Alfonso Pedone
Department of Chemical and Geological Sciences
University of Modena and Reggio Emilia
Via G. Campi 183, 41125, Modena
Phone: +39 0592058553
EDUCATION
July 2004 Degree in Chemistry (summa cum laude) at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (UniMORE) with a thesis entitled 'Development of algorithms for the rationalization of data coming from Molecular Dynamics Simulations', under the supervision of Prof. Ulderico Segre and Prof. Maria Cristina Menziani.
March 2008 Ph. D. in Chemistry at the UniMORE with a thesis entitled 'Computational Modelling of physical-chemical properties of inorganic amorphous materials' under the supervision of Prof. Ulderico Segre.
VISITING SCIENTIST
May 2005 Visiting scientist at the laboratories headed by Prof. S. Coluccia and Prof. P. Ugliengo at the University of Turin;
Sept.-Dec. 2006 Visiting scientist at the lab of Prof. A. N. Cormack at the Alfred University, Alfred, NY, USA
April 2008. Visiting scientist at the lab of Prof. V. Barone at University of Naples.
May 2013. Visiting scientist at the Interdisciplinary Department on Molecular Systems and Materials of the IRAMIS Institute at the Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA) in Saclay, France.
February 2015. Visiting Scientist at The School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University College of London, UK.
June 2016. Visiting Scientist at the ‘L’école Nationale Superéure de Chimie de Paris, Chemie ParisTech, FR.
PREVIOUS POSITIONS AND FELLOSHIPS
From April 2008 to April 2009. Postdoctoral position at the Department of Chemistry of UniMORE granted by Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena on a project entitled 'Mechanical and Spectroscopic Properties of silica-based glasses for biomedical applications through computational chemistry methods'.
From April 2009 to December 2010. Fellowship in theoretical and computational chemistry at the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa. The position was granted by Telecom Italia.
From December 2010 to 30 October 2015. Researcher at the Department of Chemical and Geological Sciences of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia.
NATIONAL SCIENTIFIC ENABLING (ASN):
2012: I got the enabling for the position of Associate Professor in the sector 03/A2 Models and Methodologies for Chemical Sciences and the sector 03/B1 Fundamentals of chemical sciences and inorganic systems.
2013: I got the enabling for the position of Associate Professor in the sector 03/A2 Models and Methodologies for Chemical Sciences and the sector 03/B1 Fundamentals of chemical sciences and inorganic systems.
2017: I got the enabling for the position of Full Professor in the sector 03/A2 Models and Methodologies for Chemical Sciences.
MEMBERSHIPS AND APPOINTMENTS
Member of the Division of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry (DTCC) of the Italian Chemical Society.
I have been elected in the governing council of the DTCC for the years 2014-2017. I am the youngest member of the board.
Member of the Interuniversity Consortium for Science and Technology of Materials (INSTM)
Member of the CECAM (Centre Européen de Calcul Atomique et Moléculaire) node of the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa.
Member of the “Virtual Integrated Laboratory for Large-scale Applications in a Geographically distributed Environment” (M3-VILLAGE; http://m3village.sns.it), which is a virtual network with nodes in several University Departments for High Performance Computing.
Member of the Doctorate School ‘Multiscale Modelling, Computational Simulations and Characterization in Materials and Life Science’ of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (from the academic years 2010/2011 to 2012/2014)
Member of the Doctorate School in ‘Models and Methods for Materials and Environmental Sciences’ of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (from 2013/1014)
Member of the PhD juries of the doctorate school in ‘Chemistry and Materials Sciences’ of the University of Turin (January 2014)
ORGANISATION OF SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS
Main/Principal Organizer of the workshop Winter Modeling 2014 in Modena (http://wintermodeling.sns.it/). Winter Modeling is an annual meeting on different topics of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry allowing young Italian scientist to meet international leading experts in the field.
Member of the Scientific committee of the XXV National Congress of the Società Chimica Italiana – Division of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry, Rende (CS), 2014
Member of the Scientific committee of the III National Congress of the Division of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry of the Italian Chemical Society, Roma (RM), 7-12 Settembre 2015
Member of the Scientific committee of the IV National Congress of the Division of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry of the Italian Chemical Society, Pisa (Pi), 3-5 Ottobre 2016.
Review editor della rivista open access Frontiers in Materials –Section Glass Science.
ACTIVITIES IN REFERRED SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS.
The candidate is referee of several international scientific journals such as: J. Chem. Theor. Comp., Chem. Mater., J. Phys. Chem. A/B/C, J. Mater. Chem., Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., Nanoscale, J. Non-Cryst. Solids, Solid State Ionics, Chem. Phys. Lett., Org. Lett., Comp. Mater. Sci, Dalton Transactions, Appl. Surf. Sci., Sensor Actuator.
