbulence Heating Observer – THOR, “VLASOVIA 2016 – fifth international workshop on the theory and applications of the Vlasov equation”, 29 Maggio – 2 Giugno 2016, Copanello (CZ), Italy.

• A. Retinò, A. Vaivads, C. P. Escoubet, Y. Khotyaintsev, J. Soucek, F. Valentini, C. Chen, A. Fazakeley, B. Lavraud, M. F. Marcucci, Y. Narita, R. Vainio, Exploring turbulent energy dissipation and particle energization in space plasmas: the science of THOR mission, “VLASOVIA 2016 – fifth international workshop on the theory and applications of the Vlasov equation”, 29 Maggio – 2 Giugno 2016, Copanello (CZ), Italy.

• S. Servidio, F. Valentini, D. Perrone, A. Greco, K. T. Osman, L. Sorriso-Valvo, F. Califano, W. H. Matthaeus, P. Veltri, Vlasov simulations of plasma turbulence, “VLASOVIA 2016 – fifth international workshop on the theory and applications of the Vlasov equation”, 29 Maggio – 2 Giugno 2016, Copanello (CZ), Italy.

• F. Rincon, F. Califano, A. A. Schekochihin, F. Valentini, Turbulent dynamo in a collisionless plasma, “VLASOVIA 2016 – fifth international workshop on the theory and applications of the Vlasov equation”, 29 Maggio – 2 Giugno 2016, Copanello (CZ), Italy.

• P. Veltri, F. Valentini, A. Vecchio, D. Perrone, F. Califano, F. Pegoraro, Electrostatic Turbulence generated by Solar Wind nonlinear Energy Cascade, “VLASOVIA 2016 – fifth international workshop on the theory and applications of the Vlasov equation”, 29 Maggio – 2 Giugno 2016, Copanello (CZ), Italy.

• S. Servidio, F. Valentini, W. H. Matthaeus, A. Greco, K. T. Osman, L. Sorriso-Valvo, D. Perrone, F. Califano, & P. Veltri, Vlasov turbulence in the solar wind, THOR Workshop#2: Exploring plasma energization in space turbulence, University of Barcelona, 27-29 September 2016, Barcelona (Spain).

• D. Perrone, F. Valentini; S. Servidio; P. Veltri, Kinetic physics of minor ions in solar wind turbulence: hybrid Vlasov simulations, THOR Workshop#2: Exploring plasma energization in space turbulence, University of Barcelona, 27-29 September 2016, Barcelona (Spain).

• Andris Vaivads, Alessandro Retinò, C. Philippe Escoubet, Yuri V. Khotyaintsev, Jan Soucek, F. Valentini, Christopher H. K. Chen, Andrew N. Fazakerley, Benoit Lavraud, Maria Federica Marcucci, Yasuhito Narita, Rami O. Vainio, Thomas Voirin, Arno Wielders, Nathalie Boudin, Pedro Osuna, and Martin Gehler and the THOR team, THOR - Turbulence Heating ObserveR, EGU General Assembly 2017, 23-28 April 2017, Vienna (Austria).

• F. Valentini, Near-Earth space as a laboratory: a key to the plasma universe, Institute Colloquium at Max-Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, 14 July 2017, Garching (Germany).

• F. Valentini, Kinetic plasma simulations, International school of space science, 18-23 Settembre 2017, L’Aquila (Italia).

• O. Pezzi, D. Perrone, S. Servidio, F. Valentini, L. Sorriso-Valvo, P. Veltri, Dissipation in weakly-collisional turbulent plasmas, EGU General Assembly 2018, 8-13 April 2018, Vienna (Austria).

• O. Pezzi, D. Perrone, S. Servidio, F. Valentini, L. Sorriso-Valvo, and P. Veltri, Collisional dissipation in turbulent weakly-collisional plasmas, 19th International Congress on Plasma Physics, 4-8 June 2018, Vancouver (Canada).

• F. Valentini, Kinetic physics at ion scales in the turbulent solar wind, Solar Wind 15 - 15th International Solar Wind Conference, 18-22 June 2018, Brussels (Belgium).

• F. Valentini, Algorithms for Eulerian plasma simulations: from ion to electron kinetic scales, 15th International Conference for Mesoscopic Methods in Engineering and Science, 9-13 July 2018, Newarc, Delaware (USA).

• F. Valentini, Velocity-space cascade in nearly collisionless plasmas, Nonlinear waves and turbulence in space plasmas, 4-7 giungo 2019, Nizza (Francia).

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Invited Talks (National Conferences)

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• Valentini F., New insights and challenges in numerical astrophysics research: the Vlasov approach and comparison with Lagrangian PIC methods, Simulations of complex phenomena in Astrophysics - First light after the dark ages, 07 – 11 Settembre 2009, Spineto (Italy).

