Federico Boscherini

Biographical information and appointments

Federico Boscherini (born in Rome, 1960) is Full Professor of Experimental Physics at the Physics and Astronomy Department of the University of Bologna, Italy, of which he is currently Deputy Director. Previously, he was Associate Professor in Bologna, researcher at Frascati National Laboratories of Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare and a post doctoral associate at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis (USA). He was Visiting Scientist at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (all year in 1996), the Universities of Nagoya (1 month in 2013) and of Tel Aviv (6 months in 1989). He studied physics at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”.

Scientific profile

Prof. Boscherini is an internationally recognized scientist in the field of synchrotron radiation and x-ray absorption spectroscopy. His primary scientific interest is the relation between local atomic structure and physical properties of advanced materials, with a focus on materials for photocatalysis, dopants and defects in semiconductors and nanoparticles; he has also published on cultural heritage materials, metalloproteins and instrumentation. His position in the scientific community is testified by the following: election as Chair of the Council of the European X-ray Free Electron Laser GmbH starting in July 2022, Chair of beamtime allocation panel 04 of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (2014 – 2016), editor of Volume I on X-ray Absorption Fine Structure of the International Tables of Crystallography published by the International Union of Crystrallography, President of the Italian Synchrotron Radiation Society (2012 – 2015), membership of various review and funding panels, publication of scientific papers, book chapters and books, as detailed below. He has acted as industrial consultant on the design of x-ray instrumentation for non destructive testing of materials and devices.

Research projects.

• 1990: Member of the group which proposed, designed and realized the Italian Collaborating Group Beamline BM-08 “GILDA” (now LISA) at the ESRF, Grenoble, France. Especially in the first ten years of operation, Prof. Boscherini had a primary role in shaping the scientific activity of this beamline and coordinating Italian and European user groups.
• 1991-1993 (36 months): In charge of the X-ray beamline of the PULS laboratory in Frascati (INFN).
• 2000 – 2001 (24 months): Principal Investigator of project FLUX (FLUorescence soft X-ray absorption) funded by the Synchrotron Radiation Committee of Istituto Nazionale di Fisica della Materia (INFM). The project involved five groups, total funding 300 kEuro.
• 2000 – 2001 (24 months): Principal Investigator of a synchrotron radiation long term project on the ALOISA beamline of Elettra, on low-Z dopants in semiconductors.
• 2001 – 2002 (24 months): Responsible of the Bologna research unit of the national project “Optical and Structural Characterization of InGaAsN/GaAs heterostructures”. Funding 100 kEuro.
• 2003 – 2004 (24 months): Responsible of the Bologna research unit of the INFM project “REOHK – Rare earth oxides as high-k dielectrics for CMOS”. Funding 100 kEuro.
• 2008 (12 months): Principal Investigator of the project “Ab-initio simulations of metallo-proteins: structure, dynamics and XAS spectra” European Theoretical Spectroscopy Facility.
• 2012 – 2014 (24 months): Principal Investigator of project “EX – PRO – REL: Excitation and relaxation processes in condensed matter” funded by Elettra – Sincrotrone Trieste, involving 6 groups. Total funding 210 kEuro.
• 2016 – 2019 (36 months): Principal Investigator of the PRIN 2015 “NEWLI” project funded by MIUR, the Italian Ministry of Research and Education. Total funding 650 kEuro.
• From 1994 onwards: responsible or participant in many experiments at major international large scale facilities, including ESRF, Elettra, FERMI, SOLEIL and BESSY.

Papers published and conference presentations

Author of 211 research papers, 9 book chapters, 2 books as editor.
ORCID ID 0000-0002-9703-3903
SCOPUS Author ID 7003788683
WOS (27/1/2022): h-index: 34
SCOPUS (27/1/2022): h-index: 34
Google Scholar (27/1/2022): h-index 38.
Numerous plenary, invited and oral presentations at international conferences in Europe, USA, China and Japan.

