AUGUST 28

GIFFONI IMPACT

Biography

Dr. Sonia Massari is the Academic Director of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Food Studies programs in Rome and Director of Gustolab International Food Systems and Sustainability (she works in partnership with 15 US Universities and she is designing and managing Food Studies Programs in Italy, Vietnam, and Japan).
She teaches Food Design at Scuola Politecnica di Design Milan (Master in Food Design) and Sustainability Design Thinking at ROMA Tre University. She teaches at ISIA Design School Rome (Master in Systemic Design).
She is currently coordinating the ADI INDEX Food Design commission. She is a scientific consultant for the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition Foundation.
In 2012, she won the International “Le Tecnovisionaries” Women Innovation Award, a prize which publicly recognizes women who have demonstrated an ability to combine creativity and innovation in order to improve quality of life, in particular in the area of food and nutrition, and in 2014, she won the NAFSA TLS Knowledge Community’s Innovative Research in International Education Award.
She is a Board member of the Association for the study of Food and Society (ASFS), she is a member of Canadian Association Food and Society (CAFS) and the WE – Women for Empowerment network. She is member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Food Design, Frontiers Journal (on Sustainability) and Elisava Temes de Disseny.
She is a mentor for several startups organizations (StartubbootcampFoodtech Rome, Dock3, StartupWeekRome…) and she is continuing to work as a consultant, researcher, trainer and designer for food companies and research institutes (JRC Science HUBS, University Siena, SDSN, University of Macerata…) She monthly writes on “Design” in the GAMBEROROSSO magazine.
Co-founder and director of “Echioltremare” conference (from 2011 to 2015) and first European Conference on Food Design Milan 2015. European representative for FDXE.org.