Florian Daniel, Associate Professor of Computer Engineering, passed away prematurely on 27 April 2020 from a sudden illness, at the age of 42. With this page, his colleagues from the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering want to pay tribute to him. We would like to dedicate our thoughts in Florian’s memory, as he was very much beloved as a friend and very much appreciated as a scientist and professor.

Florian was a very brilliant and passionate researcher. Native from Silandro, in South Tyrol, he came to Milan to study Computer Engineering at Politecnico di Milano, where he continued by pursuing his PhD in Information Technology in 2007. He started his academic career at DEIB-Politecnico, then he moved to the University of Trento as Research Fellow. In 2016, he came back to DEIB, initially as Assistant Professor, and then as Associate Professor. During his career, Florian was also Visiting Research Fellow in UNSW, Sydney, Australia and HP Labs, Palo Alto, California and Visiting Professor in PUCRS, Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Florian published extensively, and he received various awards and recognitions for his scientific merits. He was highly active in many research fields, including data science, web/service engineering, business process management, crowdsourcing and, in the last period, blockchain technology. The breadth of his research demonstrates how open his mind was, and explains why so many computer scientists collaborated with him. Many of us at DEIB also had the pleasure to collaborate directly with him, and admire his innate gift for generating innovative ideas, combining his substantial intellect with his rigorous approach to research.

Florian was a fantastic teacher. He loved teaching so much, and his students loved him and appreciated so much his teaching capabilities. He loved working with students, who immediately recognized him not only as an inspiring instructor, but also and especially as a mentor. All his students share with us the same opinion of him: a great mentor capable not only to guide their scientific steps, but also to motivate them on their personal growth. Besides his professional excellence, Florian was a very special person. When talking with him, you immediately became his friend. He was the kind of person with whom it was a joy to talk about any topic (especially his favourite topics of IT and beer production!). With him, you could easily share your doubts and ask him for suggestions, being sure that you would receive meaningful advice.

Florian was a very nice and special person, somebody who tremendously enjoyed his friends and who deeply loved his life partner and his family. We will all miss you, Florian. We will miss your smile, your generosity, your positive view on life and your curiosity towards life. We will keep your memory as a brilliant scientist, honest person and beloved friend forever with us.