TARTESSOS PRIZE 2009
MAURIZIO FORTE

Maurizio Forte is professor of World Heritage at the University of California, Merced, SSHA and Director of the Virtual Heritage Lab. He was Chief of Research at CNR (Italian National Research Council) of “/Virtual Heritage/: integrated digital technologies for knowledge and communication of cultural heritage through virtual reality systems”, Senior Scientist at CNR’s Institute for Technologies Applied to the Cultural Heritage (ITABC), and Director of the Virtual Heritage Lab; Vice-President of the international non-profit Virtual Heritage Network; and Professor of "Virtual Environments for Cultural Heritage" in the “Master of Science in Communication Technology-Enhanced Communication for Cultural Heritage” (TEC-CH) at the University of Lugano.

He received his bachelor’s degree in Ancient History (archaeology), and a Diploma of specialization in Archaeology, from the University of Bologna, and his PhD in Archaeology from the University of Rome “La Sapienza”. He has coordinated archaeological fieldwork and research projects in Italy as well as Ethiopia, Egypt, Syria, Kazakhstan, Peru, China, Oman, and Mexico. He is editor and author of several books including “Virtual Archaeology” (1996), Virtual Reality in Archaeology (2000), “Sistemi Informativi Geografici, GIS, in Archeologia”(2002) “From Space to Place” (2006), “La Villa di Livia. Un percorso di ricerca di archeologia virtual” (2008) and he has written 180 scientific papers.

Topics of his activity are: virtual reality, GIS, spatial technologies, 3D documentation, virtual reconstruction of archaeological landscapes and epistemology of the virtual. He has recently organized two International exhibitions of virtual archaeology: “Building Virtual Rome http://www.itabc.cnr.it/buildingvirtualrome, and ArcheoVirtual, http://www.vhlab.itabc.cnr.it/archeovirtual/eng/index.html. He was winner of the “Best paper award for the cultural merit” at the VSMM conference (2002), “Creative and digital culture” and of the E-content Award, 1 st prize, category e-learning (2005). In Italy has created two important Virtual Museums, The Virtual Museum of the Scrovegni Chapel (http://www.vhlab.itabc.cnr.it/giotto/) and The Virtual Museum of the Ancient Via Flaminia (http://www.vhlab.itabc.cnr.it/flaminia/). This last VR museum represents the first virtual collaborative environment for cultural heritage in Europe.

Maurizio Forte
PhD, Professor of World Heritage
University of California, Merced,
School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts .