Curriculum Vitae

• Personal and contact information
• Education
• Positions held
• Professional service
• Awards and honors
• Research interests
• Research skills
• Teaching experience
• Foreign languages

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Personal and contact information

Education

• PhD in Electronic Devices
  February 2001, Trento University
  Thesis title: Growth and Characterization of SiC Thin Films by a Plasma Assisted Technique for Electronic Applications
  
  
• MD in Physics (full honors)
  July 1996, Torino University
  Thesis title: Physical Properties and Stability of Silicon Based Amorphous Semiconductors
  

Positions held

• December 2017 - Present
  Associate Professor at Politecnico di Torino
  Department of Applied Science and Technology (DISAT)
  
  
• January 2012 - November 2017
  Confirmed Assistant Professor at Politecnico di Torino
  Department of Applied Science and Technology (DISAT)
  
  
• November 2008 - December 2011
  Confirmed Assistant Professor at Politecnico di Torino
  Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering (DISMIC)
  
  
• January 2007 - October 2008
  Confirmed Assistant Professor at Politecnico di Torino
  Department of Physics
  
  
• January 2004 - December 2006
  Assistant Professor at Politecnico di Torino
  Department of Physics
  
  
• November 2000 - December 2003
  Post-doc Research Assistant at Politecnico di Torino:
  Technologies for silicon based micro-electro-mechanics
  
  
• November 1997 - October 2000
  Ph.D. student in Electronic Devices, Universita di Trento, Politecnico di Torino and Universita di Genova (consortium):
  Growth and characterization of polycrystalline and epitaxial SiC
  
  
• April - October 1997
  Research collaborator at the Istituto Elettrotecnico Nazionale Galileo Ferraris,Turin:
  Project, realization and characterization of a-Si:H and a-SiC:H based UV detectors
  Project of multilayer structures for optical filters by numerical optimization techniques
  
  
• January - March 1997
  Research collaborator at INFM (National Institute for the Physics of Matter):
  Growth and characterization of silicon based thin films
  
  
• September - November 1996
  Post-graduated grant at INFM (National Institute for the Physics of Matter):
  Development of a program for the simulation of carrier photogeneration in solar cells with variable energy gap profile
  
  

Professional service

Editorial service

• 2023 - present: Member of the Editorial Board (Review Editor) of the Journal Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology

• 2020 - present: Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal Coatings

• 2016 - 2017: Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the InTech publisher for the field of Materials Science

• 2011 - 2014: Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal ISRN Material Science

• 2003: Member of the International Advisory Committee of Symposium G at the E-MRS 2003 Spring Meeting

Guest editor service

• 2022: Special Issue "Recent Advances in Silicon-Based Amorphous and Nanostructured Coatings" of the journal Coatings (MDPI)

• 2019: Special Issue "Non-Releasing Surfaces and Thin-films with Antibacterial Properties" of the journal Coatings (MDPI)

• 2018: Special Issue "Silicon-based Bioactive Materials and their Applications" of the journal Applied Sciences (MDPI)

• 2018: Special Issue "Functional Oxide and Oxynitride Coatings" of the journal Coatings (MDPI)

Referee service

• Applied Sciences (MDPI)
• Applied Surface Science (Elsevier)
• Advanced Electronic Materials (Wiley)
• Biomedical Materials (IOP)
• Biomedicines (MDPI)
• ChemistrySelect (Wiley)
• Coatings (MDPI)
• Crystal Growth and Design (ACS)
• European Journal of Oral Sciences (Wiley)
• Journal of Applied Physics (AIP)
• Journal of Applied Biomaterials and Functional Materials (Wichtig Publishing)
• Journal of the Electrochemical Society (ECS)
• Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ASP)
• Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics (IOP)
• Materials (MDPI)
• Materials Research (Scielo)
• Metals (MDPI)
• Micromachines (MDPI)
• Nanotechnology (IOP)
• Nanomaterials (MDPI)
• Plasma (MDPI)
• Plos One (PLOS)
• Physica Status Solidi (a) (Wiley)
• RSC Advances (RSC)
• Solid-State Electronics (Elsevier)
• Surface and Coatings Technology (Elsevier)
• The European Physical Journal Plus (Springer)
• The Journal of Physical Chemistry (ACS)

Awards and honors

• 2017: II Level (Associate Professor) National Scientific Qualification in the following fields

  • Experimental Physics of Matter
  • Applied Physics, Didactics and History of Physics

• 2006: listed in Who's Who in the World 2006, published by Marquis Who's Who

• 2003: listed in Who's Who in Science and Engineering 2003-2004, published by Marquis Who's Who

• 2001: European Material Research Society - Young Scientists Award

Research interests

Plasma assisted processes

• Numerical simulation of plasma processes
  • simulation of the first stages of RF-CCP discharges


• Plasma assisted surface modification of materials at the nanoscale
  • plasma-assisted surface modification of Ti surfaces for biomedical applications
  • low temperature, plasma-assisted (low pressure and APP) surface modification of carbon fibers and textiles


