News

We welcome on board Simone Melesi as a new PhD student working on EspLORE project. Simone Melesi was born in 1996 in Lecco, Italy. He is a PhD student in Energy and Nuclear Science and Technology since November 2021. He obtained his Master’s degree in Materials Engineering and Nanotechnology at Politecnico di Milano (Italy) in June 2020 with a thesis project on new polymer-protein functionalized electrospun membranes suitable for sensing of common bio-targets of great interest for biomedical applications. His main interest is the stabilization and characterization of sp-hybridized carbon chains embedded into polymer matrixes (i.e., electrospun nanofibers, spin-coated films). PhD project: Production and characterization of smart nanocomposites for energy applications: polymer-dispersed functional carbon-based materials.  

We welcome on board Subrata Ghosh as a new Postdoc working on EspLORE project. Subrata grew up in Kolaghat, India. He received his Ph.D. in 2016 from Homi Bhaba National Institute, India for the thesis on “Vertical Graphene Nanosheets: Growth, Structure and Electrochemical Performance”. He has postdoctoral experiences from the University of Manchester, UK (02/2019-02/2021); Chungbuk National University, South Korea (11/2017-12/2018) and Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, India (12/2016-11/2017). Currently, he is a Seal of Excellence Awardee and continuing his Postdoc at the Politecnico de Milano, Italy. His research interests are designing nanostructures (nanocarbons, 2D materials, metal oxides and their composites), understanding the growth mechanism, and exploring them for electrochemical energy storage, electrothermal and wastewater applications. He has publications in high impact SCI-indexed journals (Adv. Energy Mater, Appl. Surf. Sci., 2D Mater., J. Appl. Phys., etc.) and contributed in book chapters. He gave several invited talks in various platforms and presented his research in many international conferences. He also served as a peer reviewer for ACS, IOP, RSC, Elsevier and MDPI journals. In spare time, he likes playing cricket, football and table tennis, cooking, gardening, watching televisions and travelling Personal homepage: https://sites.google.com/view/subrata-ghosh/ ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5189-7853

Carlo S. Casari has been recognised as outstanding peer reviewer for RSC Nanoscale Advances in 2020. Every year The Royal Society of Chemistry – RSC highlights its outstanding peer reviewers. Based on the number, timeliness and quality of reports completed over that year, each receives a certificate in recognition of their contribution. Out of over 51,000 peer reviewers from more than 120 countries in 2020, only 500 are recognised in this way. see more on RSC website

We welcome on board Andrea Macrelli as a new PhD student working on EspLORE project. Andrea Macrelli was born in 1996 in Melzo (Milano), Italy. He is a PhD student in Energy and Nuclear Science and Technology since february 2021. He received his Master’s degree in Materials Engineering and Nanotechnology at Politecnico di Milano in December 2020, with a thesis on the application of Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) to the detection of anti-epileptic drugs using paper-based silver sensors. He is mainly interested in the synthesis by both chemical and physical methods of nanostructures for energy and sensing applications, including carbon nanostructures. PhD project: synthesis and characterization of nanostructured materials for energy conversion and storage, especially for Li-ion and post Li-ion batteries electrodes.

We welcome on board Paolo D’Agosta as a new PhD student working on EspLORE project. Paolo D’Agosta was born in 1994 in Catania, Italy. He is a PhD student in Energy and Nuclear Science and Technology since 2020. He obtained his Master’s degree cum laude in Materials Engineering and Nanotechnology in October 2020 with a thesis focused on the synthesis and characterization of two-dimensional (2D) MoS2-WS2 heterostructures through scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS). His main interests concern the investigation of structural, electronic and vibrational properties of 2D materials. PhD project: pulsed laser deposition (PLD) of diverse 2D materials and heterostructures characterized by means of STM/STS, Raman spectroscopy and low-electron energy diffraction (LEED).

We welcome on board Alessandro Vidale as a new research collaborator working on the PoC PROTECHT project.

After the recent resignation of the scientist Mauro Ferrari as President of the European Research Council (ERC) we want to reaffirm independency of ERC.

Together with all the polytechnic community we go on studying, teaching, working and do research, even if remotely, for the time being.

