Governance and Management

Members of the Executive Committee are: Giovanni Molari, Patrick Deane, Marcelo Knobel, Astrid Soderbergh Widding, Giga Zedania. * * * * * * * * * The Magna Charta Observatory is thankful to the PAST MEMBERS of its governing bodies: Narend Baijnath, Aleksa Bjelis, Agneta Bladh, Inga Bostad, Josep Bricall, Pier Ugo Calzolari, John Daniel, Michael Daxner, Ivano Dionigi, Kenneth Edwards, Eva Egron-Polak, Chiara Elefante, Ustun Erguder, Jean-Pierre Finance, Roderick Floud, Eric Froment, Koen Geven, Dimitris Glaros, Roberto Grandi, Georges Haddad, Josef Jarab, Jens Jungblut, Hans Peter Knudsen Quevedo, Janja Komljenovic, Hélène Lamicq, Mohamed Loutfi, Eduardo Marçal Grilo, Andrei Marga, Gil Merkx, Olive Mugenda, Sijbold Noorda, André Oosterlinck, Marcin Palys, Rok Primozic, Robert Quinn, Fabio Roversi-Monaco, Marius Rubiralta, Carla Salvaterra, Alessandra Scagliarini, Peter Scott, Lucy Smith, Caroline Sundberg, Ludvik Toplak, Dimitrios Tsougarakis, Christina Ullenius, Angelo Varni, Martina Vukasovic, Lesley Wilson.

Born in Bologna in 1973. Full professor in Agricultural Machinery and Mechanisation at the University of Bologna since 2016, Associate professor from 2010 to 2016 and researcher from 2000 to 2010. PhD in Materials Engineering at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. He is qualified to practice as an engineer and has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Bologna.

His research activity mainly focused on issues in designing agricultural machines and testing the reliability of agricultural tractors, in particular accelerated tests for the structural verification of such machines and their transmissions. In addition, he dealt with tillage machines, crop harvesters and machines for animal husbandry, as well as the use of biomass to produce energy.

He has coordinated national projects, acted as a scientific supervisor in numerous research agreements with companies, and authored more than 150 manuscripts, 53 of which published in journals indexed on Scopus.

He was editor-in-chief of the Journal of Agricultural Engineering from 2014 to 2018, where he was managing editor for the 2006-2014 period; he oversaw its switch to English, its transition to open access and its indexing first in Scopus and then on the Web of Science.

At the University, he was Deputy Head of the Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences of the University of Bologna from 2015 to 2018. After a single department of agriculture was established, he was the director for three years from 2018 to 2021, and was then reconfirmed in this role for the following three-year period. From 2018 to 2021, he was a member of the Academic Senate of the University of Bologna and a member of the university’s human resources committee.

He is the President of the Magna Charta Observatory.
His mandate as Governing Council member started on November 1st, 2021 and will expire on October 31st, 2027.

Patrick Deane became the 21st Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Queen's University on July 1, 2019. He is the former President and Vice-Chancellor of McMaster University, a position he held for nine years. Prior to that he served as Vice-Principal (Academic) at Queen's and also held a number of academic administrative appointments at Western University and the University of Winnipeg. Dr. Deane is a Professor of English Literature, with his principal research focus being the relationship between cultural production and British politics in the first half of the Twentieth Century. He read English and Law at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, before undertaking graduate studies and receiving both an M.A. and a Ph.D. in English Literature from Western University. Dr. Deane was the first recipient of the John Charles Polanyi Prize for Literature in 1988, and was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.

He is President of the Governing Council. His mandate as President started on June 13th 2021.
His mandate as Governing Council member started on March 14th, 2019 and his second mandate will expire the 12th March, 2027.

