Alessandro Parente
Alessandro Parente is a Full Professor in the Aero-Thermo-Mechanics department of the Ecole polytechnique de Bruxelles, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), where he has taught and led research since 2010.
He chairs CYPHER, the COST Action on cyber-physical systems and digital twins for decarbonising energy-intensive industries, a European network of 41 countries.
Visit the CYPHER website- Position
- Full Professor (Professeur ordinaire), Université libre de Bruxelles
- Department
- Aero-Thermo-Mechanics, Ecole polytechnique de Bruxelles
- Research group
- BRITE, a joint ULB and VUB research group
- Languages
- Italian, English, French, Spanish
Clean, efficient and flexible combustion, from flame physics to digital twins.
His research develops combustion technologies for the flexible, efficient and clean conversion of energy. It studies how turbulence and chemistry interact in reacting flows, builds reduced-order models that make simulations faster, assesses alternative fuels such as hydrogen and ammonia, and quantifies the uncertainty in the results. Beyond combustion, he developed a widely used method for simulating atmospheric boundary layer flows over complex terrain.
He studied chemical engineering at the Università di Pisa, where he completed his PhD in 2009 on the combustion of hydrogen-based fuels. He then worked at the Institute for Clean and Secure Energy of the University of Utah and at the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics before joining ULB in 2010.
At ULB he founded the Combustion and Robust Optimisation group (BURN) with the VUB in 2015, and in 2021 the Brussels Institute for Thermal-fluid Systems and Clean Energy (BRITE), which he co-chairs with Prof. Aurélie Bellemans of the VUB.
Academic career
October 2025 to present
Full Professor (Professeur ordinaire)
Université libre de Bruxelles
October 2019 to September 2025
Professor (Professeur)
Université libre de Bruxelles
October 2013 to September 2019
Associate Professor (Chargé de cours confirmé)
Université libre de Bruxelles
October 2010 to September 2013
Assistant Professor (Chargé de cours)
Université libre de Bruxelles
May 2009 to September 2010
Senior Research Engineer
von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics
October 2006 to December 2009
Graduate Research Assistant, then Research Associate
Institute for Clean and Secure Energy, University of Utah
Education
2009, Università di Pisa
PhD in Chemical and Materials Engineering
Thesis: Experimental and numerical analysis of advanced systems for hydrogen-based fuels combustion.
2005, Università di Pisa
Master's degree in Chemical Engineering
110/110 summa cum laude. Thesis: Flameless combustion of methane and hydrogen, CFD-aided design of advanced, low-polluting burners.
2002, Università di Pisa
Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering
110/110 summa cum laude. Thesis: Experimental analysis of stirred tanks with optical techniques.
Institutional roles
Faculty, research-group and community responsibilities alongside his research and teaching.
2026 to present
Vice-Dean for International Relations
Ecole polytechnique de Bruxelles, ULB
2021 to 2026
Vice-Dean for Transition, Societal Impact and Business Relations
Ecole polytechnique de Bruxelles, ULB
2021 to present
Co-chair of BRITE, with Prof. Aurélie Bellemans (VUB)
Brussels Institute for Thermal-fluid Systems and Clean Energy
2024 to present
Co-chair of SWIFFT, with Prof. Aurélie Bellemans (VUB)
Research collective on energy and climate transitions, funded by the Helios Foundation
2024 to present
Chair of COST Action CYPHER (CA22151)
Cyber-physical systems and digital twins for decarbonising energy-intensive industries
2022 to present
President
Belgian Section of the Combustion Institute