Professor Alberto Ortona, a Swiss scientist, came to WUST for an exchange

From May 26th to 31st, at the invitation of Professor Li Yawei, the deputy director of the National Key Laboratory of Advanced Refractory Materials of our university, Professor Alberto Ortona from the Southern University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland came to our university for an exchange. This visit is supported by Hubei Province's 2025 World Scientists' Lecture Program in Wuhan.

During the visit, Professor Ortona delivered two high-level academic reports to the teachers and students of our school. for postgraduate students, he analyzed the Sustainable advantages of porous Materials in solar energy utilization with the title "Materials for a Sustainable Tomorrow: Exploring Cellular Ceramics". Professor Ortona gave a lecture titled "From Function to Geometry:" to the researchers of the national key laboratory. The academic report "CDfAM Approaches to Cellular Ceramics in Combustion and Thermal Management" introduces the progress of structural regulation technology of porous materials in the field of zero-carbon combustion and thermal management.

Professor Ortona has conducted multiple rounds of project discussions with the research team of the National Key Laboratory of Advanced Refractory Materials of our university. Both sides had an in-depth exchange on the application prospects of porous ceramic materials in zero-carbon combustion, sustainable energy utilization and other fields, and reached a preliminary cooperation intention on jointly applying for international cooperation projects, joint training of postgraduate students and teacher exchanges. After the meeting, they also visited the National Key Laboratory of Advanced Refractory Materials. They highly praised the hardware facilities and scientific research achievements of the laboratory in high-temperature materials research, and put forward many constructive cooperation suggestions.

To deepen the cooperation among industry, academia and research, Professor Ortona, accompanied by Professor Li Yawei's team, visited China Metallurgical Group Corporation South Thermal Engineering Co., Ltd. and Foshan Xianhu Laboratory successively. Focusing on the structural design, additive fabrication and application of Porous ceramics, he presented a lecture titled "Porous Ceramic Burners: "Industrial Applications and Innovations in High-Performance Combustion Systems" focuses on the actual demands of the industry and deeply analyzes the application advantages of porous medium burners in fields such as steel metallurgy and industrial kilns. Promote the advancement of industrial combustion towards the goal of "zero carbon + zero pollution".

It is learned that the 2025 World Scientists' Lecture Program in Hubei Province aims to enhance the scientific research and innovation capabilities as well as the international influence of Hubei's universities by inviting renowned international scholars to conduct academic exchanges in Hubei. This visit contributes to the implementation of Hubei's dual carbon goals and is also an important practice of Hubei's talent introduction plan. It injects international cutting-edge momentum into the green and low-carbon transformation of Hubei's high-temperature thermal equipment and significantly enhances our university's global cooperation network and academic influence in the field of sustainable materials.

Speaker Profile:

Professor Alberto Ortona, born in 1963, is currently a professor at the University of Applied Sciences in southern Switzerland, the director of the Multi-Materials Research Center, and concurrently a professor at the School of Industrial Engineering, University of Padua, Italy. His research directions mainly include process engineering of polymer and ceramic matrix composites, oxide and carbide ceramics, as well as computational design and additive manufacturing of complex ceramics. At MEMTi-SUPSI, he led 40 national and European projects and won the John E. Marquis Award in 2025. Is the associate editor of "Journal of the American Ceramic Society" and "Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials". In recognition of his contributions to ceramics and materials science, he was awarded the 2025 Global Star Award at the 49th International Conference and Exhibition on Advanced Ceramics and Composites (ICACC2025).