Franco Turini

Franco Turini is a Full Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Pisa, where he has been a central academic figure for decades. He has held major leadership roles including Director of the Department of Computer Science (1996–2002, 2010–2016), President of GRIN, and Academic Senator since 2011. He has also served on national research commissions such as the FIRB Commission of the Italian Ministry of University and Research.

Research Interests: His work spans programming languages, formal semantics, logic and functional programming, and more recently, explainable AI (XAI), fairness in AI, and data mining with constraints. He has led national and international research initiatives and co-edited influential works such as Meta-logics and Logic Programming with Krzysztof Apt.

The recent publications (2014–2022) show a strong focus on XAI, with a trend toward developing interpretable, rule-based, and counterfactual explanation methods for black-box AI systems. His work frequently appears in top venues in AI and data mining, emphasizing transparency, fairness, and actionable insights.

Scientific Awards:

• Ordine del Cherubino, University of Pisa (2007)

Advising and Grants: While specific students are not listed, Turini has been a principal investigator in major research projects such as XAI (ERC Advanced Grant), NoBIAS, ICON, and ANONIMO. He has secured significant national and European funding, including leadership in national programs sponsored by the Italian National Research Council.

Labs and Teams: He is affiliated with the KDD Lab at the University of Pisa, a leading research group in knowledge discovery and data mining, collaborating closely with Fosca Giannotti, Dino Pedreschi, and others in advancing ethical and explainable AI.