Giuseppe Patanè

CNR Research Director

Giuseppe Patanè is a Level I Research Director at the “Enrico Magenes” Institute for Applied Mathematics and Information Technologies of the Italian National Research Council (CNR-IMATI). Since January 2025, he has served as Head of the Genoa Branch, with responsibility for scientific, organisational, and administrative coordination. He coordinated 39 staff members in 2025 and 38 in 2026, managing average annual resources for the branch of approximately 1.05 million euros and 1.61 million euros, respectively.

His research integrates applied mathematics, data science, scientific computing, and artificial intelligence. His main research areas include geometric modelling, three-dimensional shape analysis, biomedical imaging, digital twins, and the development of methods for processing, reconstructing, and visualising multidimensional and multimodal data. Applications include digital health and personalised medicine, aerospace, advanced manufacturing, smart cities, and environmental and territorial monitoring.

From 2018 to 2021, Giuseppe Patanè also served as Head of the CNR “Data, Content and Media” Research Programme, coordinating fifteen institutes and approximately 600 person-months per year in the fields of big data, artificial intelligence, knowledge representation, computer vision, and digital technologies.

Research laboratories and infrastructures

Giuseppe Patanè is Co-Scientific Director of the CNR-IMATI One Health Living Lab, a permanent infrastructure dedicated to research, experimentation, and technology transfer in digital health, well-being, and inclusion. The laboratory involves 27 researchers, including 19 permanent staff members and eight researchers funded by the RAISE project, and has equipment worth more than 300,000 euros. Its technology platform includes high-performance computing and storage systems, GPU workstations for artificial intelligence and 3D modelling, virtual and augmented reality environments, and biomedical devices for imaging, motion analysis, and rehabilitation.

From 2020 to 2022, he was Head of the CNR-IMATI Hub of the TERAM research infrastructure, dedicated to three-dimensional modelling, the design of structures and metamaterials, and the advanced prototyping of components for aerospace applications.

Technology transfer, patents, and software

Giuseppe Patanè has served as Scientific Director of six research, consultancy, and licensing contracts, providing the CNR with total funding of 185,000 euros. These activities involved ESAOTE, ASG Superconductors, CAMELOT Biomedical Systems, STAM, NEXTAGE, Gruppo SIGLA, and START4.0. The collaborations concerned artificial intelligence for magnetic resonance imaging systems, biomedical image integration, predictive monitoring of territorial risks, downstream applications of satellite data, and the intelligent management of traffic flows between ports and cities. His responsibilities included defining the technical and scientific activities, coordinating research teams, developing software components, and transferring results to industrial platforms and products.

He holds the software patent “Plumber: an Interactive Interface for Multi-Scale Segmentation of Triangulated Surfaces” and is a co-author, developer, and co-owner of the IMAGE-FUSION Library for the automatic markerless co-registration of ultrasound and magnetic resonance images using 3D computer graphics techniques.

Governance, boards of directors, and scientific committees

Since 2025, Patanè has been a member of the Board of Directors of DASS, the Sardinia Aerospace District, with a term of office extending to 2028. From 2022 to 2025, he served as Vice-Chair and member of the Technical and Scientific Committee of the Ligurian Life Sciences Innovation Hub and continues to serve on the same committee for the period from 2025 to 2028 term. Since 2020, he has been a member of the Technical and Scientific Committee of the START4.0 Competence Centre, which focuses on the digital, secure, and sustainable transformation of businesses. He has also served as an external member of the Technical and Scientific Committee of the Italian National Technology Cluster ALISEI and as a member of the CNR-IMATI Institute Board.

Roles at the European Commission

Giuseppe Patanè is a member of the European Commission Expert Panel on Medical Devices and In Vitro Diagnostic Medical Devices, operating within activities coordinated with the European Medicines Agency. Following the period from 2020 to 2025, his appointment was renewed for the period from 2026 to 2029. From 2022 to 2024, he also served as an independent expert on the Ethics Board of the European FrailCare project. He has worked as an evaluator, reviewer, rapporteur, and Vice-Chair for European Commission programmes, including Horizon Europe, EIC Pathfinder Open, ERA Chairs, Horizon 2020, FP7, Marie Curie Individual Fellowships, and FET Open.

Scientific qualifications and human capital development

Giuseppe Patanè has obtained two Italian National Scientific Qualifications for the position of Full Professor:

• Computer Science, academic field 01/B1 INF/01, valid from 2018 to 2029;
• Information Processing Systems, academic field 09/H1, valid from 2017 to 2028.

He earned a PhD in Mathematics and Applications from the University of Genoa, with a dissertation on the analysis and parameterisation of triangulated surfaces.

