LETTER TO THE EDITOR: DEDICATION LETTER TO PATRIZIA TROVALUSCI ON THE OCCASION OF HER 60TH BIRTHDAY

Abstract

Patrizia Trovalusci was born in Rome (Italy) in 1961. Her ori ginal background was in Architecture, where she got her Master’s degree with a thesis: “ Diocletian Baths. Directions of Investigation for a Monume nt. Structural Aspects and Mathematical Formulations ” at Sapienza University of Rome, in which, among all, she dev eloped an original computer code for the structural analysis of masonry vaults based on the solution proposed by Alberto Castigliano for the so-called “solides imparfaitement élastiques.” M ore precisely her course of study always aimed at creating a bridge between the “two cultures,” scientific and humanisti c. Following this track, the first years of Patrizia’s research a tivity were dedicated to the study of the problems concerning the acquisition of a specific mathematical instr umentation for the analysis of the mechanical behavior of ancient masonry structures. In particular, she particip ated in a study campaign, promoted by the Archaeological Superintendence of Salerno, for the restoration of the temp l of Athena in Paestum, personally taking care of issues concerning mechanical modeling and calculation models for specific structural analyses. In parallel, she deepened some experimental aspects by collaborating on dynamic test s performed on models of the Coclid columns and other static tests on block masonry panels. The interdisciplinar y ture of the topic, between the mechanics of the structure s and the restoration of the monuments, constitutes the guidi ng thread also of the PhD thesis ( Mathematical Models for Block Masonry Considered as a System with Micro-Structure ). During the PhD course, at the University of Florence (Italy), she had the opportunity to deepen some general topi cs concerning the mechanics of solids and structures and the final dissertation also presented some original modelin g proposals developed within the framework of generalized (nonclassical) continuum theories, that allow one to take i nto account the brick/block size, orientation, and texture . In July 1992, Patrizia won the national competition as Assis tant Professor of Solids and Structural Mechanics at Sapienza University of Rome. In July 2000, she was eligible a s Associate Professor of Solids and Structural Mechanics, in a comparative evaluation procedure announced by the University of Palermo (Faculty of Engineering), and since November 2000 she served as a tenured Associated Profe ssor at the Department of Structural and Geotechnical Engineering of Sapienza. In 2012, she obtained the National Ac demic Qualification as Full Professor and on March 2016, she became a tenured Full Professor of Solids and Structural Mechanics . In November 2019, she was elected as Director of thePhD Program in Structural and Geotechnical Engineering at Sapienza University of Rome; in January 2021, she was nominated Delegate of the Rector for Internati o l PhD Programmes in Sapienza; and in March 2021, she was elected Director of the Doctoral School of Civil Engi neering and Architecture. I have known Patrizia Trovalusci since about the early 90s. S he is a highly independent, profound, and serious scholar. She has made outstanding contributions within the field of Mechanics of Solids and Structures related with fundamental and applied research, teaching, and an ever inc r asing, worldwide recognized, leadership. Patrizia’s fundamental research encompasses a variety of t opics concerned with computational methods for nonclassical continua, masonry materials and structures, com posites, multiscale modeling, theory of plasticity and non standard limit analysis, nonlinear finite-element analysi s, and structural architecture. This is clearly visible fro m the list of contributing authors of the present Special Issue wh ich collects papers related to the aforementioned fields (Ibrahimbegovic et al., 2022; Funari et al., 2022; Konstant inidis and Aifantis, 2022; Ran et al., 2022; Postek et al., 2022; Fantuzzi et al., 2022; Eremeyev and Reccia, 2022; Adde ssi et al., 2022; Pau et al., 2022; Cutolo et al., 2022; Wojciechowski et al., 2022; Santos et al., 2022). Patrizia published fundamental papers in a variety of prest igious archival journals in the area of solid and structural mechanics includingMeccanica(Masiani and Trovalusci, 1996; Trovalusci et al., 2014; Tun a et al., 2020; Colatosti