• Non-thermal plasma assisted abatement processes
  • plasma-driven catalysis (PDC) processes for the abatement of atmospheric pollutants

Materials

• Amorphous and nanocrystalline materials
  • amorphous Si-based materials (a-Si:H, a-SiC_x:H, a-SiN_x:H, a-SiO_x, a-SiO_xN_y, a-SiC_xO_yN_z)
  • Si nanocrystals embedded in a-SiC_x, a-SiN_x or a-SiO_x matrix
  • amorphous C-based materials (a-C:H, a-CN_x:H)
  • a-WO₃ electrochromic thin-films
  • ITO thin films on glass and polumeric substrates
  • Cr nanolayers on polymeric substrates
  
  
• Mono/polycrystalline materials
  • microcrystalline and polycrystalline Si
  • polycrystalline and epitaxial SiC
  
  
• Multilayer structures
  • Si-based multilayer structures for optical filters and resonant cavities
    
  
  
• Biomedical applications
  • Bioactive coatings for osseointegration acceleration
  • Antibacterial coatings
  • Coatings for biocompatibility improvement
  • Barrier coatings against diffusion of metal ions
  
  

Devices

• PV and energy saving applications
  • thin-film, Si-based transparent solar cells
  • electrochromic devices
  
  
• Sensing applications
  • a-Si:H and a-SiC:H based UV detectors
  
  
• Power electronics applications
  • Schottky diodes based on 4H-SiC
  
  
• Biomedical applications
  • cell adhesion sensors
  • surface modified dental implants
  
  

Research skills

• Plasma-assisted processes for thin-film growth of and surface modification
  • radio frequency - capacitively coupled plasma (RF-CCP)
  • electron cyclotron resonance (ECR)
  • RF/DC magnetron sputtering and reactive sputtering
  • plasma etching and reactive ion etching (RIE)
  • dielectric barrier discharge (DBD)
  
  
• Characterization of materials, thin-films and surfaces
  • Optical transmittance and reflectance measurements
  • Sub-gap optical absorption measurement
  • constant photocurrent method (CPM)
  • photothermal deflection spectroscopy (PDS)
  • FTIR spectroscopy
  • Raman spectroscopy
  • optical contact angle analysis (OCA)
  • Roughness analysys
  • X-ray diffractometry
  
  
• Numerical computation
  • simulation of low-pressure plasma-assited processes
  • simulation of the optical absorption in solar cells
  • simulation of the optical properties of thin films
  • design and optimization of multilayer structures
  
  
• Computer-related skills
  • operative systems: DOS, Windows, Linux
  • office applications: MS Office, Open Office, Libre Office
  • software for data analysis: Origin, Grace, QtiPlot, SciDavis
  • programming languages: Python, Fortran, C

Teaching experience

• Teaching activity at Politecnico di Torino (2003 - present)
  

  • Graduate courses:

    • 2019-present: Nanosurfaces and nanostructures: from synthesis to applications (in English),
      MD in Nanotechnology for ICT, course responsible.
    • 2011-2018: Physical properties at the nanoscale, nanomanipulation and nanoprocessing (in English),
      MD in Nanotechnology for ICT, course responsible.
    • 2010-present: Materials for MEMS and characterization of technological processes (in English),
      MD in Nanotechnology for ICT, teaching assistant.
    • 2004-2010: Laboratory of advanced physical technologies (in Italian),
      MD in Physical Engineering, course responsible (except in 2010 teaching assistant).
    • 2004-2010: Physics of materials and processes (in Italian),
      MD in Physical Engineering, teaching assistant.
    • 2004-2009: Characterization of technological processes (in English),
      MD in Nanotechnology for ICT, teaching assistant.

  • Undergraduate courses:

    • 2018-present: Physics I (in Italian),
      shared by various BSc in Engineering, course responsible.
    • 2005-2017: General physics and Laboratory of general physics (in Italian),
      shared by various BSc in Engineering, teaching assistant.
    • 2004-2010: Introduction to experimental techniques (in Italian),
      shared by various BSc in Engineering, teaching assistant.
    • 2004-2009: Surface physics (in Italian),
      BSc in Materials Engineering, teaching assistant
    • 2004: Elements of the structure of matter (in Italian),
      BSc in Information Engineering, teaching assistant.
    • 2004 General physics I (in Italian),
      shared by several BSc in Engineering, course responsible.
    • 2003-2010: Vacuum and cryogenic techniques (in Italian),
      BSc in Physics Engineering: teaching assistant.

• Teaching activity at private institutions:

  • Agilent Vacuum Technologies

    • 2010 - 2012: Advanced Vacuum Training (in Italian and English)
    • 2010 - 2012: Basic Vacuum Training (in Italian and English)

  • Varian Vacuum

    • 2006 - 2009: Advanced Vacuum Training (in Italian and English)
    • 2006 - 2009: Basic Vacuum Training (in Italian and English)

Foreign languages

• English written and spoken (First Certificate in English - A grade)