People

Dario Pisignano, PhD in Physics, is Associate Professor at the University of Salento. He coordinates an interdisciplinary group working on Nanotechnologies on Soft Matter at the Department of Mathematics and Physics “Ennio De Giorgi” of the University of Salento and at the National Nanotechnology Laboratory (CNR-Nano). His research activity is focused on the development of advanced polymer processing and lithographic approaches, electrospinning, and soft lithographies, for realizing micro-nanostructured devices, organic lasers and functional systems. He has been International Evaluator for projects for the National Science Foundation (NSF) U.S.A., the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), the Czech Science Foundation (GACR) and the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research. He has been member of the International Advisory Committee of the “International Conference on Electrospinning” and of the Optical Materials, Fabrication and Characterization Committee of the “Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics” (CLEO). He serves as Referee of the main international journals in the fields of Solid-State Physics, Nanotechnology and Materials Science, including Physical Review Letters, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Advanced Materials, and Laser & Photonics Reviews. He authored about 170 papers and five patents, and has been awarded the “Young researcher” Prize at the National INFM-Meeting, the International Obducat Prize for Nanoimprinting Lithography, the National Award “Future in Research” of the Ministry of Education, University and Research, the “Sergio Panizza” Award for Optoelectronics and Photonics (Italian Physics Society, SIF), and a Prize by the Erwin Schrödinger Society for Nanosciences. He is the recipient of the NANO-JETS ERC Ideas Starting Grant.

Andrea Camposeo, PhD in Physics (University of Pisa), is staff researcher at the Nanoscience Institute of the CNR (National Nanotechnology Laboratory of Lecce). He has been visiting scientist at the University of Bonn, Toronto, Harvard and FORTH and has authored more than 75 papers. His research activities include the investigation of the optical properties of light-emitting polymers, composites, organic crystals and polymer nanofibers, the design and characterization of organic-based light-emitting devices and the development of optically-active nanostructures by electrospinning and two-photon lithography for nanophotonic applications. He is co-founder and researcher of Soft Materials and Technologies S.r.l (SM&T S.r.l.), a spin-off company of the National Research Council (Institute of Nanosciences). He has been awarded the “Applied Physics” award at the XCVI Italian Physical Society meeting in 2010, the “CNR-Start-Cup” award in 2010 and the “Start-cup Puglia” award in 2011.

Luana Persano, PhD in Innovative Materials and Technologies (University of Salento) is staff researcher at the National Research Council-Nanoscience Institute. She has been Marie-Curie fellow at FORTH, Greece, and visiting scientist at Harvard University and University of Illinois. Her research interests include nano-manufacturing and lithographic processes on organics and nanocomposites semiconductors, nanophotonic devices, and electrospinning. She has authored more than 60 papers on international journals, one international patent and several seminars and talks to national and international conferences. She has been awarded the International Obducat Prize for Nanoimprinting Lithography in 2005, “CNR-Start-Cup” award in 2010, “Start-cup Puglia” award in 2011 and the “Bellisario”award as Young Talent in Industrial Engineering in 2011. She is founder and researcher of the CNR high-tech spin-off SM&T S.r.l (Soft Materials and Technologies S.r.l), spin-off of the National Research Council, which focuses on the development of micro and nanotechnologies for the production of nanostructured soft materials through the exploitation of unconventional soft lithography and electric-voltage driven techniques.

Sauro Succi, PhD in Physics (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne) is Research Director at CNR-IAC where he leads the Complex Systems in Fluid Dynamics and Biology group working on NANO-JETS modeling activities, Guest Professor at ETH, Zurich, and affiliated with the Physics Department of Harvard University and External Senior Fellow of the Freiburg Institute of Advanced Studies. He has been visiting and guest scientist at ETH Zurich, Yale, and Harvard Universities. He is author of nearly 300 papers in international scientific journals. His research activity is focused on computational physics and mathematical modelling of complex systems and process, which will provide NANO-JETS with an extra added-value in terms of reducing the risks connected to highly innovative simulations of electrified jets. He is the recipient of numerous international awards, such the Alexander von Humboldt Award in Physics, the Killam Award of the University of Calgary, and the Rahman Chair of the Indian Academy of Sciences. Dr. Succi is an elected Fellow of the American Physical Society and features in the list of the Top Italian Scientists.

