Invited Speakers

Giuseppe Antonacci received his PhD from Imperial College London in 2015. He subsequently held postdoctoral and PI positions at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, and was later appointed project leader at Imec and Ghent University, working on optical and biomechanical sensing technologies. His research focuses on Brillouin spectroscopy and integrated photonic instrumentation for mechanical characterization in biological and material systems. Giuseppe is a board member of the International BioBrillouin Society. He is currently co-founder and CEO of Specto Photonics.

Piero Castoldi (IEEE Senior Member) is Full Professor in Telecommunications and Coordinator of the “Networks and Services” area of the TeCIP Institute at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (Pisa, Italy).  He got his Ph.D. degree in Information Technology from the University of Parma, and he has been Research Fellow at the Department of Electrical Engineering of Princeton University (USA) until year 2000. He has been involved with various responsibilities in several national and EU FP7, H2020 and HE projects and he has managed several corporate-sponsored projects. His most recent research interests lie in the areas of optical network architectures, network management and control, networks for telemedicine applications, 5G/6G networking.
He is author of more than 600 technical papers published in international journals and international conference proceedings, and he has filed more than 20 patents. He was awarded the 2024 ONTC Outstanding Technical Achievement Award for advancement in the area of optical management and control

Marcello Caleffi (Senior Member, IEEE) is Professor of Advanced Quantum Networks at the University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy, where he co-founded the Quantum Internet Research Group. He is widely recognized as a leading contributor to the design of quantum networks and distributed quantum computing, with the overarching goal of enabling the realization of the Quantum Internet. In recognition of his pioneering research contributions, Prof. Caleffi has received multiple awards, including the 2024 IEEE Communications Society Award for Advances in Communication and the 2022 IEEE Communications Society Best Tutorial Paper Award. He has played a key role in the organization of the scientific community, serving as Chair and Technical Program Committee (TPC) Chair for several premier IEEE conferences.
In 2017, he was appointed as a Distinguished Visitor Speaker by the IEEE Computer Society and, in 2023, as a Distinguished Lecturer by the IEEE ComSoc, in recognition of his leadership and impact in the field. In 2019, he was appointed as a member of the IEEE New Initiatives Committee by the IEEE Board of Directors, contributing to the strategic development of emerging research directions within IEEE.
He currently serves as an editor/associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Transactions on Quantum Engineering, IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society, and IEEE Internet Computing. Previously, he served as editor for IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications.

Andrea Cusano is Full Professor of Electronics, Optoelectronics, and Photonics at the University of Sannio. Recognized for his seminal contributions to merging fiber optics with nanotechnologies, Prof. Cusano originated the ‘Lab-on-Fiber’ concept, establishing it as a primary research frontier in nanophotonicsHis prolific scientific contributions include over 500 papers in prestigious international journals and more than 100 invited book chapters, keynote addresses, and plenary lectures. Prof. Cusano’s impact extends beyond academia; he holds nearly 30 national and international patents, many of which are currently licensed to leading industrial players. In 2020, he was appointed Technical Director of C-NOS (Optoelectronics and Photonics Technologies for Life Science Applications), a research infrastructure dedicated to bridging the gap between photonics and medicine. Further cementing his leadership in the academic community, since November 2025, he has served as the Director of the Engineering Department at the University of Sannio.

Full Professor in Electronics since 2022. He teaches the courses of Optoelectronics and Photonics  for the Laurea Magistrale in Electronic Engineering and in Nanotechnology Engineering, Electronics, Optical and Microwave Sensors for Laurea Magistrale (Msc) in Space Engineering.
He had several academic roles, as Vice Dean for International programs of the Faculty of Information Engineering, Informatics and Statistics from 2019 to 2025, President of the Electronic Engineering Area Council from 2019 to 2025, Director of the Centre of Nanotechnologies applied to Engineering of Sapienza University from 2018 to 2024. He has been Scientific responsible of Sapienza Nanotechnology and Nanoscience Laboratory – SNN Lab from 2018 to 2024 of the Optoelectronics Laboratory of Department of Information Engineering, Electronics and Telecommunications since 2002.
He served as President of IEEE Photonics Society – Italy Chapter from 2020 to 2023 and President of the Italian Liquid Crystal Society from 2010 to 2022. He is Senior Member of IEEE and of the Optical Society of America (OSA). He was Associate Editor of IEEE Photonics Journal and OSA Optics Express from 2015 to 2021.
His main research topics of interest include: liquid crystal based optoelectronics, nanostructured devices for biosensing, photoreceivers at THz applications, hybrid photonic integrated circuits for all-optical systems, optical sensors for space and satellite applications, biophotonic devices based on surface plasmon resonances in gold nanoparticles, nonlinear optic devices.

Mauro Nisoli has been Full Professor at Politecnico di Milano since 2011. He leads the Attosecond Research Center within the Department of Physics and is co-director of the international school Frontiers of Attosecond and Ultrafast X-ray Science. His research focuses on the generation of attosecond pulses via high-order harmonic generation in gases and on their application to the study of ultrafast electronic dynamics in atoms, molecules, and condensed matter.

He has authored more than 230 peer-reviewed publications in international journals and frequently delivers invited talks and tutorials at leading international conferences and advanced schools. His research has been supported by major European grants, including an ERC Advanced Grant (2009, ELYCHE) and an ERC Synergy Grant (2020, TOMATTO). In 2019 he was elected Fellow of Optica in recognition of his pioneering contributions to attosecond science and technology, particularly for innovative applications of attosecond pulses to molecular systems.

Emilio Riccardi received his degree in Physics from the University of Torino, Italy, in 1991. Since 1992, he has been active in the field of fiber‑optic transmission, first at CSELT and later at Telecom Italia. Following the establishment of FiberCop in 2024, he has been working as a Senior Researcher in the Innovation & Engineering Department. His work focuses on DWDM optical networks and fiber‑sensing technologies. He has co‑authored several journal and conference publications and is involved in EU‑funded research projects, including the ongoing ALLEGRO project.

Rinaldo Trotta received the PhD in Materials Science in 2008 from the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, where he also stayed as a postdoc for one year. The work performed in this period was recognised with the “G. Turilli” prize for the best Italian PhD thesis in material science. In 2010 he joined the Institute for Integrative Nanosciences (at IFW Dresden, Germany), first as postdoc and then as leader of a research group working on the effects of external perturbations on the optical properties of self-assembled quantum dots. In 2012 he moved as University Assistant to the Johannes Kepler University (JKU) Linz (Austria), where he founded the Nanophotonics group. At JKU, he became Assistant Professor (2013) and, after completing his Habilitation (venia docendi), Associate Professor in Experimental Physics (2017). The work performed in Austria was awarded by the Austrian Physical Society with the prestigious F. Kohlrausch prize. In November 2017 he moved back to the University of Rome (Italy) “La Sapienza”, where he holds a position as Associate Professor and leads the Nanophotonics group. His current research activity focuses on the possibility of using semiconductor nanostructures as sources of non-classical light for quantum information science and technology