Susanna Terracini
Professoressa ordinaria di Analisi matematica nell'Università di Torino

- s.c.r. eletta il 15 giugno 2024

Date of birth: 29/04/1963
Nationality: Italian
* EDUCATION
- 1990 PhD in Functional Analysis, S.I.S.S.A. Trieste, advisor Prof. I. Ekeland
- 1988 Master degree in Functional Analysis, S.I.S.S.A. Trieste, advisor Prof. S. Solimini
* CURRENT POSITION
- 2012-now Full professor, Department of Mathematics "G. Peano", University of Torino (Italy)
* PREVIOUS POSITIONS
- 2015-2020 (January), Member of the Executive Board of ANVUR (Agenzia Nazionale per la
Valutazione dell'Università e la Ricerca), Rome
- 2002-2012 Full professor, University of Milano-Bicocca
- 1992-2002 Associate professor, Politecnico of Milano
- 1990-1992 Ricercatore, Politecnico of Milano
* FELLOWSHIPS, AWARDS AND ACADEMIC MEMBERSHIPD
- 2002 Calogero Vinti prize for Mathematics, (Unione Matematica Italiana)
- 2007 Bruno Finzi prize for Rational Mechanics, (Istituto Lombardo di scienze e lettere)
- 2014-ERC Advanced Grant COMPAT- Complex Patterns for Strongly Interacting Dynamical
Systems (European Research Council)
- 2020 Juliusz Schauder International Medal, for outstanding contributions to nonlinear analysis, the
Juliusz P. Schauder Center for Nonlinear Studies (Torùn, Poland)
- Corresponding member of the Lombardo di Scienze e di Lettere, Classe di Scienze matematiche e
naturali,
- Associate member of the Académie Royale de Bélgique
* GRANTS
- 2014-16 PI of the PRIN Variational and perturbative aspects of nonlinear differential problems
funded by MIUR (483K€ for 58 participants in eight local units for 3 years)
- 2014-19 PI of the ERC Advanced Grant COMPAT- Complex Patterns for Strongly Interacting
Dynamical Systems, funded by the EU (1380K€)
- 2019- 2024 PI of Sistemi dinamici non lineari, funded by the University of Turin (550K€)
- 2021-2023 PI of Matematica per lo spazio: analisi e controllo degli effetti relativistici, funded by
CRT (25K€)
- 2021-24 PI of Pattern formation in nonlinear phenomena, funded by Fondazione Compagnia di San
Paolo, Trapezio call (30K€)
- 2023- 2025 PI of the PRIN 2022 Pattern formation in nonlinear phenomena (185K for 31
participants in six local units)
- Finalist of FIS 2021
* SUPERVISION OF GRADUATE STUDENTS AND POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS
- 20 PhD students already graduated from 1998
- 4 PhD currently working on their project
- 20 Postdoctoral fellows mentored from 2000
* TEACHING ACTIVITIES
- Undergraduate: Calculus and Real Analysis at all levels, Complex Variable, Measure Theory,
Spectral Theory, Partial Differential Equations, Functional Analysis, Analytical Methods for
Celestial Mechanics.
