Associate Professor at the University of Bologna since 2018, his research focuses on Theoretical and Computational Chemistry. His research interests involve the development and application of theoretical methods and computational techniques for the study of chemical and photochemical phenomena, with a particular emphasis on biological systems, catalytic systems, and new frontiers in computational methods based on artificial intelligence and quantum technologies. The simulations are mainly aimed at direct comparison with laboratory experiments to obtain detailed interpretations of physicochemical and spectroscopic properties, as well as accurate predictions for the in silico design of innovative molecules and materials.
Education
He graduated in Chemistry in 2003 from the Faculty of Mathematical, Physical, and Natural Sciences at the University of Calabria, and obtained his Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemical Methodologies in 2007 from the same university.
Academic Career
After two years as a postdoctoral researcher (2007-2009) in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Calabria, under the supervision of Prof. Emilia Sicilia and Prof. Nino Russo, he pursued international training beginning with a Post-doctoral Fellowship in Prof. Michele Parrinello's group at the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences of ETH Zurich (Switzerland). From 2010 to 2012, he was an Associate Research Scientist in Prof. Victor Batista's group at the Chemistry Department of Yale University (USA). In 2012, he briefly returned to Italy as a postdoctoral researcher in Prof. Marco Garavelli's group at the Department of Chemistry "G. Ciamician" at the University of Bologna until 2014, when he was appointed "Chargé de Recherche" (tenured researcher) at the "Laboratoire de Chimie" (UMR 5182) of the "École Normale Supérieure de Lyon" (ENS Lyon), France. In December 2014, he earned the National Scientific Qualification (ASN) for Associate Professor in sector 03/A2 (Models and Methodologies for Chemical Sciences). In August 2018, he obtained the ASN for Full Professor in sectors 03/A2 and 03/B1 (Fundamentals of Chemical Sciences and Inorganic Systems). In September 2018, he received the "Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches" at ENS Lyon. Since November 2018, he has been an Associate Professor at the Department of Industrial Chemistry "Toso Montanari" at Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna.
Teaching Activities
From 2016 to 2018, he taught Computational Photochemistry at the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon (ENS Lyon, Master "Sciences de la Matière").
Since 2018, he has been the teacher for the course Physical Chemistry of Materials and Physical Chemistry Lab, and Mathematics with Exercises for the Bachelor's Degree in Chemistry and Technologies for the Environment and Materials at the University of Bologna (Faenza, Ravenna Campus).
In 2019, he taught Physical Chemistry of Materials for Energy and Environment for the Master's Degree in Low Carbon Technologies and Sustainable Chemistry.
From 2019 to 2022, he taught a module of the course C3: Physical Chemistry Course for Ph.D. students in Chemistry.
Since 2020, he has been responsible for the course Theoretical and Computational Chemistry for the Master's Degree in Industrial Chemistry.
In 2023, he taught a seminar titled "Chemical Networks in Proteins" at the Collegio Superiore of the University of Bologna.
Since 2023, he has been teaching a module of the course Materials Science 2 for the Bachelor's Degree in Materials Science.
Scientific Activity
He has participated and continues to participate (as project or unit coordinator or scientific collaborator) in various national and international research projects. These include projects on ultrafast electronic spectroscopy, such as Projet émergent (2014), Équipements mi-lourds (2015), and FEMTO-2DNA (ANR - PRC, APG 2015); the SELPHY project (Laboratoire d'Excellence iMUST - Univ. Lyon) on the study of nano-hybrid systems for bio-imaging and photocatalysis; and photochemistry projects on transition metal complexes such as PHOTOCHROMICS (ANR - PRC, APG 2018) and biological systems like PSI-MOVIE (MIUR - PRIN 2020 program), LightDyNAmics (H2020-MSCA-ITN-2017), and SIMDOME (H2020-NMPB-2018).
