Dr Domenico Vicinanza

Domenico is a scientist, composer, researcher and public speaker.

[email protected]

Background

Having received his MSc and PhD degrees in physics, Domenico worked as a scientific associate at CERN for seven years. His research there mainly focused on the development of an innovative time-of-flight detector for one of the biggest High-Energy Physics experiments for the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva. The detector design was based on Multi-gap Resistive Plate Chambers (MRPC), reaching a sensitivity of 70 picoseconds (the highest ever reached) and its use in a large-scale experiment marked an important milestone for particle physics.

As a music composer and researcher in auditory display, Domenico worked with organisations like CERN and NASA, creating music from scientific data. He has been involved in the application of grid technologies for science and the arts since the late 1990s, chairing the ASTRA (Ancient instrument Sound/Timbre Reconstruction Application) project for the reconstruction of musical instruments by means of computer models using the European Grid Infrastructure (EGI.eu).

Domenico's research has been featured on several international peer-reviewed magazines (Physics Letters B, Nuclear Instruments and Methods, European Physics Journal) and in interviews for (among the others): Financial Times, The Guardian, The Times, BBC, CNN, Discovery Channel, Discover magazine, New Scientist and Scientific American.

Research interests

• Data sonification and auditory display
• Analogue and digital electronics
• Audio recording and studio techniques
• Sound synthesis
• Acoustics and psychoacoustics
• Distributed computing and network monitoring

Areas of research supervision

• Sound synthesis
• Acoustics
• Mathematical music theory
• Physical modelling

Find out more about our Computing and Information Science PhD and exciting PhD project opportunities.

Teaching

Domenico teaches on the modules Microprocessor Systems Design, and Audio Technology. He previously taught Sound Synthesis, Acoustics, Psychoacoustics, Architectural Acoustics, Circuits and Algorithm for Sound Processing, Multimedia and Web Technology, and Mathematics of Synthesis of Sound

Qualifications

• PhD Physics, Ultrarelativistic Heavy-ion Physics with ALICE TOF detector, University of Salerno, Italy, 2002
• MSc Physics (Laurea cum Laude) 100% with distinction, University of Salerno, Italy, 1998
• ITILv3 (License ITIL/022971 January 2009) certified
• Specialist Certificate in Orchestration for Film and Television (GPA 4.0, 100%), Berklee College of Music, 2014

Memberships, editorial boards

• Member, British Science Association
• Member, Association of International Product Marketing & Management

Research grants, consultancy, knowledge exchange

Consultancy

• Network Performing Art Production Workhop 2015, Member of the Programme Committee
• International Conference on Auditory Display 2015, Member of the Paper Committee
• Sound and Music Computing 2014 and International Computer Music Conference 2014: Paper Committee member
• XX CIM 2014: Programme Committee member
• 2010 Sound and Music Computing 2010 (SMC2010): Senior Programme Committee member
• 2011 Sound and Music Computing 2011 (SMC2011): Programme Committee member
• 2012 Sound and Music Computing 2012 (SMC2012): Programme Committee member
• 2006 Member of the Program Committee of the International Computer Music Conference 2006 (ICMC 2006), New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
• 2006 Member of the Scientific Committee of the Sound and Music Computing International Conference 2006 (SMC 2006), Marseille, France
• 2005 Co-organizer and member of the Scientific Committee of the Sound and Music Computing International Conference 2005 (SMC 2005), Salerno, Italy
• 2003-2004 Co-organizer of the Musiche Inaudite computer music festival
• 2005 Co-organizer of Night of Music and Sounds (Notte della Musica e dei Suoni) at the Istitute Francais de Naples, Ambassade de France en Italie

Awards and prices

• TOYP (The Outstanding Young Persons) 2009 for the category Research, by the Junior Chamber International Italy and nominated for the world TOYP prize
• Robert Hofstadter Awards at International School of Particle Physics Erice, 2000
• Best Original Experimental Work at International School of Particle Physics Erice, 2001
• Best Poster and Best demo at EGI Community Forum in Munich, 2012
• The work about using advanced network for music and arts was mentioned during Viviane Reding opening speech (EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media), in Bled, Slovenia, 31 March 2008
• Co-founder of the MusicaInaudita Sound Laboratory  and member of the Sound Synthesis Research Group, University of Salerno
• Member of the Offline Board of the CERN scientific experiment ALICE (as spokesman of the Salerno-Bologna-Moscow Collaboration), 1999-2002
• Co-responsible of the software simulation of the Time Of Flight Detector of the ALICE experiment at CERN, 1999-2002