- Graduate: Variational Methods, Nonlinear Analysis, Sobolev Spaces, Optimal Control Theory,
Geometric Methods in PDEs, Ginzburg-Landau vortices
* ORGANISATION OF SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS (selected)
- Scientific Committee of: New perspectives on the N-body problem, BIRS Banff (Canada), January
13-18 2013; International Conference of Women Mathematicians, August 2014 in Seul, Korea , XX
Convegno dell'Unione Matematica Italiana, September 6-11, 2015, Siena; VII Symposium on
Nonlinear Analysis, Torùn, Poland, September 14-18, 2015; Jornadas d'interacciò entre sistemes
dinàmics i equaciones en derivades parcials, Barcelona, July 11 -15, 2016; Intensive Week of PDEs
at Spa, Spa (Belgium) December 11-15, 2017; Miniworkshop in Celestial Mechanics, Turin,
December 18-19 2017; ICM 2018 Satellite conference on Nonlinear Partial Differential Equation,
Fortaleza, Brazil, 23-27 July 2018; New trends in Celestial Mechanics, Cogne (Italy), June, 24-28,
2019; Intensive Week of PDEs@Cogne, Cogne (Italy), June 2-7, 2019, Geometric and Variational
methods in Celestial Mechanics, BIRS-CMO July 2022; Geometric aspects of nonlinear partial
differential equations, Institut Mittag Leffler, August 29-December 9, 2022, Highlights in nonlinear
analysis, June 13-16 2023 Cetraro, Differential equations and dynamics in Alba, September 11-13
2023, VIII Symposium on Nonlinear Analysis, 17-21 June 2024, Toruń
* PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
- Co-organizer of two series of public lectures: La Matematica incontra Torino (2022) and La Scienza
incontra Torino (2023). Lecturer in many popularization events, including Festival della Scienza
(Genova 2021), The time machine (Torino 2018) and Gaia (Torino 2016); lecturer in many high
schools and summer schools and campuses for students, offering educational seminars such as
Matematica e Liberazione, L'altra metà della matematica, Come rimanere in forma con la
matematica and Alla scoperta di schemi nascosti in nelle dinamiche complesse.
- Past member of the editorial board of MaddMaths!. YouTube popularization videos: Il giorno di Ada
- Ada Lovelace Day (Museo della Scienza Milano), Da zero a infinito: la legge di Newton (EDUINAF), Simmetrie e orbite del problema degli n-corpi (Accademia delle Scienze di Torino), Come
tenersi in forma con la matematica (Come alla corte di Federico II, Napoli)
* Institutional RESPONSABILITIES Member of
- 2017-2020: steering committee of the Newton Institute (Cambridge)
- 2017- now: Scientific Commitee of SIMCA (Società Italiana di Meccanica Celeste e Astrodinamica)
- 2018-now: Scientific Council of the French CNRS
- 2018-now Programme Board of the Masters Mathematical and Physical Methdos for Space and
Aviation Sciences (Turin University)
- 2021-now: Executive Committee of EMS (European Mathematical Society)
- 2021-now: Board of Directors of INDAM (Istituto Nazionale di Alta Matematica)
- 2021-now Chairman of the Department of Mathematics "G. Peano"
- 2022-now Programme Board of the National Doctoral Space Science and Technology
* EDITORIAL ACTIVITIES (current)
- Co-editor-in-chief of Journal European Math Society and NOdEA: Nonlinear Differential
Equations and Applications. Associate editor of: Calculus of Variations and PDE, Celestial Mech
and Dyn Astron, Nonlinearity, Acta Appl Math, Discr Cont Dyn Systems - B, ESAIM-COCV, La
Matematica, Functiones et Approximatio.
Referee for (selected): Inventiones Mathematicæ, Annals of Mathematics, Geometric and Functional
Analysis, Advances in Mathematics, Archive for Rational Mechanics and Analysis.
* MEMBERSHIPS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES
- Member of EMS (European Mathematical Society), UMI (Unione Matematica Italiana), SIMCA
(Societò Italiana di Meccanica Celeste e Astrodinamica), EWM (European Women in Mathematics),
AMR (Association for Mathematical Research, funding member)
* MAJOR COLLABORATIONS
International collaborations, last 10 years: Henri Berestycki (CAMM France), Virginie
Bonnaillie-Noël (Université de Rennes, France), Maria Magdalena Boureanu (University of
Craiova, Romania), Daniela de Silva (Columbia University, USA), Jaime Paradela Dìaz (University
of Maryland, USA), Peter Poláčik (University of Minnesota, USA), Yannick Sire (Johns Hopkins
University, USA), Hugo Tavares (Universitade de Lisboa, Portugal), Nikolaj Tzvetkov (ENS Lyon,
France), Jung-Cheng Wei, (UBC Canada), Tobias Weth (Goethe University Frankfurt), Alessandro
Zilio (Université Paris Cité).