International Mobility Grants: "STSM – COST Action PERSPECT-H2O (Supramolecular Photocatalytic Water Splitting)" and "Short Term Mobility Program – CNR" at ISTM-CNR, Perugia (Prof. F. De Angelis), "APR IXXI/MSH-LSE/BioSyL 2018" at the Institut Rhônalpin des Systèmes Complexes - Lyon (Dr. C. Lesieur).
He has consistently supervised bachelor and master students, Ph.D. candidates, and postdocs since 2010. From 2014 to 2024, he supervised 5 postdocs, 12 Ph.D. students, and 21 thesis students (BSc and MSc).
He regularly performs peer-reviewing activities for leading international journals in the chemical sciences for publishers such as ACS, Springer, Elsevier, and Wiley, and for the evaluation of national and international projects and scientific activities (PRACE, VQR).
He has served as Guest Editor for the journal Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences for the special issue "Structural and Dynamic Aspects of Protein Function and Allostery," and for the journal ACS Sustainable & Engineering for the special issue "Automation, Robotics and AI for Sustainable Process Intensification."
Bibliometric data (Source: Scopus, 09/2024): 102 publications (peer-reviewed journal articles), 4332 citations, h-index 32.
Institutional Activities, Scientific Committees, and Academic Roles
He was a member of the “Conseil de Laboratoire” of the “Laboratoire de Chimie (UMR 5182)” at the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon from 2015 to 2018. From 2016 to 2014, he served as a member of the “Comité de Pilotage” of the “Laboratoire d'Excellence (Labex) iMUST” at the “Université de Lyon.” He was the “Rapporteur de stages” for the Master’s program “Sciences de la Matière” at the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon from 2014 to 2018.
Since 2020, he has been a member of the Scientific Council and an active Tutor at the Collegio Superiore of UNIBO. From 2021 to 2023, he was a member of the Joint “Exchange and Mobility” Committee at the Collegio Superiore of UNIBO.
From 2019 to 2023, he was a member of the Joint Committee of the School of Sciences at UNIBO.
Since 2019, he has regularly participated in admission, year progression, and final exam committees for PhD programs in Chemistry, Industrial Chemistry, and Nanosciences for Medicine and the Environment at UNIBO.
Since 2022, he has been part of the PhD Board for the Nanosciences for Medicine and the Environment program at UNIBO.
He has served on numerous panels for evaluating research projects, including for the “Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia” (R&D National Projects, Portugal), the “Agence Nationale de la Recherche” (France), the “Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe” (PRACE, EU), and the Research Quality Assessment (MIUR, Italy).
Since 2023, he has been the Coordinator of the Bachelor's Degree Program in Materials Science at UNIBO.
As of 2024, he is a member of the Program Committee for AlmaQ, the interdepartmental center for Quantum Science and Technology at UNIBO.
In 2023, he became President of the VQR Committee of the Department of Industrial Chemistry “Toso Montanari” at UNIBO.
He has been involved in the organization of international conferences and workshops, including the “15ème Rencontre des Chimistes Théoriciens Francophones” RCTF 2016 – Lyon (France) and “The 11th OpenMolcas Developers' Workshop 2023” in Bologna (Italy).
