SISSA alumnus Ariel Surya Boiardi has received the Award for the best PhD thesis in Mechanics of Materials, presented by the Mechanics of Materials Group (GMA) of the Italian Association of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (AIMETA), in recognition of the research carried out during his doctoral studies.
Currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Ariel was a member of the mathLab group, conducted research activities within the SAMBA laboratory in SISSA’s Mathematics Area, and completed his PhD in Mathematical Analysis, Modelling and Applications in September 2025, under the supervision of professor Giovanni Noselli.
His thesis, entitled “Nonreciprocal dynamics in soft active structures – From swimming robots to odd periodic systems”, was recognized for its ability to integrate theoretical, numerical and experimental approaches, addressing pioneering topics in the field of biomimetic locomotion, which studies robot motion strategies inspired by living organisms, and active metamaterials, materials made of repeating units capable of changing their behaviour in response to external stimuli.