* SELECTED INVITED PRESENTATION (all plenary or keynote)
- Shape optimization and spectral geometry, ICMS, Edinburgh, 29 June 3 July 2015
- Symplectic Techniques in Topology and Dynamics, Cologne, August 24-28 2015
- The First Joint IMU-INdAM Conference in Analysis, Tel Aviv, May 29 - June 1, 2017
- CELMEC VII, San Martino al Cimino (VT), September 3-9, 2017
- Joint UMI-SIMAI-PTM meeting, Wroclaw, Poland, September 16-20 2018
- International Conference on Elliptic and Parabolic Problems, May 20-24 2019, Gaeta (Italy)
- ÖMG Conference 2019, University of Applied Sciences Vorarlberg, Dornbirn, September 16-20, 2019
- One World PDE Seminar (online), opening seminar, March 31 2020
- Juliusz Schauder Medal Awarding Ceremony, June 5th 2021, Torùn
- Science Nature PDE Webinar, October 26th 2020
- One World Dynamics Seminar, February 12, 2021
- Edinburgh Mathematical Society, session 2021-2022 , Heriot-Watt University February 18th 2022
- Geometric Theory of PDE's and Sharp Functional Inequalities, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei,
september 24 2021
- Calculus of Variations and PDEs: recent developments and future directions, ETH Zürich, June 21-
25 2021
- Contemporary Analysis and Its Applications, June 16 - 18, 2021 — Portoroz, Slovenia
- O. A. Ladyzhenskaya centennial conference July 16 - 22 2022, (Online)
- V.I. Smirnov Seminar on Mathematical Physics, December 5, 2022
- I seminari del centenario UMI Università di Milano-Bicocca, January 26 2023
- Oberfolfach workshop Dynamische Systeme, 9 Jul - 14 Jul 2023
* Advanced minicourses (selected)
- Scuola Estiva GNFM, Ravello, September 5-10 2016,
- 2018 EWM-EMS Summer School on Nonlocal interactions in partial differential equations and
geometry,
- Institut Mittag-Leffler, May 21-25, 2018
- Recent Trends on Nonlinear PDEs of Elliptic and Parabolic Type, 5-16 November 2018, MATRIX,
Creswick (Australia)
- Hypatia Summer School CRM Barcelona June 5-8, 2023
* PUBLICATION BREAKDOWN (last 10 years)
- 122 publications on peer-reviewed journals, 3 books as editor, 3 article to appear, 3 submitted
- Scopus: 3208 citations, h-index 28
- Google Scholar: 5134 citations, h-index 37, i10-index 96
- Included in the Top 2% Scientists Worldwide 2023 by Stanford University

Description of main research results
One group of works concerns the variational approach to the detection of chaotic dynamics and the
description of symbolic dynamics in systems of interacting bodies with gravitational interference potentials, possibly with anisotropies. The major innovative element was due to a new global view on the problem, approached with variational methods, which allows to overcome the limitations of the traditional
perturbative approach. Such an analytical-functional approach has also been successfully applied to the study of collapsing or expansive solutions, with positive results both in the existence of parabolic (in the case of Ncentres) and hyperbolic solutions and in the analysis of their spectral properties, with a view to further analysis of uniqueness and possible bifurcations.
Another successful line of research concerns segregation and phase separation problems and the properties of the resulting free boundaries, with various kind of interactions. These can be viewed as singular perturbation problems; to perform their asymptotics, the classification of the self-similar solutions involved in the blowup analysis, which we have obtained in relevant cases, plays a fundamental role. Monotonicity formulae, adjusted for different applications, are also a very useful tool and are a largely open problem in cases of asymmetric interactions, anisotropic problems or non-local and wide-ranging interactions. Our work offers a first key to unlocking the anisotropic case and making its asymptotic analysis tractable.
In addition, I have been working other free boundaries, coming from shape optimisation problems related to eigenvalues or associated with other energies. We managed to obtain the first results on the regularity of optimal sets with respect to linear combinations of eigenvalues and paved the way for a systematic
theoretical study of spectral optimal shapes.
Finally, I have recently been working on the properties of solutions to elliptic equations which are singular or degenerate on a characteristic set with a stratified structure, starting with the simple case of a manifold. We obtained regularity up to the characteristic manyfold results of solutions with natural boundary conditions even in the case of superdegenerate weights. These results open the way for a general theory in which the degenerate set is the nodal set of, e.g., a harmonic function.