Vincenzo Resta, PhD in Physics (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), is Researcher at the Department of Mathematics and Physics “Ennio De Giorgi” of the University of Salento. He had a 4 years fellowship at the Instituto de Óptica “Daza de Valdés” (CSIC-Madrid) in the framework of the Research Training Networks of the European Commission and the “Nanocluster” project (FP-5). His research activity ranged from laser ablation for the production of thin films/waveguides and metal nanoparticles for photonics and optoelectronics, laser-mediated synthesis of hybrid organic-inorganic nanocomposites, production of conducting plastics through high energy ion beams, and their optical, spectroscopic, structural and morphological characterization. He has authored more than 30 papers on international journals, one book chapter, several seminars and talks to national and international conferences. He has been International Evaluator for projects for the National Science Center of Poland, and Referee of many international journals in the fields of materials science and nanotechnology.He has been involved in several national and international research projects related to the production and characterization of nanocomposite materials, and he currently works on the characterization of nanofiber-based photonics in NANO-JETS.

Maria Moffa, PhD in Biomolecular Nanotechnologies (University of Salento), is now CNR researcher at the Nanoscience Institute (National Nanotechnology Laboratory of Lecce). She graduated magna cum laude in Biotechnology in 2008 with a degree thesis focused on the effects of nutritional and hormonal interventions on lipogenesis. In 2009 she was selected via the “Leonardo Da Vinci Program-Unipharma Graduates 5” of the University of Rome, for a six month internship trainee at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of the University of Barcelona. Afterwards she started her PhD with a fellowship granted by the Italian Institute of Technology. Her research was focused on the design, fabrication and characterization of optimized biomimetic electrospun scaffolds and on the study of their interactions with human cells. She currently works on the development of nanoscale fiber materials for different applications in the NANO-JETS framework.

Marco Lauricella, PhD in Physics (University College of Dublin), graduated in Chemistry at “La Sapienza” University of Rome, is NANO-JETS post doc fellow at CNR-IAC, and member of the Complex Systems in Fluid Dynamics and Biology group working in the field of electrospinning of polymer nanofibers. His expertise is in atomistic computational methods, both quantum and classical. In particular he studied diatomic molecules containing heavy elements. He investigated relativistic effects on molecular dissociation energies via the Dirac equation, elucidating the chemical stability of many compounds of industrial interest. In the framework of statistical physics, he studied rare events via advanced sampling methods. His research interests include transition phase processes, and particularly nucleation phenomena of clathrate compounds. In this framework he also developed a new cluster analysis algorithm for the automatic recognition of clathrate structures. In 2014 he started to work on models of polymer nanofibers and electrospinning processes, in the framework of the ERC NANO-JETS project. 

Riccardo Di Corato, PhD in Science and Interdisciplinary Technologies, is a post-doc fellow at the Department of Mathematics and Physics “Ennio De Giorgi” of the University of Salento. After getting his doctorate diploma, he worked with the Italian Institute of Technology in Genova, Italy, with the Laboratoire Matière et Systèmes Complexes of CNRS in Paris, France, and with the Nanoscience Institute of CNR in Lecce, Italy. His research activities involved the development of a new procedure to obtain magnetic nanostructures based on the controlled clustering of nanocrystals (EU patented); the development of magnetic liposomes for hyperthermia treatment and photodynamic therapy; the preparation of multi-cellular scaffolds for tissue engineering; the study of the effects of cellular internalization on nanoparticles properties; the synthesis of magnetic nanoparticles for biomedical imaging. In 2014 he has been lecturer at Physics Department, University of Bari for a course on “Synthesis and characterization of magnetic nanoparticles”. He coauthored 26 scientific papers in international peer-reviewed journal and one book chapter.

Ivan Coluzza, PhD in Physics (FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics, Amsterdam) developed a deep interest for many different fields, branching from physics to biology. Firstly he focused on the study of complex biological systems by means of coarse grained models developed in the fields of statistical physics and of theoretical chemistry. Such models are designed to retain crucial system properties that are responsible for the particular phenomena to address. At the end of his Ph.D. in 2005, he joined the group of Prof. J.-P. Hansen in the theoretical sector of the Chemistry Department of the University of Cambridge as a post doc funded by the Marie Curie Program for Intra-European research fellowships. In collaboration with Professor Hansen, he thereby focused on planar polymer brushes. In 2008-2010 he joined the group of Dr. R. Goldstein at the National Institute for Medical Research on a project aimed at the study of the dynamics of protein evolution. Since March 2010, he has been working in the group of Prof. C. Dellago at the University of Vienna as a University Assistant, where he has secured independent funding from Austrian (F.W.F.) funding agency. In 2013-2014 he has taken a one year leave to expand his research in the field of electrospinning of polymer nanofibers, in the framework of the ERC NANO-JETS project.