INTERNATIONAL PRIZES/ AWARDS/ACADEMY MEMBERSHIPS
MODENA ROTARY CLUB prize titled “The best scientific brains in chemistry, physics and mathematics”, 2005.
“Primo Levi” Prize for the best young Italian researcher in chemistry released by the Italian Chemical Society, 2006
Best Poster award at the Winter Modeling workshop, Pisa, 2010. Title of the poster: ‘Modeling Optical Properties of Fluorophores in different Environments’
Best Poster award at the Congress of the Chemical Physics Division of the Italian Chemical Society, Stresa (Verbania), 2010. Title of the poster:’ Absorption and Emission Spectra of Fluorophores encapsulated in nanoparticles’.
‘Vincenzo Caglioti’ Prize released by the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (Rome), for the best young Italian researcher in chemistry under 35 years old, 2011.
Medal ‘Eolo Scrocco’ released by the Computational and Theoretical Chemistry division of the Italian Chemical Society, 2012.
ROETTI Prize released by the Computational and Theoretical Chemistry division of the Italian Chemical Society, 2017.
SUPERVISION OF PhD STUDENTS AND POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS
2012-2014. Supervisor of one Ph.D. Student, Dr. Elisa Gambuzzi working on a thesis entitled ‘Computational Modeling of Oxide Glasses’.
2012-2014. Co-Tutor of one Ph.D. Student, Dr. Davide Presti who is working on a thesis entitled ‘Computational strategies for the study of pharmaceutical molecular crystals’
2013-2017. Supervisor of one post-doctoral fellow, Dr. Francesco Muniz Miranda working on a project entitled ‘Computational investigation of optoelectronic properties of organically protected gold nanoclusters’.
2014-2016. Co-tutor of a Ph.D. Student, Dr. Tavanti Francesco working on a thesis entitled ‘Computational Modeling of Nanoparticle-Protein interactions’.
2015-2016. Supervisor of a post doctoral fellow, Dr. Elisa Gambuzzi. Title of the project: ‘Development and application of new computational protocols for the investigation of hybrid nanomaterials.
2016-2017. Supervisor of a post doctoral fellow, Dr. Davide Presti. Title of the project: ‘Role of modular phyllosilicates for the capture and storage of CO2: an experimental and computational investigation’
2016-2017 Supervisor of a post doctoral fellow, Dr. Francesco Muniz Miranda. Title of the project: ‘Computational investigation of optoelectronic properties of organically protected gold nanoclusters’
2017-2019. Co-Tutor of one Ph.D. Student, Dott. Luca Brugnoli working on a thesis entitled ‘Computational study of fuel cell components’.
2017-2018. Tutor of post doctoral fellow, Dr. Mariagrazia Fortino. Title of the project:
TEACHING ACTIVITIES
Teacher of the course: Physical Chemistry 1 - Thermodynamics at the master of science in Chemistry, UniMORE (from the academic years 2015/2016 to now)
Teacher of the course: Physical Chemistry and Spectroscopy at the master of science in Chemistry, UniMORE (from the academic years 2016/2017 to now)
Teacher of the course: General Chemistry at the master of science in Natural Sciences, UniMORE (academic years 2011/2012 – 2012/2013 – 2013/2014 - 2014/2015)
Teacher of the course: Methods in modelling and Multiscale Simulations at the doctorate school in Multiscale Modelling, Computational Simulations and Characterization in Materials and Life Science, UniMORE, since 2011.
Teacher of the course: Inorganic Environmental Chemistry at the Master of Science in Natural Sciences, UniMORE (a.y. 2010/2011).
Teacher of the course: Computational Modeling of Bio- and Nano-systems at the master course of Chemistry, Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa (a.y. 2008/2009 and 2009/2010)
SCIENTIFIC LEADERSHIP PROFILE
I conduct research in the field of computer simulations based on classical, quantum mechanical and multiscale methods applied to the study of inorganic materials, organic molecular crystals and nanomaterials for applications in the field of nano medicine, nanoelectronics, energy conversion and confinement of radioactive waste. I am interested in computational spectroscopy in general, i.e. development of protocols and codes for the simulation of solid state NMR spectra, computation of NMR and EPR parameters of organic radicals embedded in different environments and hydrid organic-metal nanoparticles, simulation of UV-Vis spectra of dye molecules.
The scientific activity of Dr. Pedone and its leadership in the field of theoretical/computational chemistry is witnessed by the large number of contributions to the most important scientific journals in chemistry, with special reference to chemical physics, theoretical chemistry and material chemistry.
He has co-authored more than 92 papers published in international journals and seven book chapters. Moreover, he has delivered more than 21 invited lectures in Italian and foreign institutions.
His papers have received over 2011 citations on the Scopus database (over 2417 in Google Scholar citations) and he has h-index = 29 (31, google scholar citations).