Education
September 2018: Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches (HDR) in Chemistry, University of Lorraine, Metz & Nancy, France.
December 2006: Ph.D. in Chemical Sciences; Thesis: “Development and Application of Methods Based on Extremely Localized Molecular Orbitals” (Supervisor: Prof. Maurizio Sironi), University of Milan, Italy.
July 2003: Laurea degree (equivalent to B.S. + M.S) in Chemistry (110/110 cum laude ); Thesis: “
A new strategy to relax extremely localized molecular orbitals: the ELMO-CI method” (Supervisor: Prof. Maurizio Sironi), University of Milan, Italy.
Professional career
July 2024 – Present: Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering “Giulio Natta”, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy.
October 2011 – June 2024: Permanent CNRS researcher, Laboratory of Theoretical Physics and Chemistry, CNRS & University of Lorraine, Metz & Nancy, France.
September 2008 – September 2011: Post Doctoral Researcher, CNR – Institute of Chemistry of Molecular Recognition (Prof. Giorgio Colombo Research Group), Milan, Italy.
November 2006 – August 2008: Post Doctoral Researcher, Quantum Theory Project, University of Florida (Prof. Kenneth M. Merz Jr. Research Group), Gainesville, Florida, USA.
Main research topics
Development of new quantum chemistry methods:
Construction of libraries of extremely localized molecular orbitals;
Embedding methods based on extremely localized molecular orbitals;
Fast and accurate techniques for the determination of noncovalent interactions in systems of biological interest;
New quantum computing algorithms in the framework of the Valence Bond theory.
Development of new computational techniques for quantum crystallography:
Methods for the determination of “experimental” wave functions consistent with X-ray diffraction data;
Exploitation of the X-ray restrained wave function approach in the context of Density Functional Theory (DFT);
Extension of the Hirshfeld atom refinement (HAR) technique to macromolecular systems and to non-molecular crystals.
Publication records
More than 70 papers and book chapters (7 as single author, 14 as first authors (beyond single-author contributions), 22 as last authors (beyond single-author contributions) and 43 as corresponding author).
More than 35 oral communications at conferences and schools (30 as invited speaker).
More than 20 invited seminars at universities or scientific institutions.
Fundraising
1 ANR Project as principal investigator (National Research Agency (ANR), France).
1 PEPS Mirabelle Project (Projets Exploratoires Premier Soutien “Mirabelle”) as principal investigator (CNRS and University of Lorraine, France).
2 Jean Barriol Institute projects as principal investigator.
1 METZ Eurométropole projects as principal investigator.
Institutional roles in scientific societies
August 2022 – Present: Chair of the Special Interest Group on Quantum Crystallography (SIG-02) of the European Crystallographic Association.
Agosto 2018 – Agosto 2022: Secretary of the Special Interest Group on Quantum Crystallography (SIG-02) of the European Crystallographic Association.