Marco Acutis
Curriculum Vitae and Studiorum
2005 – present Full professor of Agronomy and herbaceous crops in the University of Milano (Italy).
2002-2005 Associate professor of Agronomy and herbaceous crops in the University of Milano (Italy).
1998-2002 Associate professor of Agronomy and herbaceous crops in the University “Federico II” of Napoli (Italy).
1990-1998 Assistant professor in Agronomy and herbaceous crops in the University of Torino (Italy).
1995 Wageningen University, The Netherlands. Specialization course “Systems in precision agriculture”
1995 Research Institute of Agronomy, Modena, Italy. Specialization course. “An introduction to the GIS system MAPINFO”.
1990 Wageningen University, The Netherlands. Specialization course “Simulation of plant growth and crop production”.
1983 Doctorate in Crop Science (full marks), at the University of Torino, Italy. Dissertation title: “Project, realization and calibration of a instrument for non-destructive measurement of sward and pasture yield”.
Since 2006 Member of the EFSA panel Genetically Modified Organisms, Self task on “statistical considerations in the safety evaluation of GMO’s”
Since 2006 Member of the board of Italian Society for Agrometeorology
2002- 2006 Italian representative for the European Society for Agronomy.
2002- 2006 Member of the Board of the Italian Society for Agronomy
Since 1995 Member of the American Society for Agronomy.
Since 1994 Member of the European Society for Agronomy.
Since 1992 Member of the Italian Society of Agronomy.
2009 International University of Venice: invited speaker on “Water and agriculture”. Organized by the Italian Ministry for Environment and Territory in cooperation with Venice International University and the Chinese Government
2009 lecture on “Characterizing ground water pollution due to agricultural activities”. Marie Curie Program. Sustainable use of water in agriculture: indicators and trends for water resources conservation Third Summer School, Venice October 5-9, 2009
2009 University of Milano: General Agronomy, 120 hours in two degree courses; Advanced Statistics 80 hours. Agricultural ecology, 60 hours.
2008 University of Milano: General Agronomy, 120 hours in two degree courses; Advanced Statistics 80 hours. Agricultural ecology, 60 hours.
2007 University of Milano: General Agronomy, 60 hours.; Advanced Statistics 80 hours..
2006 University of Milano: General Agronomy, 120 hours in two degree courses; Advanced Statistics 80 hours. Advances in Field crops, 80 hours.
2005 University of Milano: General Agronomy, 120 hours in two degree courses; Statistics 60 hours in master course; Field crops, 60 hours in a master course.
2005 International University of Venezia: invited speaker on “Water and agriculture, and groundwater protection”. Organized by the Italian Ministry for Environment and Territory in cooperation with Venice International University and the Chinese Government.
2004 University of Milano: General Agronomy, 50 hours in a degree course; Agricultural ecology, 40 hours in degree course; Statistics 60 hours in PhD course;
2004 International University of Venezia: invited speaker on “Water and agriculture”. Organized by the Italian Ministry for Environment and Territory in cooperation with Venice International University and the Chinese Government.
2003 University of Milano: General Agronomy and Ecology, 80 hours in a degree course
2002 University of Milano: General Agronomy, 40 hours in a degree course.
2002 University of Milano: land evaluation and conservation in a master program
2002 University of Torino: Lectures in techniques of data analysis, 30 hours in a PhD course
2002 University of Naples: Lectures in statistical methods, 18 hours in a PhD course
2002 University of Piacenza: seminar “Inverse Modelling: determining unknown causes based on observation on their effect or reducing physical process to a black box ?” doctoral training “PEACE - Predicting Environmental Concentrations of Pesticide in European and site specific scenario” (4 hours).
2001 University of Napoli: short course of Agronomy in a post-master specialization school (25 hours).
2001 Invited speaker on Hydrological balance and irrigation scheduling model in the international course "Land and water use for sustainable olive growing"
2001 University of Venezia: invited speaker on “Environment and cropping systems”.
2000 University of Naples: land evaluation and conservation in a master program (50 hours in a master program)
1999 - 2001 University of Napoli: course of weeds control in a post-master specialization school (25 hours).
1998 - 2001 University of Napoli: Fertilisation techniques (40 hours in a master program)
1998 Politecnico di Torino: seminar “Use of models for quantification of the environmental effects of cropping system (in the European Master in Environmental engineering.
1997 University of Milano: General Agronomy, 50 hours in a master course.
1997 Short course of Statistical methods 16 hours in a master course
1995-1998 University of Torino: course in statistical methods, 50 hours in a master course.
1995-1996 University of Torino: Course of introduction to computer science; 25 hours in a master course.
1994-1998 University of Torino: course in experimental design; 25 hours in a master course.
1992-1994 University of Torino: course in statistical methods applied to plant protection; 25 hours in a degree course.
1991-1996 Lectures in analysis of variance and regression at the Laboratory for advanced statistic of the Piemonte region (24 hours).
