Curriculum Vitae

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Education

November 1998 - January 2002: Ph.D in Aerospace Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Italy.
Dissertation: Receptivity and Control of Flow Instabilities in a Boundary Layer.
Advisor: Prof. Paolo Luchini.

October 1998 - June 1999: Diploma Course at von Kármán Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Rhode-Saint-Genèse, Bruxelles, Belgium.
Graduation with honors and recipient of VKI prize 1998-1999
Project title: Liquid Film Instabilities of Wire Coatings.
Advisor: Prof. Jean-Marie Buchlin.

September 1992 - December 1997: Five-year Degree in Aerospace Engineering (M.S. equivalent), Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Graduation mark: 100/100 cum laude.
Project title: Post-Stall Chaotic Motions.
Advisor: Prof. Sergio De Ponte.

Positions Held

November 2005 - present: Research Associate, University of Verona, Verona, ITALY.
September 2004 - August 2005: Research Assistant Professor, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
February 2004 - June 2004: Research Associate, Politecnico di Milano, Italy.
February 2002 - January 2004: Faculty Research Associate, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.

Research Interests

General area of fluid mechanics and applied mathematics. Theoretical, numerical and experimental aspects of transition from laminar to turbulent flows, turbulence, optimal and robust control applied to fluid mechanics, premixed laminar combustion, optimization techniques, possible chaotic behaviors in flight mechanics, mathematical biology.

Professional Experience

November 2005 - present: Research Associate at the Department of Computer Science, University of Verona, ITALY. Numerical and theoretical work.

• Development of FORTRAN and Octave codes for the numerical solution of a generalization of Madelung-fluid equations by employing spectral methods (bivariate Hermite polynomials) over an infinite domain.

• Preliminary development and implementation of a code for the numerical study of premixed laminar flames (in collaboration with the Research & Development Department of Riello Burners, Verona, ITALY).

September 2004 - August 2005: Research Assistant Professor at Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Arizona, USA. Numerical and theoretical work.

• Theoretical and numerical studies of laminar-to-turbulent boundary layer transition induced by the transient growth instability in compressible and supersonic flows.

• Solution of constrained optimization problems via adjoint-based methods applied in the discrete framework.

February 2004 - June 2004: Research Associate at Aerospace Engineering Department, Politecnico di Milano, Italy.

• Study of the impulse response of a turbulent channel flow via DNS, using the cross-correlation between a white noise input signal and its corresponding output via Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS).

• Statistical description of the impulse response in both physical and Fourier space, so as to improve the design of a possible flow controller.

February 2002 - January 2004: Faculty Research Associate at Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, Arizona State University, USA. Experimental, numerical and theoretical work.

• Experiments on laminar-to-turbulent boundary layer transition in in low speed (5-30 m/s) and supersonic (Mach number 2.4) flows.

• Hotwire measurements, hotfilm measurements and infrared thermography measurements.

• Development of a real-time code, based on LabVIEW I/O integration, to run and control the supersonic wind tunnel at Arizona State University.

• Flow-quality tests for incompressible flows (hotwire freestream measurements).

• Development and implementation of a post-processing procedure for the sound-turbulence separation, based on two hotwire experimental time histories.

• Implementation of a numerical code for the solution of the three dimensional, incompressible, nonlinear parabolized stability equations.

November 1998 - January 2002: Ph.D candidate at Aerospace Engineering Department, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy. Numerical and theoretical work.

• Theoretical and numerical investigations on boundary layer transition in incompressible flows.

• Study of boundary-layer receptivity to the mutual interactions between acoustic and vorticity waves, wall roughness, and wall vibration.

• Application of perturbation methods and introduction of the inhomogeneous multiple-scale approach for boundary-layer receptivity problems.

• Development and implementation of a code to investigate the three-dimensional, algebraically growing instability of a Blasius boundary layer in the nonlinear regime.

• Adjoint-based optimization techniques applied to fluid dynamic problems with emphasis on optimal and robust control.

October 1998 - June 1999: Diploma Course, graduate student at von Kármán Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Bruxelles, Belgium. Experimental and theoretical work.

• Theoretical and experimental investigations of fluid-dynamic instabilities occurring during the wire coating process.

• Development and construction of a new measurement apparatus based on the use of a laser sheet to detect wave characteristics, and implementation of the appropriate post-processing technique to retrieve them.

