Zacchini Stefano was born in Bentivoglio (BO) on 21/12/1972. He received the Degree in Industrial Chemistry from the University of Bologna (110/110 cum laude) on 25/10/1996 with a Thesis on “New Bimetallic Au-Fe Clusters Stabilized by Phosphines” under the supervision of Prof. G. Longoni.
On June 1997 he received the Rotary Prize of the Città di Bologna for the best degree in Industrial Chemistry.
On February 1998 he started the Ph.D in Chemistry at the University of Liverpool, working under the supervision of Prof. B. T. Heaton on a research Project funded by Lucite International as part of the Alpha process for the production of methyl methacrylate (the first plant came on stream in Singapore in 2008 and has now 25% of the world market). On 04/07/2001, he received the Ph.D. in Chemistry with a Thesis on “Spectroscopic studies of palladium catalyzed reactions between carbon monoxide and ethene”.
From 01/03/2001 to 28/02/2002 he worked as post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Chemistry, University of Liverpool, on the synthesis and reactivity of multianionic phosphazenates under the supervision of Dr. A. Steiner.
From 01/03/2002 to 31/10/2010 he has worked as Research Associate at the Facoltà di Chimica Industriale of the University of Bologna, in the scientific sector CHIM/03, and from 01/11/2010 to 05/11/2017 as Associate Professor.
Since 06/11/2017, Stefano Zacchini has been appointed as Full Professor of General and Inorganic Chemistry at the Dipartimento di Chimica Industriale “Toso Montanari” of the University of Bologna.
Prof Zacchini has actively participated to four national research projects (PRIN), two Projects of the Regione Emilia-Romagna (PRRIITT NANOFABER and PROMINER), and one European Project (NAIMO-NAnoscale Integrated processing of self-organizing Multifunctional Organic materials). Prof Zacchini has been the coordinator of the Strategic Project of the University of Bologna CLUSTERCAT-Metal clusters as precursors for nanostructured materials for catalysis. He has been the responsible of the Bologna Research Unit of the Project MONA LISA (Metal-Organic-based Nanocrystal Arrays with Large Induced Shape Anisotropy) funded by Fondazione Cariplo.
Prof Zacchini has participated to the Project FARB-Catalytic transformation of biomass-derived materials into high added-value chemicals, and has been the responsible of two contracts with T.C.A. S.p.A Arezzo (Improvements of copper recovery by electrochemical methods; Recovery of platinum group metals), and two research contracts with Reagens S.p.A (Study of the catalytic redistribution reaction of Bu2SnCl2 to BuSnCl3; Analysis of potential impurities in an organometallic tin compound of industrial relevance). He has been the responsible of a contract with Kemin Industries (Iowa, USA) on "Synthesis of alkali metal salts of ferrate (VI)". Since Decembre 2025, Stefano Zacchini, based on his expertise on single-crystal X-ray diffraction, has established a permanent collaboration with APTUIT (Verona) Srl, An Evotec Company for the structural determination of molecular compounds.
Since 01/11/2013 Prof Zacchini is the scientific coordinator of the Transition Metal Carbonyl Clusters research group of the University of Bologna.
Prof S. Zacchini is involved in several national and international collaborations on the use of metal carbonyl clusters in nanofabrication, catalysis, molecular electronic, material and surface sciences and nanosciences, as precursors for metal NPs in solution or inorganic and polymeric supports for catalysis, as well as the physical and electrochemical characterization, and other fundamental aspects of cluster chemistry. Several other collaborations are ongoing concerning single-crystal X-ray crystallography, coordination and organometallic chemistry, the application of metal complexes in homogeneous catalysis, green chemistry and medicine.
Member of the Editorial Bord of Journal of Cluster Science (Springer Nature) since 2016.
Prof Zacchini acted as referee for international journals such as Nature Reviews, Angewandte Chemie, Chemistry A European Journal, Chemistry An Asian Journal, European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry, Catalysis Science and Technology, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Inorganic Chemistry, Organometallics, Journal of Physical Chemistry, ACS Nano, Small, ACS Materials Letters, ACS Omega, Chemical Science, Chemical Communications, RSC Advances, Chemical Society Reviews, New Journal of Chemistry, Dalton Transactions, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, Coordination Chemistry Reviews, Inorganica Chimica Acta, Journal of Organometallic Chemistry, Applied Catalysis A, Polyhedron, Journal of Cluster Science, Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology, Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology A, Acta Crystallographica B, Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology.