Dr Söderbergh Widding holds a Ph D in Cinema Studies from Stockholm University, 1992, where she is Professor of Cinema Studies since 2000. Since 2013, she is President of Stockholm University, where she has led the work with a Living Values pilot for the MCO in 2017-18. Dr Söderbergh Widding is a Fellow of Academia Europaea, of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities. She is Chair of the Board for the Association of Swedish Higher Education Institutions (the Swedish Rectors’ conference) from 2019, and in this capacity also member of the EUA Council as well as of the EUA Research Policy working group. In addition, she is Chair of the BIBSAM consortium – responsible for the Swedish turn to open access and handling all deals with major publishing companies – since 2016 and member of the board of Aarhus University since 2018, as well as of the Stockholm Price in Criminology Foundation since 2013. Previous commissions include membership in the Swedish Government’s Research Expert Group until 2020, chairmanship for the Principals Council of the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation until 2019, and an earlier chairmanship of the Ingmar Bergman Foundation until 2011, as well as memberships in several evaluation panels at the Swedish Research Council, the Academy of Finland, the Norwegian Research Council, the Danish Accreditation Institution, as well as board (or equivalent) memberships in the Supervisory Committee of the National Library of Sweden, of Letterstedska föreningen, the King Gustaf VI Adolf’s Fund for Swedish Culture, Stockholm Environment Institute, Public and Science, the Swedish Fulbright Commission and the Swedish Film Institute.

She is Vice-President of the Governing Council (designate). Her mandate as Vice-President will start on June 13th 2021.

Her mandate as Governing Council member started on November 19th, 2020 and it will expire on November 18th, 2024.

Professor Chris Brink is Emeritus Vice-Chancellor (President) of Newcastle University in England, former Rector of Stellenbosch University in South Africa, and former Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) of the University of Wollongong in Australia.
Earlier he was Head of Mathematics and Coordinator for Strategic Planning at the University of Cape Town, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Australian National University. He was Convenor of the sector-wide Research Assessment Exercise 2020 in Hong Kong and currently convenes RAE 2026.
Chris Brink is known as a champion of the idea of a civic university. His books include The Soul of a University: Why excellence is not enough and The Responsive University and the Crisis in South Africa. Before entering university management he held the A-rating of the National Research Foundation. He is a logician with a Cambridge PhD, an interdisciplinary DPhil, Master’s degrees in mathematics and philosophy, and a Bachelor’s degree in computer science. He has served in an advisory or assessment capacity for various universities and organisations, and contributes to a number of international executive leadership programmes in higher education.

His mandate as Governing Council member started on August 11th, 2024 and his first mandate will expire on August 10th, 2028.

Raffaella Campaner graduated in Philosophy at the University of Trieste in 1996 with a dissertation in Philosophy of Science. She took a Master in Philosophy (M. Litt) at the University of St. Andrews (Scotland) in 1998, with a dissertation in Philosophy of Physics, and a PhD in Philosophy at the University of Trieste in 2000. In 2000-2001 she was Assistant Editor of the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science (OUP). She had a post-doctoral fellowship (2000-2002) and a research grant (2002-2006) at the Dept. of Philosophy of the University of Bologna, where she has been Lecturer (2006-2014). From September 2014 to September 2021 she has been Associate Professor of Philosophy of Science at the Dept. of Philosophy and Communication, where she is currently Full Professor. From July 2018 to November 2019 she has been Delegate to International Relations for the Dept. of Philosophy and Communication Studies, and from November 2019 to November 2021 she has been the Director of the Master Program in Philosophical Sciences. Since 2019 she is Life Member of Clare Hall College, Cambridge, and since November 2021 she serves as Vice-Rector for International Relations at the University of Bologna.
Her research has addressed philosophical theories of scientific explanation, conceptions of causation, scientific models, with a specific focus, on the one hand, on the social sciences (history, economics, anthropology, archaeology), and, on the other hand, the biomedical sciences. Within philosophy of medicine, she has focused on topics in the philosophy of epidemiology, cancer, and psychiatry. 
She teaches courses in Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Social Sciences, Epistemology.
She published more than sixty papers in international journals and volumes, and the following books: La spiegazione nelle scienze umane (2004; 2nd ed. 2010); Spiegazioni e cause in medicina: un'indagine epistemologica (2005); La causalità tra filosofia e scienza (2007; 2nd ed. 2012); Philosophy of Medicine. Causality, Evidence and Explanation (2012); La spiegazione scientifica (with M.C. Galavotti) (2012); Filosofia della scienza (with M.C. Galavotti, 2017, 2nd ed. 2018); Varieties of Causal Explanation in Medical Contexts (2019); Explaining Disease. Philosophical Reflections on Medical Research and Clinical Practice (forthcoming, 2022).
She took part in a number of international projects and conferences (e.g., at University of Ghent, Vienna, King's College - London, Beijing, Granada, Geneva, Konstanz, Rotterdam, Bristol, Nancy, Athens, Madrid, La Coruna, Paris, Helsinki, Düsseldorf, Pittsburgh, Oslo, Bonn, Canterbury, Bielefeld, Łódź, East Lansing, MI).
From June 2014 to June 2017 she has been a SILFS (Italian Society of Logic and Philosophy of Science) Steering Committee member. Since June 2015 she is a BIOM Steering Committee member (Società Italiana di Storia, Filosofia e Studi Sociali della Biologia e della Medicina, http://www.sibiom.org/consiglio-direttivo/). From September 2015 to September 2019 she has been an EPSA (European Philosophy of Science Association) Steering Committee member (http://www.philsci.eu/steering-comittee), and from November 2018 to November 2021 she has been the Director of the Inter-University Research Centre in Philosophy of Health and Disease PhilHeaD, involving the Universities of Bologna, Ferrara, Firenze, Genova, Milano Bicocca, Padova, Piemonte Orientale, Roma Tre (www.philhead.org).