Giovanni Morello, PhD in Innovative Materials and Technologies (University of Salento) is NANO-JETS post doc fellow at the National Research Council-Nanoscience Institute. His previous research has included the optical characterization of organic/inorganic nanoparticles, light-emitting polymers, semiconductor/metal nanocrystals (nanospheres, nanorods, nanotetrapods), and hybrid nanomaterials. These systems have been investigated by steady-state, time-resolved (on a time scale from pico- to micro-seconds) spectroscopy and confocal microscopy (at a single nanoparticle level). He is author of 24 international papers,2 book contributions, has given talks at 6 international conferences, and seminars at the “1^st Round Table Discussion Meeting, The Molecular Foundry at LBL Berkeley” in the framework of the “Italy-USA Cooperation for the Implementation of Nanocrystals in Novel Technologies”. He also worked within international collaborations with the “Ornstein Laboratorium” at Utrecht University, Utrecht, and the “Laboratoire Kastler Brossel” at “Pierre et Marie Curie“ University, Paris.

Vito Fasano, PhD in Biomolecular Nanotechnologies, graduated in Physics at University of Salento in 2010. In 2014 he completed the PhD program at the Department of Mathematics and Physics "Ennio De Giorgi" of the University of Salento in collaboration with Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Center for Biomolecular Nanotechnologies (CBN). His PhD research has included the characterization of conjugated and dye-doped polymers, organic crystals and polymer nanofibers. These systems have been studied by absorption, photoluminescence, and optical gain spectroscopies, analysing lasing properties, quantum-yields and photoluminescence life-times, and by laser confocal microscopy. He also worked in the framework of an internship at the Frascati National Laboratories (LNF) of the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN). During the post-Lauream period, he achieved the title of Material Manager assigned by the Italian Ministry of Labour. He is author of 7 scientific papers and of 9 contributions presented at international conferences. He is currently NANO-JETS research fellow at the Department of Mathematics and Physics "Ennio De Giorgi" of the University of Salento.

Luigi Romano is currently hired as NANO-JETS research fellow at CNR-NANO. His research includes the optical characterization of light-emitting dyes and natural polymers in the form of nanofibers. He graduated magna cum laude in Medical Biotechnology and Nanobiotechnology in 2014 with a master thesis on the release studies of embedded chromophores and bioluminescent proteins in core-shell fibers produced by coaxial electrospinning, for drug delivery applications. In 2010 he graduated in Biotechnology with a bachelor thesis in organic chemistry, focused on the characterization of synthesized conjugated molecules, graphene and derived-complexes by chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques (TLC, GC, GC-MS and NMR).

Martina Montinaro graduated in Physics of Matter at University of Salento in 2013, with a thesis on the realization and characterization of polymer nanofibers. She focused her educational growth on nanotechnology and materials science. In her bachelor and master thesis at National Nanotechnology Laboratory (CNR-Nano) she worked on magnetoresistive effects in materials and piezoelectricity in polymer nanofibers, respectively. She also collaborated with a spin-off of “La Sapienza” University of Rome, born in the Innova s.p.a. group, being involved in optoelectronics and environmental monitoring research. Finally, she developed physical modeling for the Nickbusters project, awarded silver medal in the Igem (International Genetically Engineered Machine) 2013 competition, whose aim has been to engineer a non-pathogenic bacteria to detect and extract nickel concentration in water. She is currently NANO-JETS fellow PhD student at the University of Salento.

Alberto Portone graduated magna cum laude in Medical Biotechnology and Nanobiotechnology at University of Salento in 2013. In 2010 he graduated in Biotechnology with a bachelor thesis focused on the direct and indirect interactions between the proteins RILP, Rab 7 and the V1G1 subunit of the vacuolar ATPase. In his master thesis at the National Nanotechnology Laboratory (CNR-Nano), he worked on the realization of micro-patterned surfaces by soft-lithographic techniques, in order to control cell adhesion and morphology. Moreover, he analyzed the effect of the cell shape on differentiation of human stem cells. Afterwards, he continued his studies at CNR-NANO by a fellowship on surface functionalization techniques. He is currently NANO-JETS fellow PhD student at the University of Salento.