Awards, Recognitions and Qualifications
- 2018 – National Scientific Qualification for Full Professor 03/A2
- 2018 – National Scientific Qualification for Full Professor 03/B1
- 2018 – Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches, ENS Lyon, France
- 2015 – Prime d'Encadrement Doctoral et de Recherche (PEDR), CNRS
- 2014 – European Young Chemist Award, finalist at the 5th EuCheMS, Istanbul
- 2008 – Young Scientist Award, 14th International Congress of Catalysis, Seoul
Selection of Recent Invited Conferences
- "2024 CUHK(SZ) Conference on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics," Warshel Institute, Shenzhen, China, Oct 29-31, 2024
- "Future of Enzyme Modeling (FEM2024)," Tianjin, China, Oct 20-26, 2024
- "9th Symposium on Theoretical Biophysics (TheoBio 2023)," Cetraro, Italy, Jul 16-20, 2023
- "Workshop MUSICHEM Spring Seminar 2023," Anacapri, Italy, May 29-30, 2023
- "44th ICCC International Conference on Coordination Chemistry," Rimini, Italy, Aug 28-Sep 2, 2022
- "Quantum Dynamics and Spectroscopy of Functional Molecular Materials and Biological Photosystems," Les Houches, France, May 2-7, 2021
- "Virtual Winter School on Computational Chemistry 2021," CECAM, Feb 15-18, 2021
- "ICTP Atomistic Simulation Webinar Series," Trieste, Italy, Apr 22, 2020
- "LightDyNAmics Technology Training Camp," Vienna, Austria, Feb 17-21, 2020
- "MPPM 2020 - Modelling Photoinduced Processes in Molecular Systems," London, United Kingdom, Feb 6-7, 2020
- "International Conference on Computational Materials Science for Nanoscale Modelling," CA18234 Meeting, Naples, Italy, Feb 11-13, 2020
- "From Molecular Interactions to Catalysts: Theoretical Modeling and Experiments," Workshop ENSCM, Montpellier, France, Nov 26-27, 2019
- "4th International Scientific Conference NANOAPP 2019 – Nanomaterials & Applications," Ljubljana, Slovenia, Jun 3-6, 2019
- "Network Analysis to Elucidate Natural System Dynamics, Diversity and Performance," CECAM-FR-RA, Lyon, France, May 2-4, 2019
- "Frontiers and Challenges of Computing Metals for Biochemical, Medical and Technological Applications," CECAM-FR-MOSER, Paris, France, Jul 11-13, 2018
- "4th International Workshop on Nano- and Bio-photonics," Vogüé, France, Sep 24-29, 2017
- "PASC17, In-Silico Biochemistry: From Quantum Mechanics to Coarse-Grained High-Performance Computing Simulations," Lugano, Switzerland, Jun 26-28, 2017
Selection of Recent Invited Seminars and Webinars
- Hylleraas Centre for Quantum Molecular Sciences at the University of Oslo, Norway, May 29, 2024 (host: Prof. Michele Cascella)
- Institute of Molecular Science and Technologies (CNR), University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy, Jul 3, 2024 (host: Prof. Filippo De Angelis)
- The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy, Apr 22, 2020 (webinar)
- Stockholm University, Arrhenius Laboratory, Stockholm, Sweden, Mar 22, 2019
- University of Naples Federico II, Department of Chemical Sciences, Naples, Italy, Jul 23, 2018 (hosts: Prof. Michele Pavone, Prof. Ana Belen Muñoz-Garcia)
- Institut Charles Gerhardt Montpellier, UMR 5253, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France, May 19, 2017 (host: Dr. Thibaud Etienne)
- Laboratoire de Chimie et Physique Quantiques, University Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France, Feb 23, 2017 (host: Dr. Martial Boggio-Pasqua)
- International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), Trieste, Italy, Oct 13, 2016 (host: Prof. Stefano Baroni)
ficiale e le tecnologie quantistiche. Le simulazioni sono preferenzialmente orientate al confronto diretto con esperimenti di laboratorio al fine di ottenere interpretazioni dettagliate delle proprietà chimico-fisiche e spettroscopiche nonché previsioni accurate per il design in silico di molecole e materiali innovativi.
Formazione
Laureato in Chimica (con il massimo dei voti) nel 2003 presso la Facoltà di Scienze Matematiche Fisiche e Naturali dell'Università della Calabria, ha conseguito il Dottorato di ricerca in Metodologie Chimiche Inorganiche nel 2007 presso la stessa Università.
