About me

Curriculum Vitae

Professional Experience

December 2022 – Current: Associate Professor at the Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnology Department of the University of Perugia.
Research: Modelling of Molecules and Materials coupled to Quantized Electromagnetic Fields in Optical Cavities.
November 2019 – Current: Guest Researcher at the Max-Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Hamburg, Germany.
November 2019 – December 2022: Permanent Researcher at the Institute for Physical-Chemical Processes of the National Research Council of Italy (IPCF-CNR) in Pisa.
September 2017 – November 2019: Post-Doc
Max-Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Hamburg, Germany
Advisor: Professor Angel Rubio
Research: Modelling of 2D Materials coupled to optical cavities.
July 2016 – August 2017: Postdoctoral Scholar
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
Advisor: Professor Garnet Kin-Lic Chan
Research: Development of efficient Green’s Function methods based on Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG) for the simulation of spectra in Strongly Correlated Systems.
February 2015 – June 2016: Postdoctoral Research Associate
Princeton University, Princeton NJ, USA
Advisor: Professor Garnet Kin-Lic Chan
Research: Development of efficient Green’s Function methods based on Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG) for the simulation of spectra in Strongly Correlated Systems.
November 2014 – January 2015: Temporary Postdoctoral Position,
Institute of Molecular Science and Technologies of the CNR, Perugia, Italy
Advisor: Dr. Filippo De Angelis
Research: Study of Charge Transfer Processes in Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics

Education

November 2011-November 2014: Doctor of Philosophy
Università degli Studi di Perugia, Perugia, Italy and Institute of Molecular Science and Technologies of the CNR, Perugia, Italy
Advisors: Dr. Filippo De Angelis, Professor Francesco Tarantelli
Thesis: Ground and Excited State Charge Transfer Processes: Theory, Modelling and Applications in Hybrid Photovoltaics
June 2013 – December 2013: Visiting Student
University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley CA, USA
Advisor: Professor Martin Head-Gordon
Research: Development of an improved Charge Transfer components inside the Energy Decomposition Scheme based on Absolutely Localized Molecular Orbitals (ALMO-EDA)
September 2009-July 2011: Master Degree in Chemical Sciences (Magna cum Laude)
Università degli Studi di Perugia, Perugia, Italy
Advisors: Professor Francesco Tarantelli, Dr. Leonardo Belpassi
Thesis: The Role of Charge Transfer in Intermolecular Interactions of Systems containing Water
September 2006-July 2009: Bachelor Degree in Chemistry (Magna cum Laude)
Università degli Studi di Perugia, Perugia, Italy
Advisors: Professor Francesco Tarantelli, Dr. Leonardo Belpassi
Thesis: Chemical characterization of Super-heavy elements: a four components Relativistic Approach

Awards

July 2022: Awarded with an ERC Starting Grant for the QED-Spin project.
August 2020: Second position in Area 03 (Chemistry) of the Rita Levi Montalcini Program 2018.
November 2019: 4th place at the National Competition for 7 permanent positions as a Researcher at the National Research Council of Italy (CNR).

Fellowships

November 2014-November 2015: Postdoctoral Fellowship from the National Research Council (CNR) of Italy
November 2011-October 2014: PhD Fellowship from the National Research Council (CNR) of Italy

Qualifications

January 2020: National Scientific Qualification to be an Associate Professor in Physical Chemistry (Italy, valid until January 2029)
November 2019: Considered Eligible for a tenure-track (RTDb) position in General and Inorganic Chemistry from the Physics Department of the University of Trento
April 2017: National Scientific Qualification to be an Associate Professor in Inorganic Chemistry (Italy, valid until June 2032)
November-December 2011: National certification in Chemistry (Italy)

Teaching Experience

November 2020 – Current : Co-supervisor of the master work of Andrea Bianchi, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy.
Advisor: Professor Henrik Koch
October 2020 – Current : Co-supervisor of the PhD work of Rosario Riso, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway, Department of Chemistry.
Advisor: Professor Henrik Koch
September 2019 – September 2020 : Co-supervisor of the master work of Rosario Riso, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy.
Advisor: Professor Henrik Koch
September 2019 – September 2020 : Co-supervisor of the master work of Laura Grazioli, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy.
Advisor: Professor Henrik Koch
August 2019 – Current : Co-supervisor of the PhD work of Tor S. Haugland, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway, Department of Chemistry.
Advisor: Professor Henrik Koch
March 2018 – July 2019 : Co-supervisor of the master work of Tor S. Haugland, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway, Department of Chemistry.
Advisor: Professor Henrik Koch
Sprint Semester 2013: Tutor for the course of General Chemistry
Università degli Studi di Perugia, Perugia, Italy
Department of Biological Sciences

Member in Committees

October 2021 : Member of the committee for the master degree in Chemistry, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
December 2020 – January 2021: Member of the Committee for the assignment of a Post-Doc position at the Institute for Chemical and Physical Processes of CNR (IPCF-CNR).
September 2020 : Member of the committee for the master degree in Chemistry, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.

