Silvia Barella graduated from Politecnico di Milano in 2004 receiving her master degree in Materials Engineering in 2004. She received in 2008 the title of Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical Systems Engineering with a thesis about the asymmetric rolling of duplex stainless steel. From May 2008 to December 2018 she is Assistant Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Politecnico di Milano. Since December 2018 she has been Associate Professor in the same department. Since 2008 she is holder of the course "Metallurgy and non-metallic materials" for the first year of Mechanical Engineering and since 2009 of the course “Innovations in metallurgical plants and processes” for the second year of Maser degree in Mechanical Engineering at Politecnico di Milano. Her research activities focus on solidification processes (casting and welding), hot and cold plastic deformation and the heat treatment of iron and aluminum based alloy. She also deals with the metallographic and mechanical characterization and phase transformations as a result of thermal and mechanical treatments. She is interested of degradation mechanisms (brittleness, corrosion and fatigue) that may result in failure of the metal components. She also is the secretariat of the Steelmaking committee of the Italian Association of Metallurgy (AIM). She is author of about 70 peer reviewed scientific papers.