Researchers

Amedeo Agosti was born in Piacenza (Italy) in 1991. He studied Materials Science at ETH Zürich, where he obtained his M.Sc degree in 2016. He joined the group of Prof. H.J. Snaith at the University of Oxford for his master thesis, where he worked on perovskite solar cells. Previously, he obtained his B.Sc. degree in Materials and Nanotechnologies Engineering at Politecnico di Milano. Amedeo is currently a PhD student at the University of Bologna under the supervision of Dr. Giacomo Bergamini.

Nurtalya was born and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia. She moved to Germany to study chemistry where she completed both BSc and MSc at RWTH Aachen University (Prof. Magnus Rueping). During her studies in Aachen, she was involved in various research projects including asymmetric synthesis and transition metal-catalyzed organic transformation. Nurtalya is currently a PhD student at the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ) in Tarragona, Spain under the supervision of Prof. Paolo Melchiorre.

Tommaso Battisti obtained his MSc in Photochemistry and Molecular Material in 2016 with highest distinctions.

He has studied the properties of functional polymeric materials, computational and laser methodologies, nanostructured, molecular and biomimetic system and materials, synthesis of organic materials for photonics and optoelectronics, properties of molecular matter, electrochemistry and molecular and supramolecular photochemistry. Tommaso carried out his master thesis at the Institut de Science et d'Ingénierie Supramoléculaires in Strasbourg. 

During his MSc project, he synthetized and studied the self-assembly of a Pt(II) complex bearing an N^N^N azole derivative tridentate ligand and peptide functionalized moieties as ancillary ligands that are able to form molecular materials and in particular 1D fibrils. The project aimed to understand the interplay of peptides H-interactions and Platinum orbitals interactions in the formation of the supramolecular aggregates in order to produce functional, tailored molecular materials.

He is currently a PhD student at Cardiff University under the supervision of Dr. Davide Bonifazi.

Lexie (Ruolin) Cheng was born in Nanjing (China) in 1991. She obtained her B.Sc. in Material Science and Engineering at Nanjing University of Science and Technology. She completed her M.Sc. at Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2016, where she worked on water splitting under visible light. Lexie is currently a PhD student at KU Leuven under the supervision of Prof. Johan Hofkens and Prof. Maarten Roeffaers.

Kaituo Dong was born in Jining (China) in 1987. After received his B.Sc. in Material Science and Engineering at Shandong University, he worked in China Shipping Industry Corporation, responsible for metal heating. He obtained his M.Sc. at China University of Petroleum in 2014 focusing on the photocatalysis of metal oxide, then he worked for three years, managing many devices such as PL/microwave plasma/AFM/XRD. Kaituo is currently a PhD student in Technion under the supervision of Prof. Lilac Amirav.

Argyri obtained her Bachelor in chemistry and Masters in physical chemistry from University of Crete in 2014 and 2016 respectively. Her bachelor and master theses were carried out in IESL-FORTH and were focused on material processing with laser. More specific she worked on developing new photosensitive materials for Non-linear Lithography. She also combined Pulsed laser deposition and standard ZnO aqueous chemical growth to uniformly cover 3D structures fabricated with NLL, with ZnO nanorods.

Currently she is a PhD student at Politecnico di Milano and working at CNR-IFN under the supervision of Prof. Roberta Ramponi and Dr Shane Eaton.

Haowei Huang was born in Jiangxi (China) in 1990. He obtained his first master degree from Fuzhou University (China) in 2015, his thesis mainly focused on TiO₂ photocatalyst. After that, he moved to University of York (UK) where he worked on Fe₂O₃ photoanode and obtained his second master degree. Haowei is currently a PhD student at KU Leuven under the supervision of Prof. Maarten Roeffaers and Johan Hofkens.

Ewelina Kuna graduated in 2013 from Warsaw University of Technology in Chemical Technology then participated in the Leonardo Da Vinci Program at the University of Cordoba where she worked on the characterization of heterogeneous catalyst. From 2014 to 2016 she was a research assistant at the Institute of Physical Chemistry Polish Academy of Science in Poland where she studied various aspects of synthesis and characterization of novel hybrid organic-inorganic materials tested in photocatalytic processes. As a PhD student within the PHOTOTRAIN project, Ewelina will focus on the spectroscopic study of: (i) the electron- and energy- transfer processes of the supramolecular photosynthetic systems formed at the liquid-liquid and solid-liquid interfaces and (ii) the photoinduced electron- and energy- transfer processes of the self –assembled adducts in dynamic microfluidic conditions.

Thien was born in Vietnam in 1991. In 2013, he obtained his B.Sc. in Material Science at Vietnam National University then spent one year working at Samsung Electronic Vietnam as an assistant researcher. From 2014 to 2016, he participated in Erasmus Mundus joint master’s course: Material for Energy Storage and Conversion (MESC) which is an European master’s course was designed to provide knowledge in the field of energy-related materials. At the moment, he is a PhD student at CNR‑Institute of Photonics and Nanotechnologies with his research focuses on femtosecond laser nanofabrication of artificial leaf on glass under the supervision of Prof. Roberta Ramponi and Dr. Shane Eaton.

Oliwia was born in Kraków (Poland) in 1992. She obtained her B.Sc. in 2014 and M.Sc. in 2016 at Jagiellonian University in Kraków. Oliwia is currently PhD student at Cardiff University under the supervision of Prof. Davide Bonifazi.

Daniele was born in Foggia (Italy). He obtained the B.Sc. at Sapienza University of Rome in 2013 and the M.Sc. at Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna in 2016. He also spent one year in Japan working on the production of chemicals from non-edible biomass. 

Alex McMillan grew up in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. and moved to Scotland to pursue a Master of Mechanical & Electrical Engineering at the University of Edinburgh.   His dissertation explored novel methods of tissue engineering scaffold fabrication using a 3D printer, with a focus on cartilage replacement applications.  He held an industrial placement with the Scottish wave energy company, Albatern Ltd., designing a wave tank test model of a novel wave energy converter.  These experiences reflect his interests in bioengineering, renewable energy development, and design of new technologies.  Alex served as president of the Edinburgh University Mountaineering Club and enjoys time spent in the outdoors, particularly hiking and climbing in the mountains. 

Enrolled through the University of Cardiff, Cristofer will be carrying out his research at Chirotech Technology Ltd. in the UK. Cristofer completed his MSc from University of Pisa and Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa with top marks. He spent 10 months in Paris working on his Master thesis “Functionalization of furfural derivatives via novel catalytic sequences”. He has participated in various national and international scientific competitions, obtaining important awards. For the PHOTOTRAIN project, Cristofer will be focusing on photo-organocatalysis in microfluidic and flow. He speaks Italian, English, and French. 

Gustavo Ribeiro was born in Aveiro, Portugal in 1992. He obtained his B.Sc. in Biochemistry at the University of Lisbon and his M.Sc. from the NOVA University of Lisbon in Bioorganic Chemistry. His master thesis title was "synthesis and study of multi-component reactions using 3-formylchromone". Gustavo is currently a PhD student at the University of Trieste under the supervision of Prof. Paolo Tecilla.