Partecipation to Schools and Conferences

October 26th-28th 2022: Giornate di Dipartimento DSCTM CNR 2022, Aci Castello (CT), Italy
September 22nd-24th 2021: ERC TAME Plasmon Closing Workshop, Università di Padova, Padova, Italy
November 13th-15th 2019: CUI: Advanced Imaging of Matter, Annual Meeting 2019, Hohwacht, Germany
September 1st-5th 2019: 12th European Conference on Computational Theoretical Chemistry, Perugia, Italy
June 11th-12th 2019: Octopus Developer Meeting, MPSD, Hamburg, Germany
January 24th-26th 2019: CCQ-Columbia-Max Planck Center Kickoff Workshop, New York, (USA)
April 10th-12th 2017: Molecular Properties and Computational Spectroscopy – from Esoteric Effects to Novel Probing Tools, Pisa, Italy
August 31st – September 1st 2014: SOLUTIONS for SOLVATION – An International Workshop to Celebrate Jacopo Tomasi on the Occasion of his 80th Birthday, Pisa, Italy
April 2013: TD-DFT Conference, Nantes, France
September 2012: CECAM Congress “Energy from the Sun”, Chia, Italy
December 2011: Winter School in Theoretical Chemistry 2011. Excites State Properties, Helsinki, Finland
September 2011: 6th month Sensitizer Activated Nanostructured Solar Cells Meeting, Perugia, Italy

Invited Talks (7)

September 2021: “Shining light on the resonant mechanism of cavity-mediated chemical reactivity“, ERC TAME Plasmon Closing Workshop, Università di Padova, Padova, (Italy). Reference: http://www.tame-plasmons.eu/erc-tame-plasmons-closing-workshop/.
December 2020: “Changing ground state molecular properties in optical cavities: an ab-initio study”, Appunti di Fisica, Università di Messina and IPCF-CNR, Messina, (Italy). Reference: https://sites.google.com/site/appuntidifisicamessina/.
February 2020: “Manipulating Properties of Molecules and Materials using Quantum Light in Optical Cavities”, CNR Research Area, Pisa, (Italy)
November 2019: “Manipulating Properties of Molecules and Materials using Quantum Light in Optical Cavities”, University of Trento, Trento, (Italy)
January 2019: “Manipulating Properties of Matter with Quasiparticles of Light”, CCQ-Columbia-Max Planck Center Kickoff Workshop, New York, (USA)
March 2018: “Modeling Spectra of Strongly Correlated Realistic Systems and beyond”, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, (Italy)
November 2017: “Modeling Spectra of Strongly Correlated Realistic Systems and beyond”, Institute of Molecular Sciences and Technologies of the National Research Council (CNR) of Italy, Perugia, (Italy)
January 2017: “Theoretical Methods for Excited State Properties in Extended Systems”, Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Hamburg (Germany)

Contributed Talks (3)

October 2022: “Controlling molecular properties with quantum fields“, Giornate di Dipartimento DSCTM CNR 2022, Aci Castello (CT), (Italy). Reference: https://www.dsctm.cnr.it/it/giornate-di-dipartimento-2022.html.
November 2019: “Chemistry in cavity: an ab-initio study of vibrational strong-coupling“, CUI: Advanced Imaging of Matter, Annual Meeting 2019, Hohwacht, (Germany), Reference: CUI: AIM Annual Meeting 2019
September 2019: “Manipulating and Controlling properties of molecules and mate- rials using quantum light“, 12th European Conference on Computational Theoretical Chemistry, Perugia, (Italy), Reference:EUCO2019_Website
April 2017: “Density Matrix Renormalization Group based methods for the simulations of Spectra of Strongly Correlated Systems in Quantum Chemistry”, Molecular Properties and Computational Spectroscopy – from Esoteric Effects to Novel Probing Tools, Pisa, (Italy), Reference:http://mpcs17.pi.ipcf.cnr.it

Poster Presentations (3)

“Impact of Spin-Orbit Coupling on the Optical Properties of Panchromatic Ru(II) and Os(II) Dye Sensitizers: a Relativistic TDDFT Investigation”, TD-DFT Conference, April 23-26 2013, Nantes, France, Reference: http://tddft.univ-nantes.fr/
“Influence of the dye molecular structure on the TiO2 conduction band in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells: Disentangling Charge Transfer and Electrostatic Effects”, CECAM Congress “Energy from the Sun”, September 10-14 2012, Chia (CA), Italy, Reference: http://www.cecam.org/workshop-820.html
“Charge Displacement Analysis for the Study of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells”, Winter School in Theoretical Chemistry 2011, Excited State Properties; December 12-15 2011, Helsinki, Finland
Reference: http://www.chem.helsinki.fi/Info/WinterSchool/ws2011.html

Scholarly Activities

Reviewer for the following journals:

ACS Nano
Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation
The Journal of Physical Chemistry
The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters
Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics
ChemPhysChem
International Journal of Quantum Chemistry
Chemical Physics Letters
Spectrochimica Acta A

Professional Societies

Member of the Physical Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS)
Member of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry Division of the Italian Chemical Society (SCI)

Computer Skills

Operating Systems: Linux, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows
Programming Languages: Fortran 77/90, C/C++, Python, Bash, Mathematica, Latex
Quantum Chemistry Software Packages: ADF, Gaussian, Q-Chem, MOLCAS, MOLPRO, Turbomole, Block Code for DMRG, Pyscf

Software Development

Co-Developer of Block Code for DMRG, Pyscf, Syten, eT and the Octopus Code for TDDFT.

Covers (1)

Publications (29)

30 Publications in international peer-reviewed journals
7 Publication selected as Editor’s Suggestions (2 – Nature Communications, 2 – Physical Review X, Physical Review B, 2 – The Journal of Chemical Physics)
1 Cover (The Journal of Chemical Physics)
2 Publications selected as Highlights in the ADF software package website
Average journal impact factor: 9.46 (2018 Journal Citation Reports® by Thomson Reuters, 2019)