Barbara Mazzolai

Barbara Mazzolai, a biologist with a PhD in Microsystem Engineering and an international master's degree in Eco-Management at the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna of Pisa (Italy), directs the MicroBioRobotics Centre of the Italian Institute of Technology of Pontedera (Pisa, Italy). In 2012 she was coordinator of the European project that gave life to the first robot plant in the world, the plantoid, capable of reproducing the behavior of the roots. Today she is the head of the GrowBot project for the creation of robots capable of climbing and adapting to the surrounding environment, just like plants do. In 2015, Robohub, the world's largest scientific community of robotics experts, included it among the 25 most brilliant women in the industry. She has received, among others, the Marisa Bellisario Award and the Carla Fendi Award. With Longanesi she recently published La natura geniale.