Her mandate as Governing Council member started on March 24th, 2022 and her first mandate will expire the 23th March, 2026.

Martina Darmanin held the office of President in the European Students Union (ESU) between 2021-2022, Vice-President in 2020 and Human Rights Coordinator between 2019 - 2020. Her portfolio at ESU focused on equitable access to education, academic freedom, student agency in education governance and international cooperation on education. She is currently the Vice-President of the Lifelong Learning Platform (LLLP) and has represented the international youth and student constituency in the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) between 2020-2022. She has been active as an elected student leader on the local level through the Malta Health Students’ Association as well as the national level through Malta’s University Student Council prior to her European engagement. Martina’s academic background is in the field of Health Sciences and holds a Master of Science degree by research in Food Studies and Environmental Health from the University of Malta. Her M.Sc. research was conducted in partnership with the Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Engineering and Bio-economy e.V. (ATB) in Potsdam, Germany.

Her mandate as Governing Council member started on September 16th, 2022 and her first mandate will expire the 15th September, 2026.

Cristina Demaria is currently the Rector’s delegate for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion of Alma Mater – The University of Bologna. She is a Professor of Semiotics at DAR – Department of the Arts and has worked extensively on cultural representations and practices of gender and intersectionality, genres of testimony, post-conflict representations, the construction and reconstruction of collective and cultural memories. She has authored four monographs and more than eighty articles and book’s chapters, edited and co-edited seven books and several scientific journals’ special issues; she participated in various national and international research projects, such as Diaspora and cultural transfer, an interdisciplinary research project coordinated by the Centre for the Study of Post-conflict Cultures of the University of Nottingham (UK) and funded by the British Academy for Arts; Smart cities, socio-cultural capital and cultural heritage, in collaboration with the Catholic University of Sao Paulo (Brazil); FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IRSES project MEMOSUR -A Lesson for Europe: Memory, Trauma and Reconciliation in Chile and Argentina, and she is currently engaged in H2020-MSCA-RISE-2017 project SPEME- Questioning Traumatic Heritage: Spaces of Memory in Europe, Argentina, Colombia. She has been a visiting professor in many universities and institutes, such as the Institute of Advanced Studies of the University of London, the University of Buenos Aires and the University of Amsterdam - School for Heritage, Memory and Material Culture. She is the referee for many international and Italian scientific journal in the fields of Philosophy and Theories of Languages, Semiotics and Cultural Studies, and sits in the editorial board of international scientific journals and book series. She has been the external evaluator for the award of research grants by FIAS - French Institutes for Advanced Study Fellowships Programme, and by EURIAS - European Institutes for Advanced Study Fellowship Programme, both supported by the European Commission. As the Rector’s delegate for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, she is a member of several working groups and European networks, such as the Diversity Council of UNA Europa consortium, where she leads the action group on “best practices”; the Equality and Diversity working group of the Coimbra Group; and the Gender and Diversity working group of The Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities.