Carriera accademica
Dopo due anni come assegnista di ricerca (dal 2007 al 2009) presso il Dipartimento di Chimica dell'Università della Calabria, sotto la supervisione della Prof.ssa Emilia Sicilia e del Prof. Nino Russo, intraprende un percorso di formazione all'estero che inizia con una Post-doctoral Fellowship nel gruppo del Prof. Michele Parrinello presso il “Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences of ETH Zurich” (Svizzera). Dal 2010 al 2012 è stato “Associate Research Scientist” nel gruppo del Prof. Victor Batista presso il “Chemistry Department” della “Yale University” (USA). Nel 2012 rientra temporaneamente in Italia come assegnista di ricerca nel gruppo del Prof. Marco Garavelli presso il Dipartimento di Chimica “G. Ciamician” dell'Università di Bologna fino al 2014, quando viene nominato “Chargé de Recherche” CNRS (Ricercatore a tempo indeterminato) presso il “Laboratoire de Chimie (UMR 5182)” della Scuola Normale Superiore di Lione (ENS Lyon, Francia). A Dicembre 2014 consegue l'Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale (ASN) a Professore di Seconda Fascia nel settore 03/A2 (Modelli e metodologie per le scienze chimiche). Ad Agosto 2018 consegue l'ASN a Professore di Prima Fascia nei settori 03/A2 e 03/B1 (Fondamenti delle scienze chimiche e sistemi inorganici). Nel Settembre del 2018 riceve la ”Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches” presso la Scuola Normale Superiore di Lione. Dal Novembre 2018 è Professore Associato presso il Dipartimento di Chimica Industriale “Toso Montanari” dell'Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna.
Attività didattica
Dal 2016 al 2018 ha svolto attività di docenza come titolare del corso di “Fotochimica Computazionale” per gli studenti della Scuola Normale Superiore di Lione (ENS Lyon, Master “Sciences de la Matière”).
Dal 2018 è titolare del corso “Chimica Fisica dei Materiali e Laboratorio di Chimica Fisica” e “Matematica con esercitazioni” per il Corso di Laurea in “Chimica e Tecnologie per l'Ambiente e per i Materiali” all'Università di Bologna (Faenza, Campus di Ravenna).
Nel 2019 ha dettato il corso “Physical Chemistry of Materials for Energy and Environment” per la Laurea Magistrale “Low Carbon Technologies and Sustainable Chemistry”.
Dal 2019 al 2022 ha dettato un modulo del corso “C3: Physical chemistry course” per gli studenti del Dottorato in Chimica.
Dal 2020 è titolare del corso “Chimica teorica e computazionale” per la Laurea Magistrale in “Chimica Industriale”.
Nel 2023 ha svolto attività formativa per il Collegio Superiore di UNIBO, seminario interdisciplinare dal titolo “Reti chimiche nelle proteine”.
Dal 2023 è titolare di un modulo del corso “Scienza dei Materiali 2” per la Laurea in “Scienza dei Materiali”.
Attività scientifica
Ha partecipato e partecipa (come coordinatore di progetto o di unità o collaboratore scientifico) a vari progetti di ricerca nazionali ed internazionali. Essi includono: progetti su spettroscopia elettronica ultraveloce “Projet émergent” (Fonds recherche 2014 – ENS Lyon), “Équipements mi-lourds” (Fonds recherche 2015 – ENS Lyon), “FEMTO-2DNA” (ANR - PRC, APG 2015); progetto “SELPHY” (Laboratoire d'Excellence iMUST - Univ. Lyon) sullo studio di sistemi nanoibridi per il bio-imaging e la fotocatalisi; progetti sulla fotochimica di complessi di metalli di transizione “PHOTOCHROMICS” (ANR - PRC, APG 2018) e di sistemi biologici come “PSI-MOVIE” (MIUR - PRIN 2020 program), “LightDyNAmics” (H2020-MSCA-ITN-2017) e "SIMDOME" (H2020-NMPB-2018).
Fondi per mobilità internazionale: “STSM – COST Action PERSPECT-H2O (Supramolecular Photocatalytic Water Splitting)” e “Short Term Mobility Program – CNR” presso l' ISTM-CNR, Perugia (Prof. F. De Angelis), “APR IXXI/MSH-LSE/BioSyL 2018” presso “Institut Rhônalpin des Systèmes Complexes - Lyon” (Dr. C. Lesieur).
