Meet Our Elite Experts

Botti began his career at Renault in 1978 before joining the Chassis Engineering division of General Motors, Delphi (U.S.) in 1989. Until 2006 he held various executive positions from Chassis, Steering and Powertrain and lastly a Business Line Executive for the Powertrain product line, before joining Airbus Group in 2006 as CTO and member of the Executive Committee. He pushed the Group forward on the path of innovation in various areas, including the E-Fan all-electric aircraft – a pioneering, multi-award winning project: one of it is the prestigious “Pro Pilot Award” for the “Best Aviation Technical Development of the Year 2015” at the 13th Annual Living Legends of Aviation Awards in L.A. As of 2021, Botti holds 31 patents and 4 defensive publications for the work carried out over the course of his career, and was elected as a Delphi Hall of Fame fellow. Botti is currently CEO and CTO of Voltaero.

Keywords: Aeronautics, Electric-hybrid Plane, Propulsion and Chassis, Mechanical Engineering, R&D Management, Business and Strategy, Automotive

Project with Presans: Involved into the future of decarbonized aviation and the transition into new technologies. Establishment of the costs of ownership, and what are the necessary infrastructures.

“What I like about this collaboration is the chance to interface with great customers that want to get experts to resolve their issues, but also a chance to interface with top experts in their fields in a very collaborative manner. I really appreciate the different point of views and the debate in order to better serve clients.”

Christian Mari was awarded PhD for numerical computation of transitional boundary layers on Military High Pressure High Temperature Turbine Blades. The major part of his professional activity was devoted to engineering design of Advanced Aircraft And Helicopter Turbo-engines as well as Landing and Breaking Systems developed by several companies of SAFRAN Group. After designing Single Crystal Cooled Turbine Blades he was heading up the development of several leading edge technologies like 3D Woven Composite Fan Blades, Ceramic Matrix Lean Combustors and Advanced Low Pressure Turbines dedicated to the famous CFM 56 Leap Engine. As General Manager of Messier-Dowty-Bugatti he contributed to create the market of Carbon-Carbon Aircraft Brakes, making this company becoming number 1 in the world for such equipment. As CTO of SAFRAN Group he succeeded to create and emulate an efficient multidisciplinary and trans-company process of innovation. Over these years he was able to create and manage some strategic partnerships on key breakthrough technologies with GE, Albany International Techniweave Inc. in the US and also several major demonstration programs funded by Clean Sky Joint Undertaking in Europe.

Keywords: Fluid Mechanics, Numerical Computation, Advanced Materials, Innovation Management, Strategic Partnership

Michel is an expert in the design of gas turbines in the aeronautical field. Graduated from the Ecole Centrale de Paris in 1977, he obtained a PhD in heat energy storage in 1980. He joined Safran Aircraft Engines (formerly Snecma) in 1979 where he spent his entire career. He started in the Combustion Division, which he took over in 1993. He participated in the combustor and afterburner design of different engines and filed about fifty patents. He was also in charge of two major SAE engine projects as Chief Engineer. For the past ten years, he was Chief Engineer R&T. He now contributes part-time to the audit of new projects. Michel is President of the 3AF Propulsion Commission and a corresponding member of the French Air and Space Academy.

Keywords: MCombustion/ Emissions, Aerodynamics and Heat Transfers, Aircraft Engine Integration

“The possibility of implementing my skills in a large industrial field.”

Carl has a background in Research & Technology strategy formulation, management, and delivery in Aerospace & Defence. Carl was awarded a PhD for modelling the electromagnetic shielding performance of large Carbon Fibre Composite Aerostructures. After working in USA, and following an MBA, Carl held numerous management positions with British Aerospace, including Chief of EW & Stealth Facilities before becoming the Engineering Director of Royal Ordnance in 1999. He led the integration of Engineering between British Aerospace and Marconi following their business merger in 2000 and was the first Director of the new BAE Systems HQ Advanced Technology Centre. Carl held numerous subsequent Director posts in future projects and research for BAE Systems, leading to the TEMPEST aircraft concept, and culminating in Director – Emerging Products. Carl worked closely with Universities and MOD Dstl during these periods. He served as a non-Executive Director, and latterly Chairman, of the Aircraft Research Association (ARA) Ltd., Bedford for 10 years until his retirement from BAE. He now provides consultancy, bringing his expertise to clients around the world.