Her mandate as Governing Council member started on March 44th, 2022 and her mandate will expire on March 23th, 2026.

Marcelo Knobel is a Full Professor of Physics and he was the 12^th Rector of the University of Campinas (Unicamp), in Brazil, institution to which he has been linked for more than three decades.

After obtaining both his bachelor’s and his PhD degrees in Physics from Unicamp, Knobel spent some time in Italy and Spain as a postdoctoral researcher. He joined Unicamp again upon his return to Brazil, but this time as a faculty member. Prior to becoming Rector, Knobel held several leadership roles at Unicamp. He was the first Executive Director of the Unicamp Exploratory Science Museum and served as Vice-Rector for Undergraduate Programs, just to mention a few examples. While in this last position, he was responsible for implementing an innovative interdisciplinary program, named ProFIS, which combines social inclusion with general higher education. This initiative gained him the 2013 Peter Muranyí Prize in Education.

Knobel held other important roles outside of Unicamp as well, including Vice-President of the Brazilian Physics Society and Executive Director of the Brazilian Nanotechnology National Laboratory (LNNano) at the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM). He is currently a member of the CNPEM Board of Directors.

A researcher with a strong interest in science dissemination and higher education studies, Knobel has already published more than 250 scientific papers, in addition to numerous opinion pieces in both national and international newspapers and magazines. He is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials (Elsevier), and he was editor-in-chief of Ciência & Cultura, a science and technology magazine published by the Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science (SBPC) during 10 years.

Knobel is an Eisenhower Fellow (2007), Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (2009) and Lemann Fellow (2015).

His mandate as Governing Council member started on June 14th, 2021 and will expire the 13th of June 2025.

Peter Kwasi Kodjie is currently the Secretary General of the All-Africa Students Union (AASU), where he previously served as the Head of Research and Communications. He is one of the youngest persons to ever serve on the Board of the Ghana AIDS Commission, the Vice Chancellor’s Endowment Fund Committee at the University of Professional Studies Accra (UPSA), Technical Committees at the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Peter represented the students of Africa on the Tuning Africa Project Advisory Group (TAPAG) Phase II, and currently an advisory board member of the Harmonization of African Higher Education Quality Assurance and Accreditation (HAQAA) Initiative, and the Africa Continental Qualifications Framework (ACQF) - joint European Union-African Union projects on the harmonization of the Higher Education ecosystem in Africa. Peter has extensive experience in students and youth leadership, ranging from high school to the tertiary level, where he was elected as President of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS). In the past, Peter has worked in several volunteer roles with leading advocacy civil society organizations like the Consumer Advocacy Centre (CAC), African Youth Network (AYN) and Transformed Youth Initiative (TYI) to initiate key talking points and advancing the conversation for an empowered youth in Africa. Together with other youth leaders, Peter is a founding Trustee on the 100 Million Campaign (founded by the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Kailash Satyarthi).
Peter has a strong passion for leadership, youth empowerment, and human rights.
Expertise: Defending Students’ Rights and Children’s Rights, Quality Assurance in Higher Education Institutions, Advocate for Student Centered Learning, Regional Integration, International Relations and Diplomacy, Women’s Rights Advocate, Youth in Governance and Leadership.

His mandate as Governing Council member started on June 14th, 2021 and will expire the 13th of June 2025.

