Catia Bastioli, a chemist, researcher and entrepreneur, is CEO and President of Novamont SpA (part of the Versalis – ENI group since October 2023) and has been President of SPRING, the Italian circular bioeconomy cluster, since 2014. She has also been a member of key European Union working groups on climate change, the environment and the bioeconomy, such as the Bioeconomy Panel, the High Level Panel on Decarbonisation Pathways Initiative and the European Commission’s Mission Board on Soil Health and Food. As the lead inventor of several patent families in the field of biopolymers and processes for the conversion of renewable raw materials, she was named “European Inventor of the Year 2007” by the European Patent Office and the European Commission. In February 2025, she was elected as one of the new international members of the US National Academy of Engineering (NAE) for her leadership in the field of industrial bioplastics and the promotion of the circular bioeconomy. She was the only Italian to be appointed in 2025 and the sole representative from the bioeconomy and bioplastics sector. In October 2025, she received the first Bakunin Prize from the Italian Chemical Society for her pioneering work in the industrial development of innovative and sustainable materials.
The challenge that we are facing – how to get the economy running again – is an industrial revolution which radically changes the relationship with our territory, currently characteriz...