Keywords: Electromagnetic Protection,Electromagnetic Computational Modelling

“Working on exciting new projects. Collaborating with new, clever colleagues”

More than 20 years of experience in the area of colloidal science and emulsion stability, leading a scientific team and serving as the head of the Center for the Interdisciplinary Studies in Physics for 6 years. Lecturer of post-level courses and advisor of several PhD and MSc thesis. Scientific advisor of industry projects and tech start-ups.

Keywords: Emulsions, surfactants, petroleum, colloids

Project with Presans: Predicting the stability of hair-products with an innovative experimental-numerical approach

“They know how to brigde science and industry.”

Alica, trained as Industrial Food Process Engineer, is Co-Founder and CEO of Frudist in Germany. She has broad knowledge in the design and implementation of industrial food processing lines based on emerging technologies, having several publications in this field.

Keywords: Emerging technologies, Food processing, Pulsed Electric Field Technology, Drying

Project with Presans: New treatments towards healthy cereals and almond based drinks

“I enjoyed finding solutions for cutting edge problems as well as the clear communication and professionalism of Presans team.”

Geert van Poppel PhD is an independent Food and Health consultant since 2018. He has 35 years experience in nutrition and food research and product development.. He worked in several senior management positions at the TNO Nutrition and Foods Research Institute in the Netherlands and at Unilever Foods R&D. He was member of the Dutch Novel Food Committee, leader of a large EU study on trans fatty acids, and chairman of the industry association IPSSA (International Plant Sterols and Stanols Association). He is a food enthusiast, a science and technology optimist and an avid cook.

Keywords: Nutrition, food and health, R&D

Project with Presans: With other experts, I thorougly enjoyed working on the Presans project ‘The Future of Foods’

“A proverb says ‘Prediction is hard, especially about the future’. Nevertheless, Presans and my expert colleagues made “The future of foods’ an inspriring project with visions rooted in science and reality.”

Rafael is a professor at Michigan State University. He leads a research group working on the mass transfer in polymers, biodegradable polymers, life cycle assessment, and sustainable packaging systems. He has co-authored more than 200 publications

Keywords: packaging, life cycle assessment, biodegradable polymers, sustainable development, mass transfer of polymers.

Project with Presans: Application of biodegradable polymers and mass transfer in polymers.

“Great insights and follow-up with partners.”

Olivier Chazot is professor and Head of the Aeronautic and Aerospace department at the Von Karman Institute. He is an expert in hypersonic aerothermodynamics. He carries out research in high enthalpy facilities and plasma wind tunnels to study laminar to turbulent transition and Gas-Surface interactions in re-entry flows. He participated in multiple ESA missions for the development of flight-testing experiments as MARS Express, EXPERT probe, IXV program and QARMAN re-entry CubeSat.
He is also “scientist in residence” at Zurich University of Arts (Zhdk) for transdisciplinary collaboration between art, science and philosophy in experimental research.

Keywords: Hypersonics, TPS, Plasma flows, High-enthalpy facilities, Planetary reentry

Project with Presans: Thermo-mechanical architecture for hypersonic vehicles.

“Research opens us to knowledge, Expertise makes us meet reality. Presans connects both.”

Nicolas is an applied mathematician (Ph.D. at Univ Paris Saclay), specialized in probability and statistics, as well as a computer engineer. Among his major results, he has developed various Bayesian modeling methodologies to merge heterogeneous sources of information into decision support problems in uncertain environments, methods for sensitivity analysis, Monte Carlo acceleration and calibration of complex numerical models. Awarded Best Young European Statistician in 2016, he worked at EDF R&D for 9 years, in collaboration with numerous French and international research organizations in industrial risk and environmental resource management. He build and supervised the R&D activity of Quantmetry, a notorious consulting firm specialized in artificial intelligence. He has supervised several PhD. thesis and post-doctorates and coauthored more than 40 research papers and several books on AI, extreme risk analysis, etc., including the first scientific book translated using artificial intelligence. Among other things, he loves tagging animals during scientific sea campaigns.

Keywords: Bayesian learning; artificial intelligence; industry; environment; decision-helping

Project with Presans: With PRESANS and in collaboration with a physicist, I co-developed a methodology based on machine learning and industrial expertise to accelerate the search for new promising chemical formulas for a specialized high-end industry

“Collaborating with PRESANS has been really exciting scientifically, humanly, because of the meetings between specialists that it has allowed, the industrial viewpoint and the requirement of rigor that it supports. I have learned a lot from our work together.”