Marta Losada is a Professor of Physics and the Dean of Science at New York University Abu Dhabi. Specializing in high energy particle physics, she received her undergraduate degree and an MSc in Physics from the National University of Colombia, and a PhD in Physics from Rutgers University in the United States. From 1997-1999, she was a postdoctoral fellow at CERN (The European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Switzerland. 
Prior to joining NYUAD, Marta served as President of Universidad Antonio Nariño (UAN) in Colombia from 2010-2018 and was previously National Director for Research, and Director of the Basic and Applied Science Research Center, also at UAN.
She has been Principle Investigator of numerous research projects, focusing on elementary particle phenomenology and cosmology, and experimental high energy physics; and a member of multiple international collaboration projects, including the ATLAS, DUNE and NEXT Experiments.
In addition to her research, Marta is passionate about higher education and research policy and has held numerous positions in the field. She served as Commissioner of The CONACES Engineering, Architecture, Mathematics, and Physical Sciences section of the Colombian Ministry of Education and Research Policy from 2006 to 2009, and was also PI for the UAN node of the European funded networks HELEN, Invisibles, Invisibles Plus and Elusives. She is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Latin American Symposium of High Energy Physics and the CERN-Latin America School of High Energy Physics. She was the Chair of the Preparatory Group of the Latin American Strategy for HECAP until 2021.
In addition, Marta has been a member of the steering committee for the first UNICA-IAU Masterclass on Internationalization, a member of the review group for the Magna Charta Universitatum 2018-2020, a member of the Global Attainment and Inclusion Network. Marta has served as International Councilor for the American Physical Society and a Board Member of the International Association of Universities; she has been a scientific consultant for the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics. She was elected to the Colombian Academy of Sciences. Most recently she has been appointed to the Governing Council of the Magna Charta Observatory.

Her mandate as Governing Council member started on August 11th, 2024 and his first mandate will expire on August 10th, 2028.

Liviu Matei is a professor of higher education and public policy, and head of the School of Education, Communication and Society at King's College London. He taught at universities in Europe and the U.S., consulted extensively in higher education policy, and conducted applied policy research projects for international intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, national authorities and universities from Europe and Asia. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the American University of Central Asia and founder of the Global Observatory on Academic Freedom.

His mandate as Governing Council member started on September 16th, 2022 and his first mandate will expire the 15th September, 2026.

Originally from Belgium, and mother of one, Martine Rahier holds an Engineering degree in Agronomy from the Free University of Brussels (1977). She continued her studies in the USA at the Universities of Cornell and Berkeley, and obtained a PhD in Science from the University of Basel in 1983, and “Habilitation” in Ecology from the University of Zurich in 1993.
Granted a professorship by the Swiss National Science Foundation in 1988, she became a Professor of Entomology and Animal Ecology at the University of Neuchâtel in 1994. In 2001, she founded the “Plant Survival” National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR), a network comprising more than 200 people.
In 2008, she was elected rector of the University of Neuchâtel ending in August 2016.
Martine Rahier has been a member of several national and international university committees, from appointment commissions to committees designing study programs in various universities; she has also been president and member of committees assessing research programs and projects, as well as of scientific associations. Author of numerous publications, she has also supervised a large number of doctoral theses.
Martine Rahier was a member of the Rectors’ Conference of Swiss Universities (2008-2016) and president (2013-2015) of the “swissuniversities”.She is member of the German accreditation council since 2013, vice-president of European University Association since 2015, member of the council of the Agency for Quality Assurance and Accreditation Austria since 2017, and board member of WWF Switzerland since 2017.

Her mandate as Governing Council member started on October 18th ,2019 and her second mandate will expire on October 17th, 2027.

