Phd in ENVIRONMENTAL AND HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING

email: stefania.espa@uniroma1.it
phone: 0644585044
building: RM034 P02
room: L007

STEFANIA ESPA
Place and date of birth: Rome, 15/3/1971

EDUCATION
1996-99: Sapienza University of Rome PhD in Environmental Engineering, Dissertation title: ‘Transport Mixing and Diffusion in a Confined Convective Flow’ (in English)
1996: Sapienza University of Rome, Degree in Environmental Engineering, Laurea with 110/110 cum Lode. Title: ‘Stochastic models for solute transport in saturated porous media’ (in Italian)
1997: Sapienza University of Rome Successfully completed examination for professional practice

ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
2015-present: DICEA, Sapienza University of Rome, Associate Professor in Hydraulics (SSD ICAR01)
2013: Successfully completed Italian national examination for Associate Professor (SSD ICAR01)
2006-2015: DICEA, Sapienza University of Rome , Researcher (Assistant Professor) in Hydraulics (position confirmed since 1/11/2009 by DR 9950 2/8/2010)
2004-2006: DITS (Department of Hydraulics, Transportations and Roads), Sapienza University of Rome Postdoctoral Investigator. Research contract on: ‘Analysis and characterization of turbulence and quasi-geostrophic turbulence’
2004-2004: DETEC (Department of Applied Thermo fluid dynamics) Federico II University of Naples. Scientific collaboration. Research contract on: ‘Environmental monitoring methodologies’
2002-2004: DITS, Sapienza University of Rome, Postdoctoral Investigator. Research contract on: ‘Experimental study of 2D turbulence’
2000-2002: DITS, Sapienza University of Rome, Postdoctoral Investigator. Research contract on: ‘Image Analysis for the characterization of geophysical flow and dispersion phenomena’

OTHER APPOINTMENTS
2014-2016: Sapienza University of Rome, Member of the University Research Committee (established by the Academic Senate document n.75/14)
2014-present: Civil and Industrial Engineering Faculty, Sapienza University of Rome (branch premises in Rieti), Member of the Committee for the Quality Assessment of the Master’s degree
2006-present: DICEA, Sapienza University of Rome, Member of the PhD Committee in Hydraulics Engineering
2007-present: Civil and Industrial Engineering Faculty, Sapienza University of Rome (Rieti) Member (in 2010 Coordinator) of the Teaching Committee
2009-present: Civil and Industrial Engineering Faculty, Sapienza University of Rome (Rieti) Member of the Research Center for the Conservation and Development of the Environment (CRITEVAT), Rieti

PHD COMMITTEE/ADVISING ACTIVITIES
PhD Advisor for:
2008-2011 : ‘Quasi-2D turbulence and zonal jets in rotating flows with a β-effect’ (in english), PhD candidate: G. Di Nitto, PhD in Hydraulics and Environmental Engineering
2005-2009 : ‘Zonal jest in quasi 2D rotating turbulence’, PhD candidate: M. Mariani, PhD in Hydraulics and Environmental Engineering
2003-2007 : ‘Experimental study of 3D and 2D turbulent flows: 3D-2D transition’, PhD candidate: G. Avallone, PhD in Hydraulics and Environmental Engineering
PhD Co-Advisor for:
2005-2009 : ‘Field study by means of diving techniques and lab simulation of a submarine natural analogue for the effects of potential CO2 leakages from a sub-seabed carbon dioxide storage site’ (in English), PhD candidate: G. Caramanna, PhD in Earth Sciences
2008 : Member of the evaluation committee of the EU Doctorate 'Implementation and development of advanced algorithms of LCF-PIV in Stereoscopic PIV systems and its applications to flow of industrial interest' defended at Universidad Carlos III di Madrid, PhD candidate : S.Nauri
2020: Member of the board of Examiners for the award of the Ph.D. degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering of Politecnico di Torino, Ph.D. candidate: Giulia Cardillo

TEACHING ACTIVITY
2016: Urban climatology (Master's degree in Engineering of Territory and of the Constructions, 9 cfu)
2012-2020: Hydraulics (Bachelor's degree in Engineering of Territory and of the Constructions, 9 cfu)
2002-2012: Hydraulics of natural systems (Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering, 6 cfu)
2007-08: Geophysics Laboratory, (Masters’s degree in Physics)
2001-02: Fluid Mechanics, (Bachelor's degree in Environmental Engineering, 6 cfu, contract)
2001-02: Urban Hydraulics, (Bachelor's degree in Construction Engineering, 6 cfu, contract)
Advisor and co-Advisor for several Batchelor and Master students at the Engineering and Physics Faculties of Sapienza University of Rome

SOCIETY MEMBERBERSHIPS, AWARDS AND HONORS
2014: EUROMECH membership
2011-14: Member of the Italian Hydraulics Group (GII)
2011: Member of the International Association of Hydraulic Engineering and Research (IAHR)
2010: EUROMECH membership
2008: Member of European Geophysical Union (EGU)

