Dr. Sonia Massari has more than 20 years of experience as an educator, researcher, consultant, and designer in the fields of human-food interaction design, sustainability education, design thinking and creative methods for innovative agri-food systems. She currently is a Research Fellow at Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment (PAGE) at the University of Pisa; she is the Academic Director at the Future Food Academy and a senior consultant at the Barilla Foundation. Co-founder of the FORK Food Design Organization, an international no-profit organization dedicated to food+design and co-organizer of EFOOD2022 Conference.
She currently teaches at ISIA Design School – graduate course: “Design for sustainable scenarios”- and she taught at Roma Tre University – a graduate course called “Sustainability Design Thinking” (from 2017 to 2022). In addition, she is a faculty member and visiting professor in several European universities (SPD Scuola Politecnica di Design- Master Food Design, ESHTE Escola Superior de Hotelaria e Turismo do Estoril- Master Food Design, RBS Rome Business School, BBS Bologna Business School, Intrecci Formazione, EIIS, Università degli studi di Siena, Università di Macerata, Università di Parma- Food City Design Master, Università di Scienze Gastronomiche Pollenzo, Università di Camerino, Elisava Barcelona). She holds a Ph.D. in Food Experience Design from the Engineering Department at the University of Florence and she has authored 50+ publications in scientific journals, reports, books, as well as articles in magazines. The title of her book is: “Trans-disciplinary Case Studies on Design for Food and Sustainability” (2021, Elsevier). For 12 years, she was the Academic Director of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Food Studies programs in Rome, and she designed and coordinated more than 50 academic programs and 150 educational activities on food and sustainability for prestigious international institutes and universities. She received the International Women Innovation Award “Tecno-visionaria” (2012), the NAFSA TLS Knowledge Community’s Innovative Research in International Education Award (2014), and the Food Studies ASFS Pedagogy Award (2020). She serves on the editorial board of the International Journal on Food Design and as a Vice President of ASFS ( Association for the Study of Food and Society).