Stefania Albonetti was born in Imola (Bologna), Italy, in 1967. She obtained her master’s degree in industrial chemistry from the University of Bologna in March 1992. During her studies, in 1989 she was awarded an Erasmus fellowship, which allowed her to spend one academic year (October 1989 – June 1990) at the University of Kent (Canterbury, UK), where she obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry.
She obtained her PhD in Industrial Chemistry from the University of Bologna in 1996 under the supervision of Professors Trifirò and Cavani, in collaboration with the French company Rhône-Poulenc (now Sanofi), within a joint research project focused on the development of innovative catalysts for the ammoxidation of propane to acrylonitrile. During her PhD studies, she was visiting scientist at several international research institutions and companies, including CNRS – Institut de Recherches sur la Catalyse (Lyon, France; Prof. Volta), Instituto de Catálisis y Petroleoquímica (Madrid, Spain; Prof. Fierro), Rhône-Poulenc (Paris, France; Dr. Burattin), and Lonza Alusuisse (Scanzorosciate, Bergamo, Italy; Dr. Mazzoni).
From 1995 to 2001, she worked as Group Leader in Catalyst Research and Development at Lonza SpA, Alusuisse Group, Scanzorosciate, Bergamo (Italy). During this period, her research activities focused on the development of new heterogeneous catalysts for oxidation reactions, the scale-up of industrial synthetic procedures for catalyst preparation, and the optimization of industrial processes in both fixed-bed and fluidized-bed reactors.
In June 2001, she was appointed Assistant Professor and joined the Department of Industrial Chemistry at the University of Bologna in the field of Industrial Chemistry. Since 2023, she has been Full Professor of Industrial Chemistry at the same Department.
Professor Albonetti is a member of the Italian Chemical Society (SCI – Division of Industrial Chemistry), the Italian Group of Catalysis (GIC), and the Interuniversity Consortium of Materials Science and Technology (INSTM). She regularly serves as reviewer for journals published by the Royal Society of Chemistry, the American Chemical Society, Elsevier, and Springer, as well as referee for funding agencies in Italy (MIUR-FIRB) and abroad, including FNRS (Belgium) and SNSF/FNSNF (Switzerland).
Her major research interests are in the field of Industrial Chemistry, particularly the development of heterogeneous catalysts for the valorization of renewable raw materials such as biomass and waste, CO₂ capture and utilization, and the study of innovative nanomaterials and composites. During her academic career, she has supervised and co-supervised more than 80 Master’s theses and over 20 PhD dissertations, many of them developed through collaborative and cotutelle programmes with leading European universities.
Professor Albonetti has established and managed collaborations with several national and international research groups and has coordinated numerous research projects between her Department and industrial partners, including Solvay, Hera, Millennium, Daunia Solar Cell, CiBA, BASF, and ENI. These collaborations have provided access to complementary expertise and advanced research infrastructures for catalyst synthesis, characterization, and process development, while also supporting the scale-up and technological validation of the developed processes toward industrial implementation. Moreover, she is Associate Researcher at CNR-ISTEC in Faenza (Ravenna, Italy).
She is co-author of 15 national and international patents, more than 150 papers published in international journals, 8 book chapters, and over 300 communications presented at national and international conferences. Her h-index is 41 (Scopus, 2026). ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2371-3228 .
From 2013 to 2023, she coordinated the Erasmus Mundus Doctorate Programme in Industrial Sustainable Chemistry (SINCHEM – www.sinchem.eu ), funded by the European Union. This project brought approximately €5 million to the SINCHEM Consortium. Within this programme, Professor Albonetti organized several schools for PhD students and was invited to international conferences focused on the future of doctoral education, including the EU2014 Conference (InterDoc2014), “International, Intersectoral, and Interdisciplinary: the Triple ‘I’ Approach to Doctoral Training” (2014), and “The Future of the Doctorate”, organized by the European Commission in Riga in 2015.
In 2016, together with Professors F. Cavani, F. Basile, and A. Gandini, she co-edited the book Chemicals and Fuels from Bio-Based Building Blocks (Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA). In 2019, together with Professors A. Quadrelli and S. Perathoner, she co-edited Horizons in Sustainable Industrial Chemistry and Catalysis, Volume 178 (Elsevier).
In 2022, she was co-editor of the special issue of ChemSusChem (ISSN 1864-564X) titled “Green HMF Conversion” and of the special issue of Catalysts (ISSN 2073-4344) titled “Catalytic Transformation of Renewables (Olefin, Bio-sourced, etc.) – Series II”. In 2020, she co-edited the special issue of Catalysts (ISSN 2073-4344) titled “Catalytic Transformation of Renewables (Olefin, Bio-sourced, etc.) – Series I”.
