Staff

Professor Alma Mater and Head of the Microchemistry and Microscopy Art Diagnostic Laboratory (M2ADL) 

He has devoted all his career to science for conservation and coordinated many national and international project among which the establishment in 1998 of the Xi’an Centre for the Restoration of Cultural Relics in China (1995-1998), the CURRIC project aimed at developing curricula for post-graduate education in science for conservation (2000-2003) and the first European PhD in Science for conservation (EPISCON project, Marie-Curie, VI Framework Programme (2005-2009).

Author of numerous scientific papers published within national and international journals. His main research interest and expertise deal with the application of advanced molecular spectroscopies (FTIR and Raman) to the study of paintings and metal alloys.

Associate Professor since 2016 and a member of the didactic commission and of the council of the Department of Chemistry, University of Bologna.

Since 2022 Silvia Prati is a principal investigator for the UNIBO local team in the National project Superstar (PRIN) and the European project GOGREEN.

Silvia Prati's research aim is studying the manufacturing technique, the state of conservation of the object or monument, and the identification of new restoration procedures.

Author of more than 95 publications in journals with IF, Participation in more than 80 conferences of national and international interest, Publication in book chapters.

Publications

Giorgia Sciutto has been an Associate Professor since 2023, teaching various topics in the CHIM/12 Chemistry of the Environment and Cultural Heritage course at the Department of Chemistry "Giacomo Ciamician", University of Bologna. She holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Sciences from the University of Bologna.

Her research focuses on the development of advanced analytical approaches for the characterization of Cultural Heritage materials, with particular emphasis on:

FT-IR Spectroscopy and Microscopy in the mid and near-infrared spectral ranges
Raman and X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy
Multispectral and Hyperspectral Imaging (HSI)
Chemometric methods for analyzing analytical signals and processing hyperspectral chemical maps
Immunochemical methods

She is the author of 55 articles published in ISI journals, with an H-index of 15 and 715 citations (Scopus). Additionally, she has contributed to 8 book chapters, various catalogues, and has presented at approximately 85 national and international conferences, including three invited oral presentations.

Publications

Lucrezia Gatti has a BSc and MSc in Conservation and Diagnostic of Cultural Heritage (Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy), and a Ph.D. in Chemistry for the Environment and Cultural Heritage (University of Bologna, Italy). She is currently a postDoc researcher at the University of Bologna, Italy. Her research interests focus on the development of analytical protocols combined with data-processing approaches for artistic and archaeological materials.
In particular, she uses spectroscopic, immunochemical, chromatographic, and mass spectrometric approaches for the characterization and investigation of artistic and archaeological remains (bones and teeth).

Francesca Ramacciotti  is a post-doc researcher at the Chemistry Department “G. Ciamician” of the University of Bologna. From 2019 to 2023 she was a PhD student in Environmental and Cultural Heritage at the University of Bologna. Her main research focus was on the development and testing of micro and nano-structured materials for the cleaning of works of art. Specifically, the methods she developed aimed at removing aged varnish from paintings and spray paint over-paintings from contemporary mural paintings. She is currently involved in the European project GoGreen focusing on the development of sustainable materials for cleaning artworks that will have an equal or greater effect than traditional materials that are more harmful to the environment. Part of this process includes the development of analytical protocols to assess the effects of their innovative treatments.

Emilio Catelli has been a research fellow at the Department of Chemistry G. Ciamician, University of Bologna, since October 2016. In the same year, Emilio obtained a PhD in Chemistry at the Norwegian University NTNU in Trondheim and simultaneously teaching the laboratory course in General Chemistry at the university.

During his PhD (2012-2016) Emilio carried out research activities related to the analysis of pictorial materials and degradation products of works of art with non-invasive hyperspectral imaging techniques (Hyperspectral Imaging). He also studied the statistical analysis of spectral and hyperspectral data with chemometric techniques.

His research interests focus on the characterization of artistic materials using spectroscopic and hyperspectral imaging techniques, as well as infrared and X-ray techniques.

Publications

Ph.D. student at the Department of Chemistry G. Ciamician of the University of Bologna, at the laboratory of Microchemistry and Microscopy of Cultural Heritage (M2ADL) of the Ravenna Campus.

Giulia is currently collaborating on the project "GoGreen”, with the aim of developing green, reproducible and micro-invasive cleaning methods for street art works.

 Ilenia Saraceno has a master’s degree in Chemistry (University of Bologna, Italy), with a thesis titled “Hyperspectral imaging and chemometric techniques for the identification and characterization of microplastics in different environmental matrices”.

Since October 2024, she has been a research fellow at the Department of Chemistry G. Ciamician of the University of Bologna, she is collaborating on Project “DIORAMA – A deep dive into the study of microplastics on aqueous matrices”. The project aim is to develop analytical methodologies for the analysis of microplastics in aqueous matrices, implementing standardized and reliable analytical methods to be applied in environmental monitoring campaigns. In particular, her research focuses on the use of molecular microscopy techniques: micro-FTIR and Raman and hyperspectral imaging (HSI), combined with data-processing approaches using multivariate techniques, which allow for determining the chemical composition and the effects of aging on polymer identification. She is also involved in the characterization of samples using stereomicroscopy and optical microscopy and in the preparation of standard microplastic suspensions and their subsequent filtration.