• Valentini F., Perrone D., Califano F., Pegoraro F., Veltri P., Morrison P. J., O'Neil T. M., Undamped electrostatic plasma waves: theory and Vlasov simulations, XCVIII Congresso Nazionale, Società Italiana di Fisica, Napoli, 17 – 21 Settembre 2012, Napoli (Italy).

• Malara F., Valentini F., Servidio S. et al., Mechanisms of solar wind acceleration: from large to small scales, Meeting of the Italian Community in Solar and Heliospheric Physics, 4-6 September 2013, Catania (Italy).

• Veltri P., Valentini F., Servidio S. et al., Cross Scale Phenomena in Solar Wind Plasma, National conference FisMat 2013, 09 -13 september 2013, Milan (Italy).

• Veltri P., Valentini F., S. Servidio, D. Perrone, O. Pezzi, B. Maruca, K.T. Osman, F. Califano, W. H. Matthaeus., Kinetic Kinetic effects in Solar Wind low frequency Turbulence: Vlasov Simulations vs Data Analysis, 1000 Congresso Nazionale, Società Italiana di Fisica, 22-26 settembre 2014, Pisa (Italy).

• Valentini F., L'esplorazione del Sistema Solare: la missione spaziale THOR, Reggio Scienza – XXV Settimana Nazionale della Cultura Scientifica e Tecnologica, 12-18 Ottobre 2015, Planetario Pythagoras, Reggio Calabria.

• Valentini F., Veltri P., Il 5 e la Luce: un excursus scientifico sulle più significative scoperte sulla luce che vennero realizzate in anni che terminano con il numero 5, Reggio Scienza – XXV Settimana Nazionale della Cultura Scientifica e Tecnologica, 12-18 Ottobre 2015, Liceo Scientifico “Leonardo da Vinci”, Reggio Calabria.

• Valentini F., The near-Earth space: a natural laboratory to decode the plasma Universe, Seminario di Istituto su invito, Istituto Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziale – INAF, Roma, 15/05/2019.

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Grants and projects

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• 2018, Coordinator in EU project compet-4 horizon 2020, Research and Innovation Action, entitled “Artificial Intelligence Data Analysis (AIDA)”; PI: Prof. Gianni Lapenta, U. Leuven (Belgio), awarded amount: 1.500.000 EURO

• 2015-2017, Co-PI of the project “Missione M4 di ESA: Partecipazione Italiana alla fase di Assessment della missione THOR” of the Italian Space Agency (ASI); awarded amount 300.000 EURO

• 2017, Leader of ISSI team (International Space Science Institute) 416 "Magnetic topology effects on energy dissipation in turbulent plasma”

• 2017 – 2022, Collaborator in the project "Real-time forecasting of killer electrons on satellite orbits", grant NWO-VIDI, the Netherland; PI: Dr. Enrico Camporeale (CWI, The Netherland). Awarded amount: 800,000.00 EURO.

• 2015 - 2017, Member of THOR Science Study Team, candidate for ESA M4 space mission.

• 2015 - 2017, Coordinator of the THOR numerical simulation support team.

• 2014 - 2017, Collaborator in the project "Fundamental Processes in Plasmas", Award number: NSF - 1414570, United States of America, PI: Prof. C. Fred Driscoll, University of California at San Diego (USA); Awarded amount: 600,000.00 $

• 2012 - 2015, Collaborator in the project "Experiments and theory on keen waves and the salpeter correlation enhancement", grant number: DoE DE-SC0008693, USA; PI: Prof. C. Fred Driscoll, University of California at San Diego (USA). Awarded amount: 840,250.00 $

• 2012, PI of the European Project Tier-0 PRACE (Partnership for advanced computing in Europe), European Union, n. 2011050771, "3D-3V Vlasov simulations of plasma turbulence" (Pra04-771).

• 2010, PI of the KEY-PROJECT 2010 (INAF-CINECA agreement), entitled "3D-3V Vlasov simulations of space plasma turbulence".

• 2009, Co-I in the European Project DEISA 2009 (Distributed European Infrastructure for Supercomputing Applications), entitled "Vlasov 3D-3V simulations".

 

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Academic and scientific awards

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• 2018, the paper “A kinetic model of plasma turbulence” (F. Valentini co-author), J. Plasma Phys. 81, 325810107 (2015) has been selected by the Editor of Journal of Plasma Physics at the third position in the collection JPP 2017 Impact Factor – Top Contributing Articles.