Peter served from 2001 to 2007 as Vice President for Special Mechanical Seals at Burgmann Dichtungswerke, Germany, with general commercial power of representation. From 2007, he has been professor for Materials Science and Sealing Technology at the Department of Applied Sciences and Mechatronics at the University of Applied Sciences, Munich, Germany

Keywords: overall sealing technology, mechanical seals

Project with Presans: Optimization of secondary seals for mechnical seals

“A good experience in professional management of projects”

Malgorzata is Full Professor of applied optics at Warsaw University of Technology, at the Institute of Micromechanics and Photonics. She authored one monograph, several book chapters and more than 200 papers in international scientific journals. She was the recipient of SPIE 2013 Chandra S. Vikram Award in Optical Metrology.

Keywords: optical metrology, digital holography, holographic tomography, digital image correlation, 3D/4D optical data analysis

Project with Presans: This was unique expirience which force me to apply optical metrology in critical environment (extremly low temperature, measurement through turbid media, highly explosive)

“This are challenging and interesting projects. One cannot be bored while working on a Presans project.”

Pedro directs the Food Structure Design Laboratory, where he focuses his research on the design of food structures in a controlled manner based on specific formulations and/or processes, in order to obtain specific quality attributes. He is an entrepreneur, who is in the process to spin off a company to produce tasty and nutritious vegetable snacks.

Keywords: food structure, food engineering, food microscopy, snacks, digestibility

Project with Presans: Definition of most important aspects to consider to conceptualize and to develop an innovative oil to give a crisp texture through pan frying.

“I liked the way I was contacted, through an open innovation platform, who aimed to identify world experts without any restriction. The communication was direct, with certain regularity and the timeline was very reasonable.”

Tammy holds a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center and a B.S. in Journalism from the University of Florida. She provides market and policy intelligence with unique insight and analysis drawn from her global network in the fuels industry through the consulting services she provides and the membership-based Future Fuels Outlook service. She is a global expert on conventional, biofuels and alternative fuels market and policy issues.

Keywords: research, analysis, strategic advice, competitive intelligence

Project with Presans: Project on natural gas issues

“PRESANS was a good partner for Future Fuel Strategies. We appreciated the clear communication, direction and feedback on the project.”

Jeremy’s research in the domain of human-computer interaction focuses on computer-mediation of human communication activities. He is best known for his pioneering work on low-latency, high-fidelity media streaming (UltraVideoconferencing), which enabled distributed musical performance both across North America and across the Atlantic.

Keywords: Human-Computer Interaction, Mobile, Multimodal Systems, Immersive Systems, Telepresence, Haptics, Virtual and Augmented Reality

Project with Presans: Human-Computer Interaction involving Artificial ntelligenceI systems

“I enjoyed the interesting domain of the project as well as the interaction with Presans personnel, who offered useful feedback throughout the activity.”

Yolanda Picó expertise is mostly in the field of the determination of emerging organic contaminants in food and the environment, the development of methods and models for the control of the routes and the contaminant exposure assessment environmental and development of tools and methods that improve the knowledge about their impact.

Keywords: environment, food safety, contaminants, LC-MS, HRMS

Project with Presans: A study of the current methods used to determine pesticide residues

“Presans is a serious collaborator that is much involved in the projects”

Klaas J. Hellingwerf received his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Amsterdam . He then was staff member of the Biology Department of the University of Groningen and he moved to Amsterdam again to hold the chair in General microbiology at the University of Amsterdam. His research focuses on the molecular basis of signal transduction and the ensuing physiological responses in micro-organisms. Part of the insight obtained in this research is applied in a project aimed at producing biofuel, which led to setting up the spin-off company ‘Photanol BV’ in 2008.

Keywords: biochemistry, microbiology, photobiology, biophysics, synthetic biology

Project with Presans: A literature study on the effects of low-intensity visible light, applied for therapeutic purposes.

“It has been very gratifying to use the knowledge gathered in a 30-year research career to write an inventory on the possible therapeutic effects of low-intensity visible illumination. This experience allowed me to refresh and significantly expand my research horizon.”

Maria holds a Ph.D. on Fluids Thermodynamics Engineering and has a passion for research on renewable energy technologies, sustainable power production, energy efficiency, and the thermophysical behavior of energy fluids.

Keywords: renewable energy; thermodynamics; energy fluids; energy efficiency; research

Project with Presans: Investigating innovative and creative solutions for a better and more sustainable operation of natural gas engines.

“I liked to work in a project that merged research with finding solutions for a real-life challenge. I was glad to see that industries are engaged in advancing and improving their technologies through research.”

