The university awards Mr. Reggiani a honorary degree in Mechanical Engineering, crowning his forty-year career in the automotive industry
Sant’Agata Bolognese, April 14, 2023 – Maurizio Reggiani, Vice-President of Motorsport at Automobili Lamborghini and for fifteen years Chief Technical Officer of the Sant’Agata Bolognese-based company, received the Laurea ad Honorem in Mechanical Engineering from the Magnifico Rettore of the University of Bologna, Giovanni Molari, marking a forty-year career spent in automotive research and innovation.
The ceremony was held today in the Santa Lucia auditorium, where Prof. Nicolò Cavina (Coordinator for the PhD program of Automotive for Intelligent Mobility) delivered the laudatio in front of nearly 500 guests, university faculty members and representatives of Automobili Lamborghini, including Chairman and CEO Stephan Winkelmann. The laudatio was followed by a speech given by the Director of the Industrial Engineering Department, Alfredo Liverani, who praised Reggiani for his contributions to the development of the Emilia Romagna Motor Valley region and of Italian technology, thanks to his ability to transform his visions into innovative research, world-class technological products, and benefits for the region.
“It is not easy to describe the emotion I am feeling at this moment,” said Reggiani during his speech, “and at the same time to express gratitude to all those people who made it possible, starting with the Magnifico Rettore Prof. Giovanni Molari. I owe my sincere thanks to my closest collaborators and the companies that have allowed me to do the best job in the world, especially Automobili Lamborghini with Dr. Stephan Winkelmann and all the members of the board.”
“It is an honor to have Maurizio at my side,” commented Winkelmann, “and the Laurea ad Honorem is the confirmation of his outstanding abilities, which he has made available to our company for almost three decades, including fifteen years as CTO. Thanks to his contribution, Lamborghini has achieved significant results in the area of Research & Development, and now this shared path continues in the new goals we have set for ourselves in motorsport.”
“Our graduating student,” said Rector Giovanni Molari, “perfectly embodies a number of values that fully match the University of Bologna’s nature and goals: his drive towards internationalisation rooted in the social and entrepreneurial fabric of the local territory; his tendency to combine professional work and teaching; his ability to see his profession as a combination of virtues and skills that appear to be very diverse: technological knowledge and creative imagination, scientific rigour and innovative flair, mastery of production processes and attention to environmental sustainability.”
During his career, Mr. Reggiani initiated and managed important collaborations with the “Aeronautics, Space and Mobility” Interdepartmental Center for Industrial Engineering and with the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Bologna. He is also associate professor of the course “New product development in the motor industry” for the Master’s Degree “Supercars, Superbikes and Motorsports” at the Bologna Business School, and he was one of the promoters and creators of MUNER (Motor vehicle UNiversity of Emilia Romagna) and the related International Interuniversity Master’s Degree in Advanced Automotive Engineering. During his years as Chief Technical Director at Automobili Lamborghini, his interest and commitment in the field of composite materials contributed to the filing of more than 160 patents, giving rise to important synergies in the international arena as well.
Biography of Maurizio Reggiani
Maurizio Reggiani was born in Mirandola, in the province of Modena, in 1959. A car enthusiast since childhood, he attended the G. Galilei Technical Industrial Institute, graduating with a diploma in Mechanics. In 1982 he was hired at Maserati, where he worked in the Engine Design Technical Office until 1987, when he left Maserati to join Bugatti. Continuing his work in design, at Bugatti he followed the entire development of the powertrain and transmission of the EB110.
In 1995 he joined Lamborghini as Head of the Technical Mechanical Department. In 1998 he took an active part in the company’s transition under the control of Audi, and in 2006 he was named CTO (Chief Technical Officer) and member of the Board of Management. During that period, he strengthened the R&D Department by boosting the team from 60 to more than 300 people, along with the implementation of the most advanced modeling and simulation software systems.
In 2008 he helped establish the Advanced Composite Structures Laboratory (ACSL) at the University of Washington in Seattle to study the behavior of composite materials, also initiating a partnership between Automobili Lamborghini and Boeing. Collaboration with prestigious American universities continued in 2017 with the opening of two laboratories at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, to research new technologies for the super sports cars of the future.
Since 2021, Mr. Reggiani has been a professor for the New Product Development in Motorsport Industry course within the Global Master in Business Administration program at Bologna Business School. He is a major supporter of the Unibo Motorsport project and collaborates with Motor Valley and related activities in the territory. In 2022 he was named Vice-President of Motorsport at Lamborghini.
Over the course of his career, he has received several worldwide awards for his projects. Among the most prestigious are the Five Diamond Engineering Award for the Aventador, the Innovation Award for the Huracán Performante, and two Caschi d’Oro (Golden Helmet) awards for his work in Motorsport. For two years in a row, he has also been included in the list of the fifty most influential people in the global automotive industry by the American magazine Motor Trend.