Yesterday, Thomas Parisini, Full Professor of Automation at the Department of Engineering and Architecture at the University of Trieste, was dubbed a Knight of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (Cavaliere al Merito della Repubblica Italiana).

The honour was awarded to the UniTS professor on 2 June in Piazza dell'Unità d'Italia, during the official ceremony marking the 78th anniversary of the founding of the Republic. The insignia was presented by the Prefect of Trieste Pietro Signoriello and UniTS Rector Roberto Di Lenarda.

The Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (OMRI), established in 1951, is the highest of the orders of the Italian Republic and is intended to ‘reward merits acquired on behalf of the Nation in the field of literature, the arts, economics and in the performance of public service and activities carried out for social, philanthropic and humanitarian purposes, as well as for long and distinguished civil or military service’.

This prestigious civil award sits alongside a number of other awards that have characterised Thomas Parisini's academic career, which began at the University of Genoa, where he graduated with honours in Electronic Engineering (1988) and a PhD in Electronic and Computer Engineering (1993).

He subsequently became Associate Professor at the Politecnico di Milano and is currently Full Professor of Automation at the University of Trieste, a position affiliated with the Danieli Group. He is also holds positions as the Chair of Industrial Control, and as the Head of the Control and Power Group at Imperial College London (UK).

Parisini was also Deputy Rector for Business Relations at the University of Trieste from 2009 to 2013.

In 2018, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Aalborg University (Denmark).

Some of the main positions held by Parisini include President of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Control Systems Society in 2021-2022 and Chairman of the Editorial Board (Editor in Chief) of the international journal IEEE Trans. on Control Systems Technology.

He has also received several scientific awards such as IEEE Fellow, IFAC Fellow, the 2007 IEEE Distinguished Member Award, the IFAC Best Application Paper Prize from the Journal of Process Control, Elsevier, and the 2004 Outstanding Paper Award from the IEEE Trans. on Neural Networks.