Barbara Previtali is Full Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Politecnico di Milano (Italy) since 2016, responsible of SITEC- Laboratory for Laser Applications since 2009 and co-chair of the AddMe_Lab, the laboratory for metal additive processes of the Department of Mechanical Engineering since 2015. She is member of the Board of Department of Mechanical Engineering as delegate of the project Departments of Excellence LIS4.0 - LIghtweight and Smart structure for Industry 4.0. She is member of the board of Mechanical Engineering phD Programme Department of Mechanical Engineering – Politecnico di Milano.
She is responsible of PromozioneL@ser, the section of Associazione Italiana Tecnologie Meccaniche (AITeM) that brings together users and experts in laser manufacturing from the Italian industry and academia. She is also the co-founder of the Laser Safety School, the Italian platform for education, research, and outreach in the laser safety, supported by 10 major industrial sponsors along with all the members from the academic institutions of PromozioneL@ser. Moreover, she is the Academic Responsible of Group 2-Industrial Manufacturing in COrdinamento Ricerca Innovazione Fotonica Italia (CORIFI), the Italian Photonics Platform that mirrors Photonics21, the European Technology Platform for photonics. She is a member of the Italian Association for Manufacturing - AITeM, Photonics21 and Laser Institute of America (LIA).
Her main research interests include modelling, optimization and control of laser processes and laser-based additive processes, especially numerical modelling and experimental approaches of welding, heat treatment, micromachining, selective laser melting (SLM) and laser direct energy deposition (DED) processes by innovative laser sources with adaptable beam properties within the three dimensions: time, space, and wavelength.
On these research subjects, she is author and co-author of about 255 papers published in referred international journals (135), international conferences (120). She has close to 15 national and international patents currently in charge of prestigious industrial companies (Atop, BLM Group, IPG Photonics, Pomini, Saipem, Sovema).
She is member of the technical and steering program committees of several international and well recognized conferences on laser manufacturing and processes (ICALEO - International Congress on Applications of Lasers & Electro-Optics), Photonics West LASE, LIM (Laser in Manufacturing).
She is member of the Editorial Board of Laser in Engineering, Old City Publishing.
She is member of the international Scientific Advisory Board of MAPP (Manufacturing using Advanced Powder Processes) EPSRC project and member of CEI Technical Committee 76 Laser Equipment.
The above-mentioned researches have been generally developed on the basis of research programmes funded by national and international organisations, including the most recent MADE4LO (Progetto Regione Lombardia) and Burner (Horizon 2020 RFCS-02-2018) as well as industry-driven activities.