Selected recent publications

• J. S. Pelli Cresi, E. Principi, E. Spurio, D. Catone, P. O'Keeffe, S. Turchini, S. Benedetti, A. Vikatakavi, S. D’Addato, R. Mincigrucci, L. Foglia, G. Kurdi, I. P. Nikolov, G. De Ninno, C. Masciovecchio, S. Nannarone, J. Kopula Kesavan, F. Boscherini and P. Luches, “Ultrafast Dynamics of Plasmon-Mediated Charge Transfer in Ag@CeO2 studied by Free Electron Laser time-resolved X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy”, Nano Lett. 21, 1729−1734 (2021) DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c04547
• A. Piccioni, D. Catone, A. Paladini, P. O’Keeffe, A. Boschi, A. Kovtun, M. Katsikini, F. Boscherini, L. Pasquini, “Ultrafast charge carrier dynamics in vanadium doped TiO2 thin films and its relation to photoelectocatalytic efficiency for water splitting”, J. Phys. Chem. C. 124, 26572−26582 (2020)
• G. Rossi, L. Pasquini, D. Catone, A. Piccioni, N. Patelli, A. Paladini, S. Caramori, A. Molinari, P. O'Keeffe, and F.Boscherini, “Charge carrier dynamics and visible light photocatalysis in vanadium-doped TiO2 nanoparticles”, Applied Catalysis B: Environmental 237, 603 – 612 (2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.apcatb.2018.06.011.
• A. Stavrinadis, J.S. Pelli Cresi, F. D'Acapito, C. Magen, F. Boscherini, G. Konstantatos “Aliovalent doping in colloidal quantum dots and its manifestation on their optical properties: surface attachment versus structural incorporation”, Chemistry of Materials 28, 5384 – 5393 (2016). DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.6b01445.
• G. Gasperi, L. Amidani, F. Benedetti, F. Boscherini, P. Glatzel, S. Valeri and P. Luches “Electronic properties of epitaxial cerium oxide films during controlled reduction and oxidation studied by resonant inelastic x-ray scattering”, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 18, 20511 – 20517 (2016). DOI: 10.1039/c6cp04407g.
• L. Amidani, A. Naldoni, M. Malvestuto, M. Marelli, P. Glatzel, V. Dal Santo, and F. Boscherini, “Probing long-lived plasmonic-generated charges in TiO2 / Au by high resolution x-ray absorption spectroscopy”, Angew. Chem. Internat. Ed. 54, 5413 5416 (2015). DOI: 10.1002/anie.201412030

Service in institutions, scientific policy bodies and as a referee

Prof. Boscherini has been recently elected as Chair of the Council of the European X-ray Free Electron Laser GmbH, starting July 2022 for an initial 2 year period. He is currently Deputy Director of the Physics and Astronomy Department of the University of Bologna. For the two year period 2016 – 2018 he was one of the five members of the national committee which awards the habilitation for Associate and Full Professor in Experimental Physics of Matter. In the period 2015 - 2021 he was Chair of the Research Commission of the Physics and Astronomy Department and the Department’s delegate for Research.

He has been a member of various beamline review panels of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility and was chairman of proposal review panel C04 of the ESRF in the period 2014 - 2016. He serves as an evaluator for the Italian Ministry of Research in the field of physics (PRIN and FIRB projects, VQR evaluations). He has served on various examination and selection panels at the local and national level, such as entry and final exam of the Ph.D. programs in physics, national competitions for researcher, associate and full Professor positions in various Italian Universities. He has evaluated research projects for the National Research Foundation (South Africa) and the Austrian National Research Council. He is a referee for major journals in the field of condensed matter physics, among which “Physical Review Letters” and “Physical Review B”.

Service in Professional Societies.

Prof. Boscherini was Chairman of the Italian Synchrotron Radiation Society between 2012 and 2015. He is currently a member of the Italian delegation in the Assembly of the European Synchrotron Users Organization (ESUO). Previously, he has served on the Council of the European Synchrotron Radiation Society (1991 – 1993), of the ESRF Users' Organization (1997 – 2001) and of the Executive Committee of the Italian Synchrotron Radiation Society (2003 – 2007). Since 2005 he serves on the Commission on XAFS and since 2015 on the Commission for Crystallography Nomenclature of the IUCr. He is a member of the Italian Physical Society and of the American Physical Society.

Mentoring

Prof. Boscherini has been a tutor for 1 fixed term researcher, 2 post doctoral associates, 7 Ph. D. students, 15 masters (“Laurea magistrale”) students and numerous bachelor students.

Conference organization.

He has been chairman of the series of Symposia on “Synchrotron Radiation and Materials Science” at the Spring Meetings of the European Materials Research Society (2002, 2005, 2009 and 2011) held in Strasbourg and Nice. As President of the Italian Synchrotron Radiation Society he chaired or co-chaired four annual conferences of the society from 2012 to 2015. In 2017 and 2019 he was chairman of Symposia on Synchrotron Radiation and Materials Science at EUROMAT2017 (Thessaloniki, Greece) and EUROMAT 2019 (Stockholm, Sweden).

Teaching.

Prof. Boscherini’s teaching duties have been numerous. For 14 years he has taught a fundamental physics course for biology students at the University of Bologna; he has also taught introductory crystallography for the same students. In the physics degree program he has taught a course on x-ray physics for the past 20 years. Since the academic year 2014-15 he teaches 2^nd year physics laboratory (electromagnetism and optics) and condensed matter physics. Starting from AY 2022-23 he will teach a course on thermodynamics.

Prof. Boscherini is regularly invited to lecture at advanced schools in the field of synchrotron radiation, in Italy and abroad, including the schools of the Italian Synchrotron Radiation Society and tutorials organized by the International Union of Crystallography.

Updated March 2022.