At the 153rd Meeting of its Joint Committee, a number of decisions were taken which confirm the earlier choice of Pisa/Livorno in Tuscany as the new home of the IFRF. In addition, the Joint Committee elected Gennaro de Michele as its New General Secretary, replacing Marie-José Fourniguet of Gaz de France who retired from the role after 6 years service.  It had been her experience that it was quite difficult to fulfill the General Secretary role when based at a location remote from the IFRF’s offices.

The IFRF has therefore sought to return to the situation that pertained for the first 40 years of its existence whereby the IFRF’s host organisation provided a General Secretary who took a larger role in the Management and Control of the IFRF. Gennaro de Michele, a Director of ENEL Ricerca, was elected to this position in time for the transfer of IFRF to ENEL’s premises in Livorno.

Gennaro De Michele, born in 1950 in Naples, graduated with honours in Chemical Engineering at the University of Naples. He is Executive Vice President of Technical Area Research of ENEL SpA. He represents ENEL in various national and international groups such as IEA (International Energy Agency), Clean Coal Science Group and the IFRF. He is a Member of Advisory Council of U.E. Technology Platform for the Zero Emission Fossil Fuel Power Plants.

He is author of over 200 works published on national and international journals and 15 patents. He received several awards, including the Philip Morris Prize for Scientific and Technological Research; Industry and Environment National Prize by the Ministry of Industry; Innovazione Amica dell’Ambiente by Legambiente and Bocconi University.

At the same Joint Committee meeting, the decision was taken to establish a new legal form for the IFRF in Italy. The revisions needed to the IFRF Statutes in order to make them compatible with Italian regulations for not-for-profit foundations were adopted, removing the last juridic obstacle to the move of the IFRF from The Netherlands to Italy. The IFRF will retain its original objectives, and will continue to be managed as an independent private Foundation by the Nominated Representatives of its National Committees and other elected Members of the Joint Committee.

The physical move of the IFRF offices and archives to Tuscany will take place over the summer and early autumn, and we will alert all changes via the Monday Night Mail as the move progresses.

Professor Leonardo Tognotti of the University of Pisa will become the Director of the IFRF during the summer of 2006. Professor Tognotti is seen on the right of the photograph with IFRF President Professor Mikko Hupa  in front of the Livorno office of IFRF

The IFRF offices will move to a building on the edge of the Livorno (Tuscany, Italy) site of ENEL Ricerca

The IFRF will be given access on a ‘pay-as-you-go’ basis to ENEL Ricerca’s combustion research facilities at Livorno, their high-pressure gas turbine test cells at Sesta, and the specialist analytical and computing facilities at Pisa University Faculty of Engineering and the ENEL Ricerca Pisa laboratories.