Dal 2010 svolge con continuità l'attività di supervisione di tesisti, dottorandi e assegnisti di ricerca. Nel periodo 2014-2024 ha supervisionato 5 assegnisti di ricerca, 12 Dottorandi e 21 tesi di laurea di studenti (L e LM).
Effettua con continuità attività di peer-reviewing per riviste internazionali nel settore delle Scienze Chimiche per gli editori ACS, Springer, Springer Nature, Elsevier e Wiley e per la valutazione di progetti ed attività scientifiche nazionali ed internazionali (PRACE, VQR).
È stato Guest Editor della rivista Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences per la special issue "Structural and Dynamic Aspects of Protein Function and Allostery" e della rivista ACS Sustainable & Engineering per la special issue "Automation, Robotics and AI for Sustainable Process Intensification".
Dati bibliometrici (Fonte Scopus, 09/2024): 102 pubblicazioni (contributi su rivista peer-reviewed), 4332 citazioni, h-index 32.
Attività istituzionali, comitati scientifici e incarichi accademici
È stato membro del “Conseil de Laboratoire” del “Laboratoire de Chimie (UMR 5182)” presso la Scuola Normale Superiore di Lione dal 2015 al 2018. Dal 2016 al 2014 è stato membro del “Comité de Pilotage” del “Laboratoire d'Excellence (Labex) iMUST” dell' “Université de Lyon”. È stato “Rapporteur de stages” per il Master “Sciences de la Matière” della Scuola Normale Superiore di Lione dal 2014 al 2018.
Dal 2020 è membro del Consiglio Scientifico e Tutor attivo del Collegio Superiore di UNIBO. Dal 2021 al 2023 è stato membro della Commissione paritetica “Scambi e mobilità” del Collegio Superiore di UNIBO.
Dal 2019 al 2023 è stato membro della Commissione paritetica della Scuola di Scienze di UNIBO.
Dal 2019 partecipa regolarmente alle Commissioni di ammissione, passaggio d’anno ed esami finali dei Dottorati in Chimica, Chimica Industriale e Nanoscienze per la medicina e per l'ambiente di UNIBO.
Dal 2022 fa parte del Collegio di Dottorato in Nanoscienze per la medicina e per l'ambiente di UNIBO.
È stato membro di numerosi Panels per la valutazione di progetti di ricerca per la “Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia” (R&D National Projects, Portogallo), la “Agence Nationale de la Recherche” (Francia), la “Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe” (PRACE, EU) e la Valutazione della Qualità della Ricerca (MIUR, Italia)
Dal 2023 è Coordinatore del Corso di Laurea in Scienza dei Materiali di UNIBO.
Dal 2024 fa parte del Comitato di Programma dell’articolazione interdipartimentale AlmaQ, Centro sulle Scienze e Tecnologie Quantistiche di UNIBO.
Dal 2023 è Presidente della Commissione VQR del Dipartimento di Chimica Industriale “Toso Montanari” di UNIBO.
Ha partecipato all’organizzazione di conferenze e workshop internazionali inclusi il “15ème Rencontre des Chimistes Théoriciens Francophones“ RCTF 2016 – Lione (Francia) e “The 11th OpenMolcas Developers' Workshop 2023” Bologna (Italia).
