Dr. Mastro-Grillo has held the position of Research Director Emeritus of The Institute of Primitive Cycling Technology since 1999.  He is widely recognized as the preeminent thinker in the world of primitive cycling technology, and has published a number of studies on the subject including the groundbreaking "Uomo Primitivo e la Ruota, un Nuovo Paradigma" (Early Man and the Wheel, a New Paradigm, The Journal of Primitive Cycling Technology, 1997).

 

As a young man, Dr. Mastro-Grillo pursued engineering and political science degrees from the University of Palermo, concentrating his graduate studies on primitive cycling.  As a graduate student, he began to investigate two opposing schools of cycling thought: cycling by classical imitation that is drawn from historical origin; and cycling emerging from industrialization that substituted "commodity, firmness and delight" with economy and the "machine environment".  This investigation and the resulting research played pivotal roles in the shaping of the Institute as we know it today.

 

Dr. Mastro-Grillo's recent work represents a rational synthesis between both schools.  He emphasizes typology and context as primary sources of wheeled design and uses images, artifacts and icons that may exist in collective memory to communicate meaning in cycling.  He is committed to social, economic, political and environmental issues of time and place and possesses a passion for thinking about and the use of the wheel.