Catharine R. Stimpson, one of the pioneers in the study of women and gender, a founder of feminist criticism, is also known for her role as a public intellectual and her public service, which includes her wide-ranging writing on the humanities, liberal arts, and the university. She is University Professor at New York University and Dean Emerita of the Graduate School of Arts and Science there. She is located as a senior research fellow in the Steinhardt Institute for Higher Education Policy, and is an affiliated faculty member of the NYU Law School Faculty, of New York University Abu Dhabi, and of the Department of Applied Statistics, Social Science, and Humanities, Steinhardt School, New York University.   From January, 1994, to October, 1997, she served as Director of the Fellows Program at the MacArthur Foundation in Chicago. Simultaneously, she was on leave from her position as University Professor at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey-New Brunswick, where, from 1986-1992, she was also Dean of the Graduate School and Vice Provost for Graduate Education. Before going to Rutgers, she taught at Barnard College, where she was also the first director of its Women’s Center. Once the editor of a book series for the University of Chicago Press, she was also the founding editor of Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society from 1974-80. The author of a novel, Class Notes (1979, 1980), the editor of eight books, she has also published over 150 monographs, essays, stories, and reviews in such places as Transatlantic Review, Nation, New York Times Book Review, Critical Inquiry, and boundary 2. A selection of essays on literature, culture, and education, Where The Meanings Are, appeared in 1988, and was re-issued in 2014. She served as co-editor of the two-volume Library of America edition of the works of Gertrude Stein. Professor Stimpson has lectured at approximately 400 institutions and events in the United States and abroad. Her public service has included the chairpersonships of the New York State Council for the Humanities, the National Council for Research on Women, and the Ms.Magazine Board of Scholars. In 1990, she was the President of the Modern Language Association. She is now a member of the board of directors of several educational, philanthropic, and cultural organizations, including Scholars at Risk, whose board she chairs. She is a former member of the board of PBS. From September 2000 through September 2001, she served as the president of the Association of Graduate Schools. She was chair of the board of Creative Capital, the innovative arts organization. As a member of the Editorial Group of Change magazine from 1992 to 1994, she wrote a regular column about education and culture. Born in Bellingham, Washington, she was educated at Bryn Mawr College, Cambridge University, and Columbia University. She holds honorary degrees from Upsala College, Monmouth College, Bates College, Florida International University, the State University of New York at Albany, Hamilton College, the University of Arizona, Wheaton College, Hood College, Union College, Holy Cross College, Santa Clara University, Rutgers University, Emory University, Simmons College (now University), Western Washington University, and the University of Ottawa. She has also won Fulbright and Rockefeller Humanities Fellowships. She was awarded the 2011 Francis A. March Award for Distinguished Service to the Profession from the Modern Language Association. Stimpson’s most recent book, Critical Terms for the Study of Gender, co-edited with Gilbert Herdt, was published by the University of Chicago Press in Summer 2014, and was named one of the most significant academic titles of 2015 by CHOICE, a magazine of the American Research Library Association.

Her mandate as Governing Council member started on March 14th,2019 and her second mandate will expire on March 21st, 2027.

Maurizio Tira graduated with full marks in Civil engineering for soil protection and regional planning; he serves as Full Professor of Urban and regional Planning at the University of Brescia, where he has been Rector from 2016 to 2022. He teaches Urban planning and risk mitigation in the master's degree course in Civil and Environmental Engineering. He is a member of the Doctoral Board in Civil and Environmental Engineering, International Cooperation and Mathematics and of the National PhD Course in Sustainable Development and Climate Change. Past-President of the Italian Society of Urban Planners and the National Centre of Urban Studies at the National Council of Engineers, he is member of the Board of the Academy of Science, Letters and Arts in Brescia and Corresponding Member of the Academy of Science of Bologna and the Academy of Science of Region Lombardy. He is member of the board of the European University Association (EUA) and of the Governing Council of the Magna Charta Observatory. He acts as President of the UNIBS Foundation and the Administration council of the “National Centre of Hyper Computing, big data and Quantum Computing”, being appointed by the Minister of University and Research. He is President of Consortium GARR, “the ultra-broadband network dedicated to the Italian research and education community”.

He is expert member of the European Transport Safety Council and the Transport Research Committee of the International Transport Forum at OECD, as well as expert in the Group on Urban Mobility at the DG MOVE – EU Commission, co-leading the working group on Active mobility and safety of vulnerable road users.

As for the research activities, he developed his researches mainly in the field of urban and mobility planning, that is the combined approach to urban development, with a specific focus on Urban safety management, publishing 270 scientific works. He has been member of the Technical Structure of the Italian Ministry of Transport and Infrastructures from 2017 to 2018.

Paul Harris Prize, in 2017, in December 2020 he has been appointed Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.

His mandate as Governing Council member started on December 13th, 2024 and will expire the 12th of December 2028.

Giga Zedania was a Rector of Ilia State University (Tbilisi, Georgia) from 2014 to 2022. Before, he served as the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the Head of the Quality Assurance Service at Ilia State University, where he has been teaching first as associate and then as full professor since 2006. He studied philosophy, sociology and cultural studies in Georgia, USA, Hungary and Germany, obtaining his PhD from Ruhr University Bochum. His publications range from European intellectual history to the socio-political transformation of the South Caucasus. He served as the President of Black Sea University Network (2016-2018).