Scientific production: >400 papers, 3 book chapters, 10 Invited lectures and invited seminars, >180 contributions to conferences.
Member of the ASN 2023-2025 committee – SC 03/B1 – SSD CHIM/03.
Member of the executive board of INSTM - National Interuniversity Consortium of Materials Science and Technology since April 2026.
Membre of the VRA panel 03 – Chemical Sciences (evaluation of the research of the University of Bologna) since 06/09/2017.
Prof. Zacchini acted as referee for several national and international projects:
-referee MIUR for VQR 2011-2014, VQR 2015-2019 and VQR 2020-2024
-referee MIUR for SIR Projects 2014-referee for the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, USA (2016)
-referee for the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, India (2014, 2019, 2026)
-jury member for the evaluation of the Ph.D. degree at the Université Catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (2016)
-referee for the FIL Projects of the University of Parma (2016)
-examiner for a Ph.D. Thesis at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, India (2017)
-referee for a Scientific Project of the Università del Piemonte Orientale (2019)
-referee for career advancement at the University of Durham (2021)
-referee for Agencie Nationale de Reserche (ANR, France, 2022)
-referee for the Academy of Sciences of the Cech Republic (2025)
-referee for FAR projects of University of Modena e Reggio Emilia (2025)
-member of several committees for the appointment of Full Professors, Associate Professors, Research Associates at different Italian Universities
In 2010, he has been selected as Best Young Researcher by Atomium Culture Permanent Platform for European Excellence for Nanoscience and nanotechnology: a perspective from the very bottom.
Prof Zacchini has received the 2010 Raffaello Nasini Award of the Inorganic Division of the Italian Chemical Society for his original contribution to the chemistry of metal carbonyl clusters, and their applications to nanotechnologies, molecular electronics and catalysis.
In 2014, he has been invited to contribute with an original paper to the Dalton Transactions Themed Issue New Talent: Europe. This themed issue highlights some of the leading research carried out by the European inorganic and organometallic chemistry community.
Since 2002, Stefano Zacchini has been involved in teaching to undergraduate and master students being entitled of courses such as General and Inorganic Chemistry, Introduction to Chemistry (for non-chemistry courses), Sustainable Inorganic Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, Advanced Inorganic Chemistry, Experimental Organometallic Chemistry, X ray Diffraction and Bio-inorganic chemistry. Prof. Zacchini ha also delivered courses for Ph.D. students regarding nanochemistry, metal nanoclusters and metal nanoparticles.
He has supervised the work of final year undergraduate, master and Ph.D. students. Prof. Zacchini has also supervised the traineeships of ERASMUS and other exchange students.
Coordinator of PhD Programme in Industrial Chemistry (University of Bologna) from 01/11/2025.
Coordinator of the Master Degree in Industrial Chemistry (University of Bologna) from 28/05/2018 to 27/01/2024.
Membre of the Ph.D Board of Chemistry (University of Bologna) from 2014 to 2023.
Membre of the Ph.D Board of Industrial Chemistry (University of Bologna) from 2024.
Membre of the committee for the final year examination of Ph.D. students in Chemistry from 2014 to 2023.
Membre and President of the committee for the admission to the Ph.D Programme in Chemistry for cycles XXXI, XXXV and XXXIX.
Membre of the board for teaching organization of the Department of Industrial Chemistry (University of Bologna) since 2014.
Membre of the quality assurance commission of the Department of Industrial Chemistry since 2024.
Member of the International Advisory Board of MADEMAT 2025 - Metallic Aggregates: from Theory & Shaping to the Design of Materials & Applications, 08-11 July 2025, Rennes, France.
Member of the organizing committee of 44th International Conference on Coordination Chemistry-ICCC, Rimini (Italy) 2022.
Vice chair of the organizing committee of XLVI Congress of the Inorganic Division of the Italian Chemical Society, Bologna 10-13 September 2018.
Since 2005, the research activity of Prof Zacchini is mainly focused on the chemistry of metal carbonyl clusters and their applications in nanotechonolgy and nanosciences, molecular electronics and catalysis. Major contributions have been given to the synthesis of high nuclearity homo- and hetero-metallic clusters, the study of their structural, chemical and physical properties, and their applications. His research work contributed to demonstrate that metal carbonyl clusters can be viewed as perfectly monodisperse molecular metal nanoparticles, and that they may have a significant impact on nanosciences and nanotechnology.
