Maurizio Forte

Maurizio Forte, PhD, is William and Sue Gross Distinguished Professor of Classical Studies Art, Art History, and Visual Studies at Duke University. He is Associate Member of the North American section of the Istituto Nazionale di Studi Etruschi ed Italici.

He is currently AAAS-SPTF Fellow and advisor for cultural heritage and Neurodiplomacy at the State Department in Washington DC (on academic leave). He was a pioneer in digital archaeology and the first archaeologist working in a Supercomputing Center (CINECA) in the 80-90s.

He was recently awarded the Saint Francis Prize in Techno-Humanities 2024 for his work in the field of Digital Humanities. This Prize is to be presented to individuals or institutions in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the development of technologies in the humanities for the well-being of humankind.

He is also the founder and Director of the DIG@Lab (for a digital knowledge of the past) at Duke University and director of the ArchaeoDrone lab (Chianciano, Italy). His main research topics are: digital archaeology, Etruscan and Pre-Roman archaeology, classical archaeology, AI (artificial intelligence) and neuro-archaeology. His primary archaeological research questions concern the development, transformation and decline of ancient cities and the diachronic study of archaeological landscapes.