Professor Massimo GARAI is a full professor at the Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Bologna. He holds an M.Sc. in Physics (honors) and completed his PhD studies in Applied Physics at the University of Bologna. He has been awarded the Best Paper Award at some international congresses, awarded by UNI with the Paolo Scolari Prize 2022 and has been a keynote lecturer at Inter-Noise 2024. He is leading research projects on noise barriers and acoustic metamaterials. He has published about 340 papers in various journals and congresses. He serves as a reviewer for several scientific journals, member of the board of the Italian Acoustic Society, president of the Acoustics and Vibration Commission of the Italian Standardization Body (UNI), convenor of two CEN working groups, as well a member of some ISO working groups. His teaching disciplines include Acoustics and Heat Transfer, and his interests include outdoor sound propagation, acoustic barriers, environmental impact assessment, building acoustics, room acoustics, industrial noise control, digital signal processing, properties of materials and metamaterials, sustainability, energy in buildings.