• Different coating techniques widely investigated: simple withdrawal, die coating and annular jet wiping.

February 1998 - May 1998: Training Stage at Aermacchi S.p.A, Department of Aerodynamics, Venegono Inferiore, Varese, Italy. Numerical work.

• Integration of experimental data from wind-tunnel tests with data from numerical simulations (CFD).

• Development, validation and documentation of a mathematical model for determining the aerodynamic loads of the military trainer AEM/YAK-130.

September 1992 - December 1997: Student at Aerospace Engineering Department, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy. The final project is an experimental and theoretical work including:

• Theoretical and experimental investigations of the spin of a fighter aircraft.

• Design and construction of a wind-tunnel model with abrupt leading edge stall.

• Wind-tunnel tests on the model attached to its center of gravity through an universal joint that allows only the three rotations.

• Data (three angles as a function of time) analysis using the typical tools of chaos theory, power spectra, projections of the attractor in the phase space, reconstruction in the embedding space and Poincaré sections.

Teaching Experience

April 2008 - June 2008: contributions to the lectures of Mathematical Models for Biology, Department of Computer Science, University of Verona, ITALY.

October 2007 - March 2008: contributions to the lectures of Mathematical Analysis, Department of Computer Science, University of Verona, ITALY.

February 2007 - May 2007: Progetto Lauree Scientifiche per la Matematica (Matematica e radioterapia dei tumori. Sviluppo e applicazioni di un modello predittivo semplificato), Department of Computer Science, University of Verona, ITALY.

April 2007 - June 2007: contributions to the lectures of Mathematical Models for Biology, Department of Computer Science, University of Verona, ITALY.

October 2006 - March 2007: contributions to the lectures of Mathematical Analysis, Department of Computer Science, University of Verona, ITALY.

February 2006 - May 2006: Progetto Lauree Scientifiche per la Matematica (La biomatematica in un problema di oncologia sperimentale), Department of Computer Science, University of Verona, ITALY.

September 2004 - August 2005: contributions to the lectures of Numerical Methods (AME-302), Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.

February 2002 - January 2004: contributions to the lectures of Gas Dynamics (MAE-460), Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.

February 2002 - January 2004: contributions to the lectures of Computational Fluid Dynamics (MAE-561 - graduate class), Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.

March 1998 - June 1998: contributions to the lectures of Heat Transfer and Thermodynamics, Aerospace Engineering Department, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy.

July 2001 - present: permanent teacher of Mathematics and Physics in Italian high school.

Reviewing Activity

European Journal of Mechanics - B/Fluids

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat and Fluid Flow

Fellowships and Grants

January 2001 - July 2001: fellowship given by European Community in the framework of Marie Curie Fellowship for a stage period at IMFT (Institut de Mécanique des Fluides de Toulouse), France.

November 1998 - November 2001: post-graduate grant given by CIRA (Centro Italiano Ricerche Aerospaziali), for the PhD studies.

April 2001: grant given by Lulea University of Technology, for the participation to the 4th SIG 33 Workshop Flow Control.

October 1998 - June 1999: fellowship given by VKI (von Kármán Institute for Fluid Dynamics), for the Diploma Course period.

September 1999: grant given by CISM (Centro Internazionale Scienze Meccaniche), for the participation to the Advanced School Turbulence Modulation and Control.

September 1998: grant given by Centro Volta for the participation to the Summer School Turbulence: Theoretical Concepts and Industrial Applications.

Languages

Italian: mother tongue.
English: excellent knowledge.
French: scholastic.
Spanish: scholastic.

Computer Skills

Operating Systems: Linux, UNIX, Windows, DOS.
Programming Languages: Fortran, C, Pascal, CPL.
Environments: LabView, Matlab, Octave.

Society Membership

American Physical Society (APS).
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)

Other Certifications

May 1998: Certified with the Qualification to the profession of engineer, Italy.
July 2001: Certified as Permanent Teacher of mathematics and physics in Italian high schools.

Awards

1998-1999 von Kármán Prize as the best student among those from the top Universities in Europe, USA and Canada. The citation reads The von Kármán Prize is awarded each year to the graduate of the VKI Diploma Course who has achieved the best overall result in his or her course work and research project.

Personal Data

Name: Simone Zuccher.
Date of birth: 22 March 1973.
Place of birth: Villafranca di Verona, Italy.
Nationality: Italian.
Sex: Male.