Yuan has over 10-year experience in battery research starting from his Ph.D. study at Stanford University. Then he spent three years at MIT working on studying reversible heat generation and thermal conduction in batteries.

Keywords: batteries, thermal management

Project with Presans: Overview of battery technologies

“It was a very interesting consulting project”

Maximilian graduated and got his PhD from Byelorussian State Technological University. Then he worked as researcher at the Centro de Química Estrutural, Universidade Lisboa, Portugal. His scientific interests lay mainly within synthetic chemistry, preparation of new materials and catalysis. Thus, he participated in the development of new methods of synthesis of various complexes of metals and dispersed materials.

Keywords: Metal-mediated and noncovalent bond assisted syntheses

Project with Presans: Identification of catalysts for the decomposition of urea

“The task was clearly stated and the work supported”

Luca Sorelli is a structural engineer and full professor in the civil engineering department at Laval University since 2008. He has developed a wide breadth of competences thanks to an international career at the structural durability division at IFSTTAR (Paris), at the civil engineering department at MIT (Cambridge) and at the Lafarge research center. His research interests focus on: (i) green and sustainable construction; (ii) multiscale development of composite materials; (iii) innovative techniques for strengthening existing structures (iv) innovative composite structures for building and bridges.

Keywords: ultra-high performance concrete

Project with Presans: Exploring the potentials of UltraHigh Performance Concrete for marine applications

“Professionalism and dynamism along with a friendly attitude”

Semih Eser is a Professor of Energy and Geo-Environmental Engineering at Penn State University. He has served as Program Chair, Chair, and Councilor in the Fuel Chemistry (now Energy and Fuels) Division of American Chemical Society and as member on the Advisory Committee of the American Carbon Society.

Keywords: coking, mesophase, needle coke, engine deposit, carbon structure and reactivity

Project with Presans: Deposits in Fuel Engines: Understanding of their Formation for the Design of New Additives

“I appreciated the well organized and transparent process for submitting proposal for research, and assistance from experts in Presans to carry out the funded projects effectively.”

Julian Eastoe is Professor of Chemistry at the University of Bristol UK. He has published in excess of 300 research articles, with more than 400 collaborators and co-authors. His research interests span colloids, surfactants and applications of neutron scattering. Julian is a co-Editor of the Journal of Colloid and Interface Science and Chair of the International Colloids Conference.

Keywords: colloids, surfactants, formulations, interfaces, nanoparticles

Project with Presans: Eradicate the deposit problem in fuel engines

“To learn about practical applications of my specialism, and contribute towards new advances.”

Henry-Eric is professor of Food Science and Technologies, formerly President of the Department of Food and Bioproducts, Science and Engineering at AgroParisTech. He has been working at INRA for 13 years, during which he has developed expertise on the biosynthesis of flavours by micro-organisms and on fermentation of lactic acid bacteria.

Keywords: Food, flavours, cheese, mirobiology, green chemistry

Project with Presans: Analysis on flavour innovations in non alcoholic beverages

“The regular monitoring of the project by the manager at Presans made it possible to progress in confidence and conclude on time. The collaboration was very professional.”

Johann Görgens is professor of chemical engineering and research chair in sugarcane-biorefineries at the Department of Process Engineering, Stellenbosch University. He has 25 years’ experience with bio-energy, biomass processing and biorefineries in collaboration with major biomass processing industries.

Keywords: Biomass processing, biorefineries, bio-energy, bioprocessing, bioeconomy

Project with Presans: The project considered industrial/commercial examples of biomass processing to isolate xylose as a preferred intermediate for further processing.

“Presans connected us with industrial partners that had very specific technical questions, and these questions were closely aligned with existing expertise and on-going research in my group. As a result we could provide meaningful answers to the client, which hopefully assisted them in further commercial developments.”

Linda Angell is President and Principal Scientist at Touchstone Evaluations — a human factors research and consulting firm in Michigan that she co-founded. She holds a PhD (in Experimental-Cognitive Psychology) and has over 35 years of research experience spanning both academic and applied positions, as well as leadership roles. She worked for 27 years at an automotive OEM, prior to founding Touchstone Evaluations.

Keywords: Driver Behavior; Advanced technology; Automation; Safety; Humans in Complex Systems; HMI Design

Project with Presans: Review of the Human Machine Interface domain in automobiles

“The project asked us to work on a topic that was at the cutting edge of development in several adjoining fields — and gave us the unique opportunity to not only be of service and push forward at this frontier — but to work with experts in these other related fields, and to broaden our own horizons in doing the work for Presans and its client (as well as in collaboration with them). An opportunity that was truly unique in all the years of my career!”