FUNDING INFORMATION
2018: Jupiter Modeling Platform, EU project 797012 - JUMP - GAP-797012, MSCA-IF-2017 - Individual Fellowships
2017: Fluid dynamics of hearts at risk of failure: towards methods for the prediction of disease progression - Program supported by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (PRIN). Role: Coordinator of the local Research Unit (Roma1)
2014: Waves, Turbulence and Diffusion in beta-plumes. Programme supported by the European High-Performance Infrastructures in Turbulence (EuHit)
2011: Zonal jets and eddies–planetary science and satellite oceanography at the crossroads Research program supported by the International Space Science Institute (ISSI), Bern. Role: Investigator for the Italian (Sapienza University) team
2010: Interacting Buoyant Coastal Currents, FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IIF Interacting Buoyant Coastal Currents. Role: PI for the Host Institution.
2012: Hemodynamics of the aortic valve/artery functional unit with pathology-related morphological modifications. Program supported by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (PRIN). Role: I for the Research Unit
2009: Experimental and numerical study of the cardiac flow. Program supported by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (PRIN). Role: PI (from 2012).
2004: Standard and anomalous diffusion. Young Researchers program supported by Italian Ministry of University and Research (MURST Young Researchers)
2012: Laboratory investigation of the flow downstream a prosthetic aortic valve, University Research. Role: Coordinator
2011: Zonal jets in large scale circulations of oceans and planetary atmospheres, University Research. Role: Coordinator
2009: Zonal jets and transport in large scale flows. University Research. Role: Coordinator
2008: Experimental study of a bubble plume in a stratified fluid. University Research. Role: Coordinator.
2007: Rotation and stratification in the dynamics of large scale flows. University Research to support visiting Professors (hosted researcher: prof. G. Carnevale, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, San Diego). Role: Coordinator
Participation in research programs
-Supported by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MIUR):
2001 – Program FIRB, title: ‘Biomedical Fluid Mechanics: diastolic inflow in the left ventricle of the heart and technical synergy for analysis of the vitreous body within the eyeball’
1999 – Program PRIN, title: ‘Analysis of coherent structures relevant to environmental fluid dynamics’
Supported by Sapienza University of Rome (University Research):
2010 – ‘Development of a high speed stereo acquisition system’
2009 –‘Experimental study of the effect of prosthetic valves on the left ventricular flow’
2008 – ‘Organization and evolution of multiple zonal jets in rotating flows’
2007 – ‘Transport and mixing in atmospheric flows’
2006 – ‘Experimental study of the flow in the left ventricle’
2005 – ‘2D turbulence in geophysical flows’
2004 – ‘Pollutant dispersion in the atmospheric boundary layers in presence of spatial heterogeneity’
Supported by the European Community:
2000-2003 – Program: EUROPIV2, title: ‘A joint program to improve PIV performances for industry and research’
2002 – Program: PIVNET2, title: ‘A European collaboration on development, quality assessment, and standardization of particle image velocimetry for industrial applications’

RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
-Image analysis: flow measurements, flow characterization and investigation by laboratory experiments, image analysis techniques to measure the flow field in Eulerian and Lagrangian frameworks
-Turbulence and diffusion in flows affected by a beta effect: turbulence-eddies-waves interaction, flow anisotropization in flows affected by a latitudinal variation of the Coriolis parameter, spectral laws, zonal jets onset and evolution, anisotropic diffusion, effect of anisotropy on atmospheric and oceanic dynamics
-Biomedical flows, in-vitro models : experimental investigation of the blood circulation in human body in healthy and pathological conditions, flow in the left ventricle, effect prosthetic valves on the ventricular flow, flow in the aorta and in the coronaries, effect of bifurcations and stenosis, epidural anaesthetic infusion
-Direct and inverse cascades, scaling laws and spectra: forced and decaying two dimensional turbulence in shallow fluid layers, stratified and rotating environments, quasi-geostrophic turbulence
-Passive tracers transport and diffusion, mixing, low-dimensional chaos: transport, mixing and Lagrangian chaos; standard and anomalous diffusion, quantifying diffusion using a Lagrangian approach
-C02 emission, field and laboratory studies: bubble plumes in stratified environment; analogues of sub-seabed CO2 leakages
-Coherent structures, complex laminar and turbulent flows: vortex structure identification based on the velocity gradient tensor, flow topology analysis, Eulerian and Lagrangian coherent structure eduction and evolution in complex flows

SKILLS AND COMPETENCES
Extensive experience with carrying out laboratory experiments in fluid mechanics, including stratified and rotating flows
Extensive experience with carrying out laboratory experiments in hydraulics, simulating human blood circulation and biomedical flows
Extensive experience in laboratory measurements of velocity fields by image analysis techniques
Experience in post processing of experimental data
Experience with the computing languages Fortran, C, C++, Matlab
Experience with writing and evaluating proposals
Experience in teaching and giving lectures/seminars in an academic environment

REFEREE FOR INTERNATIONAL ISI JOURNALS
Europhysics letters, Physics of Fluids, European Journal of Mechanics –B Fluids, Experiments in Fluids, Journal of Geophysical Research, Journal of Turbulence, Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment, Journal of Visualization, Bioengineering, Applied Sciences, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Dr. Stefania Espa is author of 34 papers on international ISI journals (1 currently under review), 2 international journal papers with peer review, 4 book chapters edited by international Publishers, i.e., Kluwer, Springer and CUP, 2 book chapter edited by national Publisher, more than 50 scientific papers published in international and national conferences Proceedings, 20 abstracts presented in national/international conferences.

H-index & Citation
10 (Scopus), 266