My prevalently work is the analysis of agricultural systems and their environmental impacts, through the study, implementation and development of simulation models and advanced techniques of data analyses. My area of activity focuses on modelling of cropping systems, with particular regard of soil related aspects, with the target of developing innovative technologies to evaluate management options with respect to both production yield and environmental impact. Most of model development has been in the area of soil hydrology, erosion, agrometeorology, nitrogen cycle in soil, crop growth, and cropping systems. I have extensive programming experience in C#, Visual Basic, Fortran, VBA for applications, HTML. I have developed or co-developed the following software: SOILW (.Net component for soil water simulation), STAMINA (a cropping system model for aratve in hillslope), AMPE (evaluation of analytical methods), SOILPAR (Pedotransfer functions), IRENE (evaluation of model’s output”, SIMBIL and IRRIGUIDA (Irrigation scheduling) and the dynamic link libraries Irene_DLL; the software are available at http://www.isci.it/tools or at www.acutis.it/software .
Projects coordination
Project “VAlorE”, development of a software for nitrogen management at farm and regional scale, founded by Region Lombardia (1.6M €)
In charge of Research Unit
· Project “TopFert”, Optimizing Rice fertilization (Joint Research Center, EU).
· Project Aquater: Supporti decisionali per la conservazione e la gestione. territoriale delle risorse idriche in aree vulnerabili del sud d’Italia. Italian Ministry of Agricolture. Development of a Decision Support System for Irrigation management at district area.
· Project “ARMOSA” Region Lombardia. Dynamics of water and soil in agricultural systems.
· Project “GAZOSA” Region Lombardia. Tuning of agricultural systems for economic and environmental sustainability
· 1993 - 1998 tenured assistant professor. Department of Agronomy, sylviculture and land management, Torino, Italy
Research activity
o modelling of runoff and erosion using models Kineros and Creams
o Soil hydrology simulation via the model LEACHM .
o experimental trials about runoff and erosion.
o experimental investigation and modelling of the forage drying process.
o Advanced methods in ANOVA.
· 1990-1993 Assistant professor on probation. Department of Agronomy, sylviculture and land management, Torino, Italy.
Research activity.
o recovery of abandoned grassland in hill and mountain with grazing
o multivariate statistical methods
o effect of water temperature on rice growth.
· 1983-1990 Associate Researcher. Institute of Crop Science, Torino, Italy.
Research activity:
o grazing in hill and mountain
o effects of water temperature on rice
2009 Invited speaker (introductory keynote) at the XXXVIII national congress of Italian Society of Agronomy.”I modelli a supporto delle produzioni Vegetali”
2009 Member of the scientific and organizing committees of the 16th international Nitrogen Workshop
2008 Member of the scientific committee of the 10th congeress of European Society for Agronomy
Since 2006 Member of the board of “Italian Journal of Agrometeorology”
Since 2006 member of the board of European Journal of Agronomy
2006 invited speaker for a keynote in the international workshop “How to advance the knowledge on water use efficiency in the Mediterranean region ?” WAMED Project, founded by EU
2006 Invited speaker at the III CGMS Experts Meeting.(Arlon, Belgium)
2004 Invited speaker at the 96th ASA-SSA-CSA Symposium, “calibration of an hydrological model using fuzzy logic”, Seattle USA.
2001 Member of scientific committee of the proceedings for the “Modelling Cropping Systems” international symposium. Florence, Italy.
2000 Guest Referee of the European Journal for Agronomy . Special issue for the ESA Congress, Hamburg
Since 2000: guest referee for ISI journals: European journal of Agronomy, Agriculture, ecosystem and environment, Agricultural system, Journal of environmental quality, Environmental modelling and software, Agricultural water management, Hydrological processes, Agrochimica, and not ISI Italian Journal of Agronomy, RIvista di Agronomia, Rivista Italiana di Agrometeorologia.
1999 Member of scientific committee for the ESA – Division 2 “Modelling Cropping Systems” international symposium. Lleida, Spain.
1998 Guest Referee of the European Journal for Agronomy . Special issue for the ESA Congress, Nitra, Slovak Republic.
Author of more than 200 publications, 21 in international journals with IF and 2 books chapter edited by Elsevier.
Marco Acutis is full professor of Agronomy in the University of Milano from 2005, associate professor from 1998 and assistant professor from 1990. He is in charge of an unity of the project SIPEAA, Italian Ministry of Agriculture: Computer tools for eco-compatible planning of farms (soil water and nitrogen simulation unit) work package leader of the EU project STAMINA, and task leader in the EU SEAMLESS project (soil water and Erosion tasks). Teaching activity consist in 1200 hours of lectures, mainly in Agronomy, Statistics, Agricultural ecology. The research work is focused on the analysis of agricultural systems and their environmental impacts, through the study, implementation and development of simulation models and advanced techniques of data analyses, with the target of developing innovative technologies to evaluate management options.. Author of more than 200 publication, 21 in international journals with IF and 2 books chapter.