Giorgio Paolini retired from the university on 1 November 2001 due to age limits.
In fifty years of teaching and scientific research at the Politecnico di Milano, Faculty of Engineering, he has provided an important contribution to the training of generations of graduates, researchers and professors and to the development of knowledge in the field of Machine Construction and especially in machine reliability.
He graduated in Mechanical Engineering in 1950 from the Politecnico di Milano, where he began his scientific research in 1951 in collaboration with Professor Italo Bertolini, continuing to study material resistance and machine components. He became a professor in 1956, Lecturer in 1962, and Full Professor in 1968, and taught numerous courses in Construction, Design, Drawing, Structure Reliability and Mechanical Construction until he became an untenured professor.
Within his scientific activity, he produced a large number of works which were presented at congresses and published in journals, and participated often in leading roles in important national and international scientific associations and bodies.
In 1972, he was one of the founders of the AIAS - Associazione Italiana Analisi delle Sollecitazioni [Italian association for stress analysis] of which he was President for four years (1975-1978) and later Honorary President. He chaired the Italian National Group of Researchers in the Mechanical Reliability field for 9 years (1980-1988); he participated in the establishment of and later chaired (1989) the Italian National Board of Teachers of Mechanical Design and Machine Construction; in 1990 he was one of the promoters of the Coordination Committee of Boards of Teachers in Mechanics (CARME).
Professor Paolini has also lent his technical/scientific expertise and organizational skills to various technological and industrial committees and organisations: he was member and president of several commissions of the Ministry of Education and of the CNR (Committee 07 for advice in Engineering Sciences and Architecture of the CNR; National Coordination Group for ‘Reliability of Machine Elements’; Scientific Committees of various Targeted Projects: Mechanical Technologies, Transport 1 and 2, Metallurgy, Robotics; Strategic programme ‘Transfer of computer technologies to engineering’); in particular, he chaired the ‘Study Commission of the CNR for Regulation in Mechanical Constructions’ for 20 years (1980-2000).
From 1987 to 1992, he was a member of the Executive Council of UNI. For the Ministry of Transport, he chaired the Commission for Cableways for 17 years (1985-2001), and was appointed member of the Italian delegation to the European Commission CEN-TC 142 for the standardization of cableway installations.
He has been a member of the International Organization of Cableway Transport (OITAF) since 1957 and was Vice-President of the same organization for more than 20 years (1980-2001).
In 1963, he was one of the founders of the Organization Internationale pour l'Etude de l'Endurance des Cables (OIPEEC), and promoted its first international research programme.
The responsibility taken on by Professor Paolini in the Opera Universitaria of the Politecnico di Milano, first as Government Commissioner (1972-1974), then as Chairman of the Board of Governors (1974-1975) testifies to his willingness and civil commitment towards the university community.
Extract from the 2002 nomination statement