"We are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more and farther than they can, certainly not because of the acuteness of our sight or the size of our bodies, but because we are lifted up and carried high with the stature of giants" (Bernard of Chartres).

Marco is inspired by the spirit of this twelfth-century Neoplatonist philosopher in the design of his research:

"In this perspective, with the scientific results of POSEIDON, I hope to be able to help others to see further into science, just as I have been able to do over the past seven years, standing on the shoulders of other researchers. This has been the secret behind the conception of POSEIDON!

Summary of the POSEIDON project

The growing interest in marine renewable energy and human activities related to the oceans are the main causes of a an alarming increase in the noise level in the oceans and seas.
However, the performance of underwater noise mitigation systems has long been (and still is) limited by the fact that dissipation is inherently low at the sub-wavelength scale.
Therefore, an effective solution to attenuate underwater waves in the low and broadband frequency ranges does not yet exist. POSEIDON aims to close this scientific and technological gap developing a new class of metamaterials with unprecedented wave reflectivity and absorption over broad sub-wavelength frequency ranges.

"The project will explore the intimate relationship between the microstructure and macroscopic vibrational properties of a multiscale metamaterial immersed in a heavy fluid, on the assumption that nature would offer already optimised solutions that we should be able to learn from" (Marco).

Marco Miniaci's rich background in both engineering and research on a promising topic for the health of the oceans

• After an engineering school course at the Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna, Marco went on to a PhD (2010 - 2013) to study "Elastic wave propagation in ordinary media and metamaterials". During his PhD, the regional agency Spinner (Services for the promotion of INNovation and research) granted him a funding for a 6-month mobility project at the Institute of Fluid-Flow Machinery Polish Academy of Sciences (Gdansk), under the supervision of Prof. W. Ostachowicz.
• After a year of post-doc at the Department of Physics of the University of Turin (Italy), in 2016, Marco joins the Laboratoire Ondes et Milieux Complexes (LOMC) in Le Havre as part of a Marie Skłodowska-Curie individual fellowship, under the supervision of Prof. Bruno Morvan. During two years, Marco perfected his knowledge on the propagation of elastic waves in periodic media.
• In January 2018, Marco joined the Wave Motion Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta) in the research group of Prof. Massimo Ruzzene, specializing in topological protection.
• From July 2018 to December 2019, Marco joins the "Acoustics / Noise Control Laboratory" at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) in Dübendorf, as part of a Marie Skłodowska-Curie COFUND Action, and works on the control of elastic waves via multi-scale metamaterials.
• Since January 2020, Marco joins the CNRS as a permanent researcher, within the IEMN, in the Acoustics group. His current research concerns "elastic and acoustic wave propagation in periodic media, including phononic crystals and metamaterials, elastic topological insulators, non-destructive control".
• In 2020, he received the "Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action Award" given by the Croatian Presidency of the Council of the EU (in Zagreb, Croatia) for "the impact of the MSCA fellowship on the career development of the fellows" and the "Industria 4.0" award from the Italian association GiovedìScienza recognising the industrial interest in his research projects.