My name is Tiziana Catarci and I am a professor in Computer Science and Engineering at Sapienza University of Roma, director of the Department of Computer, Control, and Management Engineering “Antonio Ruberti”, and director of the ECONA Interuniversity Research Centre on the Cognitive Processing in Natural and Artificial Systems.
During the past years I covered several different roles. For instance, during 2010-14 I have been Sapienza vice-rector for technologies and infrastructures and during 2009-2014 president of the Sapienza ICT service center. Later on, I chaired the Sapienza Design Research center and during 2015-2017 I have been the president of KION, a private company of the Cineca group.
My main research interests are in theoretical and application-oriented aspects of visual formalisms for databases, human-computer interaction, user interfaces, usability, smart environments, information visualization, data management, data quality and digital libraries. In summary, my main interests are around a human-centered view of computer science.
On the above topics I have published over 200 papers in international journals, conferences and workshop proceedings, and 20 books (see https://dblp.org/pers/c/Catarci:Tiziana.html for a significant subset). In particular, my contribution can be regarded as one of the first and most significant examples of deep analysis and formalization of the interaction between the user and the database, which takes in consideration both usability issues and various database related aspects.
I am the Editor-in-Chief of the ACM Journal of Data and Information Quality and I am in the editorial boards of other international journals. I also co-chaired many important international conferences in both database and hci areas. Several years ago, I worked with a group of colleagues to establish the Italian Chapter of the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction.
In the last years I have been spending a significant part of my time in combating gender disparities and promoting the STEM disciplines among female students by promoting dedicated projects at both school and university level and acting as role-model for “Inspiring Girls” (http://www.inspiring-girls.com/) and other initiatives.
Throughout my career I received some awards and honors, including the IBM Eclipse Innovation Award in 2003, the honor of “Commendatore” of the Italian Republic in 2015, the Levi Montalcini Association award for the "diffusion of scientific culture among younger generations" in 2017, the fellowship of the EAI – European Alliance for Innovation in 2018. In 2016 I have been nominated member of the prestigious European Academy of Sciences and Arts and in the same year I have been included among the “100 Women for Science” project - http://www.100esperte.it/. In 2018 I have been nominated as one of the “InspiringFifty”, https://italy.inspiringfifty.org/ , the most influential women in the tech world.