Change of leadership at the Department of Civil, environmental and mechanical engineering of UniTrento. The Department Council elected Oreste Bursi as its new director. 
The elections took place on Wednesday 19 September in Mesiano.
Oreste Bursi, full professor of Structural dynamics and control, will take office on 1 October and will lead the department until 2021, when he will have the opportunity to run again for the post.
Bursi, who has already been deputy director of the department (from March 2013 to October 2015), takes over from director Marco Tubino who, after two mandates, had to step down.
Oreste Salvatore Bursi earned his degree in Mechanical engineering from the University of Padova in 1984 and his doctoral degree in Mechanical engineering from the University of Bristol. He has been professor of Structural dynamics and control at the University of Trento since 2001.
He has always had an interest in linear and nonlinear dynamic systems with structural and mechanical elements and control devices. Control devices have been used both for real-time control and to test dynamic systems in dynamic action. In his career Bursi worked on multidisciplinary problems through the analysis and design of complex systems that require both advanced modelling and experimental simulation and techniques. He is a recognized expert in Europe in the coupling of substructures for dynamic analysis. His research interests have recently shifted to research into the identification and structural monitoring of complex systems, like bridges and piping systems. Another research interest is the quantitative risk assessment of critical petrochemical plants for technological accidents triggered by natural disasters.
He is a member of the National commission that decides on access to academic positions in Structural engineering (December 2016 – October 2018), and the co-founder of the Institute for Safety and Security Sciences of the University of Trento and of the start-up I-kubed.