The project PROTECHT has started on 1st of Msrch 2020. PROTECHT is a ERC Proof-of-Concept project granted with the aim at exploiting EspLORE research outputs for possible business opportunities. In a 18 months activity funded with € 150.000 PROTECHT will exploit novel anticounterfeiting solutions for identity documents.

A new opportunity for Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) individual fellowship 2020 is open at the EspLORE project. Politecnico di Milano is launching the third edition of the Master Class (MSCA EF MASTER CLASS 2020 @ POLIMI) for potential applicants to the MSCA – European Individual Fellowship call 2020. Look for “Development of sp-carbon linear nanostructures and functional nanomaterials” in the framework of the ERC EspLORE. The aim of the call is to attract and train young and talented researchers to successfully applying for MSCA European Fellowship with the Politecnico di Milano as host institution. Application deadline: April 24th 2020 The selected candidates will be invited to Politecnico di Milano for 3 days (10-12 June 2020) to attend the MSCA MASTER CLASS to meet their supervisors, to visit laboratories and facilities, to attend an in depth training course on the proposal writing and to make use of full support in the application writing process by POLIMI advisors. Further info here: MSCA EF MASTER CLASS 2020 @ POLIMI

Francesco Tumino is now at Elettra, the third-generation Italian synchrotron radiation facility at Trieste, to participate to a beam time at SuperESRCA beam line to investigate 2D materials in the framework of a new collaboration. https://www.elettra.trieste.it/index.html

Sonia Peggiani won the silver Elsevier Young Scholar Award at the  International Conference on Diamond and Carbon Materials 2019 (DCM 2019) in Seville, Spain, September 8-12, 2019.

SIMULATION OF MOLECULAR SYSTEMS FOR CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS AND BIOLOGY Residential course for PhD students organized by PhD programme in Materials Engineerng with the collaboration of PhD programmes in Energy and Nuclear Science and Technology will be at the Polimi campus in Lecco in the period 10-14 june 2019. Molecular simulation is a family of powerful computational methods which are widely used in materials science and engineering, biophysics, chemistry, chemical engineering, drug design and many other areas.The aim of the course is to provide a critical understanding of these methods and a practical introduction to their use. EspLORE will be present with Dr. Alberto Milani with a lecture entitled Molecular spectroscopy: Introduction to molecular spectroscopies and observables. Quantum chemical calculation of spectroscopic properties: in-depth discussion of IR and Raman vibrational spectra, elements of molecular excited states and UV-VIS spectra. Patrick Serafini will attend the School.

Politecnico di Milano is working to favour women in STEM. On 22 of March a meeting to favour women enrolling in STEM studies was dedicated to girls from the fourth year of High Schools having already taken the admission test at Politecnico di Milano.  Some research women in STEM at POLIMI spoke about  their experience to 100 girls attending and 150 girls connected in streaming. Sonia Peggiani as a PhD candidate in Energy and Nuclear Science and Technology was present talking about her role in the EspLORE project together with a PhD candiadate in Biomedical Enigneering, a PhD candidate in Mathematics, a post doc in Management Engineering and a Researcher in Aerospace Engineering.

Saturday April 6th at POLIMI Open day 2019 the EspLORE team was involved in stands, demostrations and presentations for the Open Day of Politecnico di Milano for high school students willing to study STEM. Andrea, Valeria, Francesco, Sonia, Andi, Marina, Nicolò, Bozhena, Clara, Carlo actively participated for study courses in Material Engineering and Nanotechnology and in Nuclear Engineering.

On the new issue of Magazine Alumni Politecnico – MAP (vol 5 Spring 2019) pages 24-32 are dedicated to the some of the ERC projects at Polimi. Page 27 is dedicated to EspLORE. Click here to read the magazine (in italian): MAP- Magazine Alumni Polimi Vol. 5  Spring 2019 

Andi Rabia has been selected to participate to the doctoral school on Advanced Atomic Scale Characterisation (2018-2019) organized by Idea League. The IDEA League is a strategic alliance between five leading European universities of technology. Each member is an internationally renowned, research-oriented university and is the largest producer of science and engineering graduates in its own country. The IDEA league is formed by Delft University of Technology (Netherlands), ETH Zürich (Switzerland), and RWTH Aachen University (Germany), Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden) and Politecnico di Milano. school website: http://idealeague.org/advanced-atomic-scale-characterisation-2018-2019/