Premi, riconoscimenti e abilitazioni
2018 – Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale – Professore Prima Fascia 03/A2
2018 – Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale – Professore Prima Fascia 03/B1
2018 – “Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches”, ENS Lyon, Francia
2015 – “Prime d'Encadrement Doctoral et de Recherche (PEDR)” – CNRS
2014 – “European Young Chemist Award” – 5th EuCheMS Finalist – Istanbul, Turkey
2008 – “Young Scientist Award” – 14th International Congress of Catalysis – Seoul, Korea
Selezione di recenti Conferenze su invito
- “2024 CUHK(SZ) Conference on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics”, Warshel Institute, Shenzhen, China, Oct 29-31, 2024
- “Future of Enzyme Modeling (FEM2024)”, Tianjin, China, Oct 20-26, 2024
- “9th Symposium on Theoretical Biophysics (TheoBio 2023)”, Cetraro, Italy, Jul 16-20 2023
- “Workshop MUSICHEM Spring Seminar 2023”, Anacapri, Italy, May 29-30, 2023
- “44th ICCC International Conference on Coordination Chemistry”, Rimini, Italy, Aug 28-Sep 2, 2022
- "Quantum Dynamics and Spectroscopy of Functional Molecular Materials and Biological Photosystems", Les Houches, France, May 2-7, 2021
- “Virtual Winter School on Computational Chemistry 20201”, CECAM, Feb 15-18, 2021
- “ICTP Atomistic Simulation Webinar Series”, Trieste , Italy, Apr 22, 2020
- “LightDyNAmics Technology Training Camp” Vienna, Austria, Feb 17-21, 2020
- “MPPM 2020 - Modelling Photoinduced Processes in Molecular Systems” London, United Kingdom, Feb 6-7, 2020
- “International Conference on Computational Materials Science for Nanoscale Modelling” CA18234 Meeting, Naples, Italy, Feb 11-13, 2020
- “From Molecular Interactions to Catalysts: Theoretical Modeling and Experiments” Workshop ENSCM, Montpellier, France, Nov 26-27, 2019
- “4th International Scientific Conference NANOAPP 2019 – Nanomaterials & Applications”, Ljubljana, Slovenia, Jun 3-6, 2019
- “Network analysis to elucidate natural system dynamics, diversity and performance” CECAM-FR-RA, Lyon, France, May 2-4, 2019
- “Frontiers and challenges of computing metals for biochemical, medical and technological applications” CECAM-FR-MOSER, Paris, France, Jul 11-13, 2018
- "4th International Workshop on Nano- and Bio-photonics", Vogüé, France, Sep 24-29, 2017
- "PASC17, In-Silico Biochemistry: From Quantum Mechanics to Coarse-Grained High-Performance Computing Simulations”, Lugano, Switzerland, Jun 26-28, 2017
Selezione di recenti seminari e webinar su invito
- Hylleraas Centre for Quantum Molecular Sciences at the University of Oslo, Norway, May 29, 2024 (host Prof. Michele Cascella)
- Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie Molecolari del CNR, Università degli Studi di Perugia, Perugia, Italy, Jul 3, 2024 (host Prof. Filippo De Angelis)
- The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy, 22 Apr, 2020 (webinar)
- Stockholm University, Arrhenius Laboratory, Stockholm, Sweden, Mar 22, 2019
- Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Dipartimento di Scienze chimiche, Naples, Italy, Jul 23, 2018 (hosts Prof. Michele Pavone, Prof. Ana Belen Muñoz-Garcia)
- Institut Charles Gerhardt Montpellier, UMR 5253, Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France, May 19, 2017 (host Dr. Thibaud Etienne)
- Laboratoire de Chimie et Physique Quantiques Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France, Feb 23, 2017 (host Dr. Martial Boggio-Pasqua)
- Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA), Trieste, Italy, Oct 13, 2016 (host Prof. Stefano Baroni)
Google Scholar profile
ORCID profile
Third Mission
Since 2020, he has been involved in PLS-PCTO activities for the Bachelor's Degree in "Chemistry and Technologies for the Environment and Materials" at the Ravenna – Faenza Campus.
Starting in 2023, he has been responsible for orientation activities for the Bachelor's Degree in Materials Science at UNIBO, giving presentations at high schools across the Emilia-Romagna region and organizing training events for high school teachers.
In 2024, he participated as a speaker in the international science outreach event "Pint of Science" with a seminar titled "Proteins: The Chemistry of Communication."
In the same year, Zanichelli Editore invited him to contribute to the "Science Classroom" Forums and to speak in the "Science at School" series.