He has served as Scientific Supervisor and doctoral advisor for five PhD programmes: two European Marie Curie PhDs, one CNR-Confindustria industrial PhD in collaboration with ESAOTE, one PON REACT-EU PhD, and one joint CNR-University of Genoa PhD. These responsibilities account for a total of 180 months of doctoral training and approximately 447,632 euros in funding.

He has also supervised nine research fellowships, including seven professional fellowships and two postdoctoral fellowships, amounting to 149 months of research activity and more than 304,147 euros in funding. Overall, he has coordinated 14 advanced training programmes, equivalent to 329 months and an investment of approximately 751,779 euros.

Scientific organisation and internationalisation

Giuseppe Patanè has served as Chair, Programme Chair, or organiser of 12 international scientific events and three public engagement initiatives. These include the International Geometry Summit, Shape Modeling International, Eurographics, the Conference on 3D Vision, and events organised as part of the Genoa Science Festival.

His international scientific collaborations have involved institutions including Caltech, MIT, Cornell University, Weill Cornell Medicine, Georgia Tech, Stony Brook University, EPFL, Université Paris-Saclay, the Max Planck Institute for Informatics, Technion, and ShanghaiTech University. The joint activities have addressed spectral geometry, shape analysis, numerical methods, metamaterials, cardiovascular imaging, three-dimensional anatomical reconstruction, and multimodal data analysis.

As a CNR representative, he has also participated in institutional missions and delegations to China, Japan, and Switzerland promoted by the CNR, the Italian Ministry of University and Research, and the Liguria Region. These initiatives include the Italy-China Science, Technology and Innovation Week, meetings with Chinese universities, the Swiss Space Tour, and technology-transfer missions to Japan, including participation in Expo 2025 Osaka.

Scientific Leadership of Research Projects

Overall, he has served as Scientific Lead of six competitive national and regional projects, securing and managing more than 4.27 million euros in funding. In addition, he has held coordination roles in major European projects. His principal experience includes:

• PNRR Innovation Ecosystem RAISE  “Robotics and AI for Socio-economic Empowerment”: Scientific Lead for both the CNR and CNR-IMATI within the Spoke dedicated to technologies for personalised and remote healthcare, as well as leader of the Work Package on advanced diagnostic imaging. He coordinated ten CNR institutes and liaison activities with scientific, clinical, and industrial partners. The ecosystem had an overall value of approximately 109.95 million euros, of which around 3.81 million euros was allocated to the CNR, including 1.47 million euros for CNR-IMATI.
• Post-PBRR GEMINI Project “Digital Twins for Central Nervous System Diseases and Personalised Medicine”: Scientific Lead of the CNR-IMATI unit within the project dedicated to digital twins for central nervous system disorders and personalised medicine. The project has an overall value of approximately 8.85 million euros, with 200,000 euros allocated to CNR-IMATI.
• PRIN 2022 Brain-FES Project “Brain Oestrogen Receptor Expression During the Perimenopausal Transition: Kinetic and Geometric Analysis of FES PET/CT and Correlation with Neuropsychological, Biochemical, and Magnetic Resonance Imaging Biomarkers”: Head of the CNR-IMATI unit responsible for developing geometric and data-driven methods for integrating PET and magnetic resonance images, clinical biomarkers, and neuropsychological data.
• POR FESR IMAGE-FUSION, TEDIG, and SALUTE Projects: CNR-IMATI Scientific Lead of projects concerning the automatic co-registration of ultrasound and magnetic resonance images, advanced ultrasound diagnostics, the planning of minimally invasive procedures, and computational decision-support systems for diagnosis.
• European FP7 IQmulus Project  “A High-volume Fusion and Analysis Platform for Geospatial Point Clouds, Coverages and Volumetric Data Sets”: Work Package and Task Leader for the management and analysis of large volumes of geospatial data. He coordinated eight European partners and activities amounting to 229 person-months. The project had an overall value of approximately 10.92 million euros, with more than 805,000 euros allocated to CNR-IMATI.
• European FP7 Marie Curie MultiScaleHuman Project “Multi-scale Biological Modalities for Physiological Human Articulation”: Leader of the Work Package on multiscale biomedical knowledge management and Scientific Supervisor of two Marie Curie doctoral researchers. The project had an overall value of approximately 3.56 million euros, with 514,000 euros allocated to CNR-IMATI.

From 2018 to 2021, Giuseppe Patanè also served as Head of the CNR “Data, Content and Media” Research Programme, coordinating fifteen institutes and approximately 600 person-months per year in the fields of big data, artificial intelligence, knowledge representation, computer vision, and digital technologies.