Carlo Massimo Casciola is a Full Professor of Fluid Mechanics at Sapienza University of Rome, where he has served as Dean of the Faculty of Civil and Industrial Engineering since 2022. Since 2025, he has been President of the Italian Academy of Engineering and Technology (ITATEC).
His research combines theoretical, numerical, and experimental approaches to fluid mechanics, connecting molecular processes with macroscopic flows. His interests include turbulence, polymer-induced drag reduction, cavitation and bubble/droplet nucleation, micro- and nanofluidics, surface wettability, and the mechanics of biological membranes. His work brings together fluid mechanics, statistical physics, computational science, materials science, biology and medicine.
He received an ERC Advanced Grant for BIC, a project investigating cavitation across scales, from bubble inception to collapse, and an ERC Proof of Concept grant for INVICTUS, aimed at developing a blood-vessel-on-a-chip platform to study ultrasound-enhanced endothelial permeability with applications in targeted drug delivery, biological barrier permeabilisation and cavitation-induced material damage.
He has held leadership roles in European high-performance computing, including membership of the PRACE Scientific Steering Committee and service on a EuroHPC Joint Undertaking panel. At Sapienza, he directed the PhD Programme in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, the Master’s Programme in Nanotechnology Engineering and the Sapienza-IT CECAM (European Center for Atomistic and Molecular Computation) center.
Researchers mentored within his group have subsequently received ERC Starting Grants and Marie Skłodowska-Curie funding and taken up academic positions in Italy and abroad.