Scientific Committee

Angela Di Febbraro is Full Professor of Transportation Engineering at the University of Genoa since 2005. Previously, she has been Professor in Control and Transportation Engineering at the Polytechnic of Turin, and before that a Research Assistant at the University of Genoa. Born in 1963 in Genoa, she got a Laurea Degree in Electronic Engineering (1987), and PhD in Electronic and Computer Engineering, both at the University of Genoa. At a European level, she currently holds the office of Italian National Delegate in the Horizon 2020 Programme Committee of the Societal Challenge “Smart, green, and integrated transport”, and she is a member of the STRIA Governance Group. Author of more than 200 scientific papers, mostly published in international journals/conferences, she participated in several research projects. Her transport research interests focused on major aspects about planning, control, and optimisation at a system-level (with special reference to safety, sustainability, intermodality, and Intelligent Transport Systems).

Simon Iwnicki is Professor of Railway Engineering at the University of Huddersfield in the UK where he is Director of the Institute of Railway Research (IRR). The IRR has an international reputation for excellent research and support to industry in the core area of railway vehicle dynamics modelling, wheel-rail interface engineering and vehicle-track interaction. From 2010 to 2014 Professor Iwnicki was the academic co-chair of RRUKA (the Rail Research UK Association) and is currently Chairman of the Railway Division of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He is Editor in Chief of Part F of the Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (the Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit) and Editor (responsible for railway matters) of the journal Vehicle System Dynamics. He has over 100 publications including the ‘Handbook of Railway Vehicle Dynamics’ which includes contributions from many of the leading experts is the established text in this field.

Francois Lacôte graduated from Ecole Polytechnique & Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées, spent his whole professionnal activity in the railway field, first at SNCF (1974-2000), then at Alstom (2000-2014). He started in the maintenance sector, before he was appointed (1982) as leader of the TGV Development program & as such, responsible for the three generations of TGV’s. Between 1997 and 2000, as Vice-President R&D SNCF, Chairman of AEIF (1998) and ERRI, he was involved in the European R&D programs. In 2000, he joined Alstom as CTO in charge of Technical developments and innovation. He led the world speed record of 574,8km/h, as well as the development of AGV. He received the UNIFE-CER European Railway Award, as « designer of the TGV », in 2012, and, in 2014, the UIC Award for Research and Innovation. He retired recently, but is still Professor for Railway engineering and, of course, highly interested in railway innovation.

Prof. Ing. Tatiana Molkova, Ph.D., is graduated from the College of Transport and Communication in Zilina (Slovakia) in 1989. Since 1993, she has been teaching and doing research at Transport Faculty of the University of Pardubice, since 2014 as full Professor in the field of Technology and Management in Transport and Telecommunications. Since 2010 she has been Vice-Rector of the University of Pardubice. Her research activities are oriented on railway research in these fields -advanced traffic control and management, safety railway operation, capacity issues, services in freight and passenger railway transport including telematics application, Quality Management Systems in transport. Nowadays she is also focusing on education and training for railway. She was involved to Transport Advisory Board FP7 EU (2007-2010), since 2010 she has been one of Pole Leaders of EURNEX association; she is a member of ERRAC Academia PAG.

Professor Chris Nash is Research Professor in the Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds (ITS); he was Director of ITS for seven years. He works primarily on road and rail transport economics and policy, including pricing, regulation and project appraisal. He has been coordinator of six EU framework programme research projects including UNITE, GRACE and Imprint-Europe, and contributed to many more, including currently SUSTRAIL. He has acted as specialist advisor to many organisations, including the European Commission High Level Group on Infrastructure Charging, OECD and the Transport and European Union Select Committees of the British Parliament. Recent work includes studies of rail investment policy for the Chinese Ministry of Railways and the World Bank, competition in rail passenger transport for the British rail regulator and vertical separation in railways for the Community of European Railways. On high speed rail, he acted as advisor to HS2 and Network Rail in the UK, to the Department of Infrastructure and Transport in Australia, and serves as a member of the Transportation Research Board committee examining the issue in the US. He is Associate Editor of the Journal of Rail Transport Planning and Management.

Prof. SGH Jana Pieriegud, Ph.D. is a transport economist with a background in railway engineering. She is a Professor in the Institute of Infrastructure, Transport and Mobility at the SGH Warsaw School of Economics, Head of the Department of Infrastructure and Mobility Studies. Her areas of research include technological, economic, and environmental insights into the development of transport and logistics systems. She is an independent expert for a number of institutions and research and innovation agencies both in Poland (NCBR) and abroad, such as: Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG), European Commission’s Innovation and Network Executive Agency (INEA), DG REGIO. She collaborated with the Horizon 2020 Transport Advisory Group between 2013-2015. She authored and co-authored in excess of 150 papers, is a co-editor of monographs and reports in the areas of the future of network industries, intermodal transport, digital transformation of railways, new concepts of mobility, and smart cities. She is a member of the UIC Digital Awards 2019 Jury.

Christos Pyrgidis (born in January 1957 in Thessaloniki, Greece) holds a diploma in Civil Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUth). He specialized for 5 years at the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, Paris, in Transportation Infrastructure, Transport Economics and Railway Engineering (C.E.S., D.E.A., Doctorat (PhD)). He is professor in Railway Engineering in the Civil Engineering Department of AUth. He has published many articles in scientific journals and international congresses and is the author of the book “Transportation Systems: Infrastructure, Rolling Stock, Operation”, (in Greek). He has participated in many research railway projects and studies and he has worked as consultant to several railway organisations. He was the Greek representative to the Administrative Board of ERA for 2004 to 2007 and he is member of the ERRAC Academia PAG.

