Sonia Massari

Biography

Sonia Massari (PhD in Food Experience Design from the University of Florence) is a researcher at the University of Pisa, in the Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, and a professor at ISIA Design Rome, where she teaches the course Scenarios for Sustainability and co-directs the PhD programme Design for Social Change. With over 20 years of experience in Food Design and Innovation, human-food interaction, education for sustainability and co-creation of agri-food systems, she has developed an extensive academic and institutional career. For 13 years she was director of Gustolab International, as well as academic director of the Food Studies programme at the University of Illinois in Italy. Between 2012 and 2023, she was scientific advisor to the Barilla Foundation and, between 2020 and 2024, director of the Academy at the Future Food Institute. She is co-founder, together with Ricardo Bonacho, Mariana Eidler and Pedro Álvarez, of F.O.R.K. – Food Design Organisation, the largest international non-profit platform dedicated to food design. She currently continues to teach and develop consulting projects in Food Design at various universities and institutions, both nationally and internationally.  She is the author of numerous publications, including her most recent book, Food Design for the Real World, which explores how design can contribute to transforming food and food systems from a sustainable and socially responsible perspective.