Understanding Innovation Through Exaptation / The Frontiers Collection (PDF)

Caterina La Porta is professor of General Pathology at the University of Milan, member of the steering committee of the Center for Complexity and Biosystems and is currently visiting professor at LMU. She graduated in medicine at University of Milan and then obtained a Ph. D. in physiology from the same university. In 2018, she co-founded the startup ComplexData where she serves as CEO. During her scientific career, Prof. La Porta published more than 120 papers in international journals mainly on cancer and neurodegenerative diseases, receiving thousands of citations. In the past ten years, she shifted her interest to quantitative biology and network medicine. Prof. La Porta was selected as one of the 100 most important female scientists in Italy and was visiting scientist in many universities around the world, including MIT, Cornell University, Aalto University, Rice University, the ENS Paris and the Weizmann Institute of Science. Prof. La Porta has a long track record of publicoutreach activities, including the organization of several editions of the EU Researcher's night, and is involved in many other science dissemination activities.

Stefano Zapperi isprofessor of theoretical condensed matter physics at the University of Milano, coordinator of the Center for Complexity and Biosystems, and is currently visiting professor at LMU and FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg. He graduated in physics at the University of Rome "La Sapienza" and received his Ph. D. in physics from Boston University. Prof. Zapperi in an expert in the statistical physics of complex systems and has contributed to the fields of materials science, biophysics and systems biology. He published more than 200 scientific papers and his most notable contributions include the theory of the Barkhausen noise in magnets, the statistical physics of plasticity and fracture. Prof. Zapperi is the recipient of numerous awards including the Marie Curie Excellence Award, the Humboldt Research Award, the Advanced Grant