Research achievements

• R&D of ALICE Time-of-Flight detector at CERN, one of the fastest time-of-flight detectors (using Multi-gap Resistive Plate Chambers)
• Reconstruction of an ancient musical instrument using archaeological information and physical modeling. Set up in 2006 a multi-disciplinary research team called ASTRA (Ancient instruments Sound/Timbre Reconstruction Application) which has recreated the sounds of the harp-like Epigonion, a stringed musical instrument from Ancient Greece and has performed one of the oldest known musical scores dating back to the Middle Ages. The ASTRA team successfully compiled the sound of the Epigonion in 2007. Interviewed by The Times and by BBC Radio 4. The results have been demonstrated to the European Commission at the EU ICT conference in Lyon (25/11/2008), and during the Terena Conference (networking the networker) 2009 in Malaga, where a concert for Epigonion and string quartet was organised
• Creation of new sound synthesis methods based on mathematical modeling. Synthesis by means of elliptic functions, synthesis by means of nowhere continuous functions and synthesis using lacunary functions have been presented in 2004 at the Digital Audio Effects conference in 2004. A synthesis method based on arcs on the unit circle has been presented at Digital Audio Effects conference in 2005
• Scientific and artistic work commissioned by CERN in Geneva for the 60th anniversary of the lab: music piece using data collected by the four biggest experiments at the Large Hadron Collider and create an orchestral piece for a VIP audience which includes the head of states of the 21 CERN member states
• Developed an original scientific data sonification, working on volcano sonifications in 2006 as a technique to help scientists predict volcanic eruptions
• Part of a scientific team working on improving cancer detection using sound analysis and feature extraction on Infrared Spectra of human tissues. The results have been presented at the International Conference on Auditory Display in 2014

Selected recent publications

Domenico is the author of more than 130 published papers (full list on SPIRES database). This is a selection.

Vicinanza, D., Achard, P. et al, 2013. Search for Charged Higgs bosons: Combined Results Using LEP Data By ALEPH and DELPHI and L3 and OPAL and LEP Collaborations. Eur. Phys. J., C73 (2013), 2463.

Vicinanza, D., 2012. Intercontinental Multi-Domain Monitoring for LHC with perfSONAR. J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 396 (2012), 042060.

Vicinanza, D., Duarte, A., Nyczyk, P. and Retico A., 2008. Monitoring the EGEE/WLCG grid services. J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 119 (2008), 052014.

Vicinanza, D., Achard P. et al, 2008. Study of the solar anisotropy for cosmic ray primaries of about 200- GeV energy with the L3 + C muon detector. Astron. Astrophys., 488 (2008), pp.1093-1100.

Vicinanza, D., Achard, P. et al, 2006. A search for flaring very-high-energy cosmic gamma-ray sources with the L3+C muon spectrometer. Astropart. Phys., 25 (2006), pp.298-310.

Vicinanza, D., Achard, P. et al, 2006. 'Precision electroweak measurements on the $Z$ resonance' by ALEPH and DELPHI and L3 and OPAL and SLD and LEP Electroweak Working Group and SLD Electroweak Group and SLD Heavy Flavour Group Collaborations (S. Schael et al). Phys. Rept., 427 (2006), pp.257-454.

Vicinanza D., Achard P., et al, 2005. Measurement of the shadowing of high-energy cosmic rays by the Moon: A Search for TeV-energy antiprotons. Astropart. Phys., 23 (2005), PP.411-434.

Vicinanza, D., Achard P., et al, 2005. Search for an invisibly-decaying Higgs boson at LEP. Phys. Lett., B609 (2005), pp.35-48.

Vicinanza D., Akidinov A., et al, 2004. Space charge limited avalanche growth in multigap resistive plate chambers. Eur. Phys. J., C34 (2004), S325-S331.

Vicinanza, D., Achard P., et al, 2004. Inclusive jet production in two-photon collisions at LEP. Phys. Lett., B602 (2004), pp.157-166.

Vicinanza, D., Achard P,. et al, 2004. Measurement of the cross section of W-boson pair production at LEP. Phys. Lett., B600 (2004), pp.22-40.