Juan de Dios Sanz Bobi has more than 20 years experience in R&D railway activities. Working from 1992 to 2001 in ALCATEL ESPAÑA -train detection and protection division; from 2001 closely to the academia, firstly in the Foundation for Innovation in the Industry (F2I2); then, from 2006, as professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department -Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM). He has participated as expert designed by AENOR (National Body for Standardization) in different CEN-CENELEC workgroups, but also as Technical Expert Project under UNESCO codes 3323 and 3317. He is member of the Spanish Railway Technology Platform, PTFE, acting as chairman of the rail Freight working group and member of its Executive Board.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Corinna Salander studied physics at the Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel and received her doctor’s degree in electrical engineering at the Technical University of Clausthal in 1999. Her thesis was the entrance into the railway sector, as she elaborated an algorithm to calculate electromagnetic fields within railway vehicles. Corinna then worked for Deutsche Bahn AG, in research and management, later mainly on the development of a safety management system. This brought her to the European Railway Agency as Head of Sector Safety Management Systems. After a time back at DB AG, she moved on to Bombardier Transportation, taking over the responsibility for the Center of Competence Authorisation and Product Safety. In November 2014, Corinna was called on the newly introduced Chair for Railway Vehicle Technology at the University of Stuttgart.

Mehmet Turan Söylemez (member of IEEE, IFAC and TOK) was born in Turkey (TR) in 1971. He received the BSc degree in control and computer engineering in 1991 from Istanbul Technical University (ITU), Turkey, and the MSc and PhD degrees in control engineering from the University of Manchester Inst. of Sci. and Tech. (UMIST), U.K., in 1994 and 1999, respectively. He had worked at the Electrical Eng. Dept. of ITU between 2000 and 2008, when he was transferred to the Control and Automation Eng. Dept. of the same university. He is currently a full professor in the same department. He worked as the vice dean of Electrical and Electronics Eng. Faculty between 2010 and 2013, and has been the chair of Railway Eng. Dept. of the Graduate School of Science Engineering and Technology of ITU since 2013. He has been involved in several projects related with railways, including the Turkish National Railway Signalling Project, and is the author of more than 120 scientific papers and a book.

Sebastian Stichel is Professor, Rail Vehicle Dynamics, Department of Aeronautical and Vehicle Engineering KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, and holds a B.S and a M.S. in Vehicle Engineering from Technische Universität Berlin. He also holds a PhD in Vehicle Dynamics from TU Berlin. Dr. Stichel is full professor at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm since 2010. Since 2011 he is director of the KTH Railway Group. Since April 2013 he is also vice chairman of the Department of Aeronautical and Vehicle Engineering. From 2000 to 2010 Dr. Stichel was employed at Bombardier Transportation in Sweden where he headed the Vehicle Dynamics department in the Mainline and Metros division. Dr. Stichel has a primary research interest in the dynamic vehicle-track interaction mainly using multibody simulation. Main concerns are improved ride comfort and reduced wheel and track damage. He is also involved in research on the interaction between pantograph and catenary.

Peter Vervest is a professor of information management and networks at the Department of Technology and Operations Management, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, specialising in the use of digital technologies to enable transport and logistics.
He joined Philips Telecommunications and Defense Systems in the late 1970s. Peter specialized in open information systems (“Open Systems Interconnection”). He graduated summa cum laude (1986) at the Technical University Delft. He became a “full” professor in 1992.
As the former chair of the national rail expert group assisting the implementation of the Netherlands chipcard system, he is passionate to develop demand driven mobility services. He published many articles and books on the development and use of complex networks and how organizations should deal with the new challenges. “How to win customers in the digital world, Total Action or Fatal Inaction”, from 2000, is still one of his favorites. Since 2004 he has directed his research to “smart business networks” with a number of key publications (e.g. Smart Business Networks, 2004, The
Network Experience, 2008). He has been the chairman of the complexity study programmes of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) (2011 – 2018), and currently progresses research of smart, complex networks and systems as member of the Board of the Netherlands Platform for Complex Systems (2016 – now) and as the steering committee of the Dutch Chapter of Network Science NetSci Nl. His ambition is to develop tools and methods for new self organising, resilient and smart cooperation networks in business and society.
Dr Vervest combines his academic position with counselling and investment management both in Europe and Silicon Valley. He has served on the board of a number of companies in both executive and non-executive functions

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Oliver Michler is a Full Professor of Transport Systems Information Technology at the Technical University Dresden (Germany) since 2008. Currently he is also the Director of the Institute of Traffic Telematics at the Faculty of Transportation and Traffic Sciences “Friedrich List” at the same University. Born in 1967, he received his Diploma degree in 1993 and his Doctoral degree in electrical engineering in 1999 both at the Technical University Dresden. In 2000 he joined the Fraunhofer Institute for Transportation and Infrastructure Systems in Dresden. He has experience in the areas of digital broadcasting and sensor systems with data fusion for mobile transport vehicles, telematic services in transportation applications, transmission and processing of traffic information. Before the current Professorship, he was a Professor at the Dresden University of Applied Sciences in signal processing and electronic measurement techniques, especially for traffic telematics applications. His ongoing project-driven research activities include automatically moving trains, intelligent freight wagons, robust train communication and track selective positioning. He has published over 100 scientific contributions.

Klaus Moessner is a Professor in the Institute for Communication Systems, at the University of Surrey. He is involved in a large number of projects in the Cognitive Communications, Service provision and IoT areas. He was the founding chair of the IEEE DYSPAN Working Group (WG6) on Sensing Interfaces for future and cognitive communication systems, was technical manager of the iCore project and has the same role in the H2020 project CPaaS.io. He was project leader of IoT.est, SocIoTal, and iKaaS and leads now the ReCoPS, Speed-5G, and Clear5G projects. Klaus is also board member of the Veterinary Health Innovation Engine (vHive).