• 2018, the paper “Turbulence Heating ObserveR – satellite mission proposal” (F. Valentini co-author), J. Plasma Phys. 82, 905820501 (2016) has been selected by the Editor of Journal of Plasma Physics at the thirteenth position in the collection JPP 2017 Impact Factor – Top Contributing Articles.

• 2018, the paper "Velocity-Space Cascade in Magnetized Plasmas: Numerical Simulations" (F. Valentini co-author), Phys. Plasmas 25, 060704 (2018) has been chosen as an Editor's Pick and posted on the journal homepage.

• 2017, FFABR 2017 award – Fondo per il finanziamento delle attività base di ricerca, ANVUR (awarded amount: 3000 EURO).

• 2016, 5000 EURO award, University of Calabria, for positive evaluation of the project within "bandi di ricerca di rilevanza nazionale – PRIN 2015".

• 2016, the paper "Collisional effects on the numerical recurrence in Vlasov-Poisson simulations" (F. Valentini co-author), Phys. Plasmas 23, 022103 (2016) has been selected as featured article in the February 2016 issue of the international journal Physics of Plasmas. Moreover, one of the pictures of this paper has been selected as cover image of the February 2016 issue of Physics of Plasmas.

• 2016, the paper “Turbulence Heating ObserveR – satellite mission proposal” (F. Valentini co-author), Journal of Plasma Physics, Volume 82, 905820501 (2016), has been selected as featured article in the Issue 5 2016, in Journal of Plasma Physics.

• 2016, “La Città del Sole” award per i calabresi di Calabria, Scientific Research. Motivation (in italian): Ai 'Calabresi di Calabria' che, operando nella regione d'origine, si sono particolarmente distinti per impegno, operosità, coraggio, onestà, nel campo delle arti, delle scienze, delle lettere e delle professioni, contribuendo così alla crescita culturale, umana, sociale ed economica della nostra Regione.

• 2016, International award “Pericle d'Oro”, per l'eccellenza nella Ricerca Scientifica. Motivation (in italian): Al valente ricercatore di Fisica dei plasmi spaziali e di laboratorio che per l'eccellenza dei suoi studi è diventato membro del Team scientifico del Progetto THOR, candidato per la prossima missione spaziale M4 prevista dall'ESA, l'Agenzia Spaziale Europea, che si avvale, ancora una volta, della competenza italiana di prestigio. (see picture above)

• 2016, “Calabria Cultura” award, Scientific Research. Motivation (italian): Per l'impegno profuso all'interno del mondo accademico nella sua attività di ricerca nel campo della Fisica dei Plasmi spaziali e di laboratorio. Candidato per la prossima missione spaziale M4 prevista dall'Agenzia Spaziale Europea (ESA), nell'ambito del programma Cosmic Vision 2015-2025.

• 2015, the paper "Two-fluid numerical simulations of turbulence inside Kelvin-Helmholtz vortices: Intermittency and reconnecting current sheets" (F. Valentini co-author), Phys. Plasmas 22, 122303 (2015), has been selected as featured article in the December 2015 issue of the international journal Physics of Plasmas. Moreover, one of the pictures of this paper has been selected as cover image of the December 2015 issue of Physics of Plasmas.

• 2014, award "Incentivo MIUR di cui all'art. 29, comma 19, della Legge 240/10 a professori e ricercatori sulla base dell’attività scientifica e didattica svolta"

• 2014, the paper "Undamped electrostatic plasma waves" by F. Valentini et al., Phys. Plasmas 19, 092103 (2012), has been included by the Editor of Physics of Plasmas in the scientific collection “Plasma Talks: Ron Davidson Interviews Cédric Villani”, part of "Plasma Talks: Conversations between Experts".

• 2012, the paper "Undamped electrostatic plasma waves" by F. Valentini et al., Phys. Plasmas 19, 092103 (2012), has been included (as forth)in the Top 20 Most Read Articles (AIP, Phys. Plasmas, September 2012).

• 2008, the paper "Linear and nonlinear regimes of bump-on-tail instability through Vlasov and toy model simulations", by F. Valentini, R. De Marco, V. Carbone and P. Veltri, EPL, 83 (2008) 55001, has been included by the Editor of Europhysics Letters in the collection EPL: BEST OF 2008.

• 2008, the paper "Effect of velocity diffusion on the propagation of nonlinear plasma waves" by F. Valentini and P. Veltri, EPL, 81 (2008) 15002, has been included by the Editor of Europhysics Letters in the collection EPL: BEST OF 2008.

• 2008, “giovani ricercatori” award, Dipartimento di Fisica dell'Università della Calabria. Awarded amount: 2500 Euro

• 2005, Post-Doc grant "Fondazione Angelo Della Riccia". Awarded amount: 12000 Euro

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