Edward received his PhD in Odessa, Ukraine. He and his family immigrated to the USA in 1992. He worked at AeroChem Research Labs, Inc., before joining faculty at New Jersey Institute of Technology in 1999. Ed’s research interests are in metal combustion, reactive materials, and advanced energetics.

Keywords: Reactive materials; metal combustion; mechanochemistry; advanced energetics

Project with Presans: A review of new reactive materials for advanced propellants, explosives, and pyrotechnics

“Preparing this review made me look at the familiar literature critically, with a new eye. Organizing different studies was fun and learning experience.”

Enrico holds Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from Politecnico di Milano and in probabilistic risk assessment at MIT. He is also full professor at the Centre for research on Risk and Crises of Ecole de Mines, ParisTech, France. “Expert of failures”… his research focuses on the modeling of the failure-repair-maintenance behavior of components and complex systems.

Keywords: Reliability, Risk, Resilience, Safety, Maintenance

Project with Presans: Complexity in the transportation industry

“Working with Presans was interesting, because of the technical challenge and professionalities involved, and pleasant because of the nice human relationships with all stakeholders involved.”

Mani Sarathy received his PhD in Environmental and Chemical Engineering at the University of Toronto. His research interest is in developing sustainable energy technologies with decreased net environmental impact. A major thrust of his research is using chemical kinetic simulations to design fuels, engines, and reactors.

Keywords: energy, sustainability, simulations, combustion, environment

Project with Presans: Fuel additives

“Presans perfectly connects experts with real-world problems.”

Pierre Monsan is Professor Emeritus at University of Toulouse. He was elected at the French University Institute in 2003. He is CEO-CSO of Cell-Easy. He has been active for 44 years in the field of enzyme catalysis and molecular design. He authored more than 240 scientific publications, 3 books and 65 patents. He is founding member of the French Academy of Technology, member of the French National Academy of Agriculture, and member of the College of Fellows of AIMBE.

Keywords: Biotechnology, Biocatalysis, Entrepreneurship, Science Valorization

Project with Presans: A disruptive approach of the stimulation of the intestinal microbiota

“Efficiency and contact with top expert people”

Francesco Ciardelli was appointed Full Professor at the University of Pisa in 1975, and maintained this position until 2010. He was Visiting Professor at UC-Berkeley (1985), Kyoto University (1983), P.& M. Curie University Paris (1999). Presently he is CEO of SPIN-PET Co devoted to research transfer to industry in materials technology. Presently, he is mainly involved in new technology concerning advanced materials , bioplastic materials, chemistry for circular economy, clean energy production.

Keywords: Materials science and technology, Polymers, Bioplastic Materials, Energy production, Recycling of materials

Project with Presans: Report on Temporary adhesion for a thermoplastic pre-preg on a metal form

“The transparency of the infirmation, the respect of the signed agreements in full”

Kevin Kelly is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Former Chair of the Applied Physics Program at Rice. He received a B.S. in engineering physics from Colorado School of Mines in 1993 and a Ph.D. in applied physics from Rice in 1999. He was a postdoctoral fellow atthe Institute for Materials Research in Sendai, Japan and in the chemistry department at Penn State University.

Keywords: Computational Imaging and Nanoscience

Project with Presans: Present and future of computational imaging systems.

“Exciting project with a great team.”

Nivaldo Prizotto is a physical therapist with experience about electro physical agents, photobiomodulation, biomaterials and bioengineering of tissue repair (musculoskeletal and tegumentar).

Keywords: photobiomodulation, electrophysical agents, tissue repair, light therapy, inflammation

Project with Presans: Use of light to improve the cosmetics in the skin.

“The relationship with Presans was very nice, besides the timeline is very picky, it was a pleasure to make this job.”

François is a specialist of materials and processes. He has been working since 1989 on this field, mainly for automotive industry and race cars in prestigious companies in F1, Rally, Le Mans Cars. His principal activities are to share hisexpertise in using material and processes on high performance systems, to propose solutions that break with traditional methods , to help people react quickly in case of failures on mechanical components and system and to coach new engineers.

Keywords: Material science
Failure analysis
Metallurgy
Coating and surface treatment
Quality of materials and processes

Project with Presans: Identification of metallic materials for a specfic application

“I like about collaborating with Presans for two main reasons:
Being in contact with other people working on different scientific fields.
Having the opportunity to work on various topics, out of my confort zone, using my skills on problems or things I am not familiar with but using technologies and materials I know quite well.”