Massimiliano Leoni will defend his doctoral thesis on Friday, December 11th

• Due to the restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the defense will be held online and users will be able to follow it live

Massimiliano Leoni received his Master degree in Mathematical Engineering – Scientific Computing from Politecnico di Milano (Italy) in 2016 and the thesis was on shape optimisation of S-ducts in fighter jets, carried out at Rolls-Royce PLC. His double PhD degree was on numerical methods and software for simulations in mechanics, with a focus on industrial applications and he carried out at BCAM – Basque Center for Applied Mathematics in Bilbao and KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. His PhD thesis, Finite Element simulations: computations and applications to aerodynamics and biomedicine, has been supervised by Johan Hoffman and Johan Jansson. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the defense will be held online, through the platform Zoom. It will take place on Friday, December 11^th at 14:00, and users will be able to follow it live using the following link: https://kth-se.zoom.us/j/68189221064 On behalf of all BCAM members, we would like to wish Massimiliano the best of luck in his upcoming thesis defense. [idea] PhD thesis Title: Finite Element simulations: computations and applications to aerodynamics and biomedicine Abstract: This work is concerned with two main aspects in the field of Computational Sciences. On the one hand we explore new directions in turbulence modelling and simulation of turbulent flows, showing that we are able to perform time-dependent computations of turbulent flows at very high Reynolds numbers, considered the main challenge in modern aerodynamics. The other focus of this work is on biomedical applications. We develop a computational model for (Cardiac) Radiofrequency Ablation, a popular clinical procedure administered to treat a variety of conditions, including arrhythmia. Our model improves on the state of the art in several ways, most notably addressing the critical issue of accurately approximating the geometry of the configuration, which proves indispensable to correctly reproduce the physics of the phenomenon. [/idea]