His mandate as Governing Council member started on November 19th, 2020 and his mandate will expire on November 18th, 2024.

Fabio Roversi Monaco was born in Addis Ababa on 18 December 1938, and graduated in Law at the University of Bologna on 28 February 1962.

From 1972 to 2012, first he was Full Professor of Public Law (until 1975) and then Full Professor of Administrative Law at the University of Bologna.

He served as a member of the Board of Administration of Bologna University from 1972 to 1979. He was elected Rector of the University of Bologna on 1 November 1985 and remained in office for 15 years, until October 2000, having been elected four times.

From 1978 until 2006, he was the Director of the Advanced School for Public Administration, Bologna, where he set up and directed the first Masters programme in Italy in Business Law.

He is the author of numerous publications, including five monographs and many articles dedicated mainly to the theme of public intervention in the economy, State holdings, administrative decentralization, regional and municipal administration, and health law.

He is a member of the Academic Advisory Board of many scientific journals and Founding Editor and Editor-in-Chief of the journals Diritto Sportivo and Sanità Pubblica e Privata.

During his term of office as Rector of the University of Bologna, Prof. Roversi Monaco conceived and implemented the Magna Charta Universitatum, signed by 430 Rectors, gathered together in Bologna on 18 September 1988, and subsequently by a further 400 Rectors. All the leading European universities signed the Magna Charta, with a particularly strong presence of English, French, Polish and Spanish Rectors.

The Magna Charta, the only written document on the basic principles of higher education adopted by the Universities in a spirit of autonomy, is considered the main reference point of Universities all over the world.

In order to safeguard the principles of the Magna Charta, a Magna Charta Observatory was founded by Prof. Roversi Monaco in 2000. Its members are 2 representatives of the European University Association (EUA), the University of Bologna and other international organizations. The Observatory was chaired for seven years by Prof. Roversi Monaco, who is now Honorary President.

Prof. Roversi Monaco served as President of Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio in Bologna from 2001 until May 2013.

He is currently President of Banca IMI.

He is President and CEO of the Museum of the City of Bologna s.r.l., set up by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio in Bologna to manage and coordinate the Genus Bononiae museums and artistic heritage.

He has been President of the Inter-University Association Almalaurea, the main European organization analysing student careers and post-graduate employment.

Other current and past duties include: President of the Imola Piano Academy, and President of the Mozart Orchestra in Bologna, of which Claudio Abbado was Artistic Director.

He is President of the European Secretariat for Scientific Publications (SEPS), a non-governmental organization with an advisory role to the Council of Europe, and of Bononia University Press.

Honorary Degrees: Dickinson College, Carlyle (USA); Brown University, Providence (USA); University Complutense, Madrid (Spain); University Panthéon 1 Sorbonne, Paris (France); Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore (USA); Soka University, Tokyo (Japan); Universidad Externado de Colombia (Colombia); University of St Petersburg (Russia); University of Barcelona (Spain); University of Cordoba; Pontificia Universidad Cattolica, Belo Horizonte (Brazil); University of Salta (Argentina); Université de Montréal (Canada); Denver University (USA); Victoria University, Melbourne (Australia); Catholic University, (Uruguay); National University of La Plata (Argentina); University of Trieste (Italy); University of Maribor (Slovenia); State University of Samarkand (Uzbekistan); G. D’Annunzio University of Chieti and Pescara (Italy); Palacky University, Olomouc (Czech Republic).

List of Honours: Knight of the Gran Croce of the Italian Republic; Chevalier Légion d’Honneur awarded by the President of the French Republic; Knight of the Ordine Civile di Savoia; Knight of the Ordem de Sant’Iago de Espada, Portugal; Croce di Grand’Ufficiale dell’Ordine al merito, Malta; Great Cross of Alfonso X the Wise, conferred by the King of Spain; Commander of the Order of Saint Louis of Polish Republic; Award for Merit Re Abdulaziz conferred by the Saudi Arabia Government; Paul Harris Fellow, awarded by Rotary International.