Luisa De Cola

Group Leader

Since 1 November 2020 Professor at the University of Milano(chiamata per chiara fama)and Director of the Materials for Health Laboratory at the Istituto di ricerche farmacologiche Mario Negri, Milano (Italy). She is also adjunct Scientist since 2013 at the Karlsruher Institut fürTechnologie, Germany, and since 2019she is also Honorary Professor at Tianjin University, China.

Scientific Career 1978-1983

Laurea in Chemistry summa cum laude, University of Messina (Italy), supervisor Prof. Raffaello Romeo.

1984-1986

Postdoctoral fellow (National Institute of Health fellowship) at the Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, USA (supervisor: Prof. Lidia M. Vallarino).

1986-1990

Researcher at the National Research Council, CNR, Instituto F.R.A.E, Bologna (group leader Prof. Vincenzo Balzani).

1990-1998

Assistant ProfessorUniversity of Bologna (Italy).

1998-2004

Full Professor, University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands), Chair of Molecular Photonic Materials

2004-2012

Full Professor (C4) in Physics and Chemistry, University of Münster(Germany),Chair of Nanoelectronics and Nanophotonics.

2006-2012

Part-time Professor Department of Chemistry University of Twente, The Netherlands

2004-2012

Full Professor (Class Exceptionnelle), AXA chair of Supra-molecular and Biomaterial Chemistry, at ISIS, University of Strasbourg and CNRS, France

Awards 1986

Prize for Chemistry "Fondazione U. Bonino e M.S. Pulejo”

1993

Prize for Chemistry of the "Accademia di Scienze Fisiche e Matematiche di Napoli".

1995

Federchimica National Prize " per un futuro intelligente (for a smart future)".

1995

International Prize of the European Photochemistry Association "Grammaticakis-Neumann".

2004

Finalist of the Descartes Prize 2004

2011

IUPAC prize for the most distinguished women in the field of chemistry and chemical engineering

2012

Gutenberg Chair Award

2014

Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur appointed by the President of the Republic of France, François Hollande

2014

nternational Prize for Chemistry from the Academia dei Lincei, Tartufari Prize, given by the President of the Republic of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano

2014

Luigi Sacconi lecture award, Firenze, Italy

2014

Sigma Aldrich Material Science lecture award, EPFL, Switzerland

2015

nternational Prize Catalán -Sabatier given by the Real Sociedad Española de Química

2016

Weber Prize from Rotary Club, Italy

2019

The Izatt–Christensen Award in Macrocyclic and Supramolecular Chemistry

2019

Medal from the University of Messina

2019

She is one of the 39 selected women chemists, from all times, at the Science Museum of Valencia (Ciutat de les Arts y de les Ciencies), Spain
More info.

2019

Prize Anassilaos Arte Cultura Economia e Scienze

2020

Gold Medal “Giulio Natta” from the Italian Chemical Society

2022

Doctor Honoris Causa from Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo Santander, Spain

Other Recognitions and Professional Appointments 2003-2007

Member of the Advisory Board for the Chemistry Department, Imperial College of London

2009

European Research Council, ERC Advanced Grant Award

2010-2015

Member of the evaluation panel of the ERC starting grant.

2010

Distinguished lecture, Atlanta, USA

2011

Member of the International Advisory Panel of AMADEus, LabEx of the University of Bordeaux, France

2013

Member of the Academia Europeae

2013

President of the Bürgenstock Conference 2013

2014

Member of the German Academy of Sciences, Leopoldina

2015-

Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of ICN2 (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia, Spain)

2015

Elected as a ChemPubSoc Europe Fellow

2015

Sir Jesse Boot lecture award, Nottingham, UK

2016

Member of the Akademie der Wissenschaften un der Literatur of Mainz

2016

Elected member of the “Institut Universitaire de France”, IUF

2017-2020

Member of the Committee for the Rey Jaime I Prize, Spain (together with 16 Nobel Laureates)

2017-2021

Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Department Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden

2018- 2022

Member of the International Advisory Board of Tianjin University, Health Science Platform (Tianjin, China)

2018- 2022

Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Adolphe Merkle Institute (Fribourg, CH)

2019-2022

Member of the Scientific Council of the Italian CNR, section Chemical Sciences and Materials Technology

2019-

Member of the Centre for Endoscopic Research Therapeutics and Training - CERTT

2019

Melville distinguished lecturer, University of Cambridge, UK

2019

Honorary Professor (Peyiang Professor) Tianjin University, China

2019

Elected member of the Istituto Lombardo Accademia di Scienze e Lettere

2019-2022

Member of the advisory board of CIBER-BNN, Spain

2020-2022

President of the 8th EuChemS Chemistry Congress, Lisbon, Portugal

2021

Elected to the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, AIMBE, College of Fellows Class of 2021

Supervision of Graduate students and post-doctoral fellows 1996 – 1998

co-supervision of 2 PhD and 2 post-docs University of Bologna.

1998 – 2004

12 Postdocs/ 12 PhD/ about 10 Master Students University of Amsterdam.

2004 – 2012

27 Postdocs/ 15 PhD/ more than 20 Master Students Nanoelectronics and Nanophotonics Laboratory, University of Münster, Germany

2012 – 2020

21 Post-docs/19 PhD/26 Master Students at ISIS UMR 7006, Université de Strasbourg, France and and 5 post-docs and 2 PhDs in KIT, Karlsruhe, Germany

2020-

5 Post-Docs/ 4 PhD students at the University of Milano and Mario Negri

Supervision of Graduate students and post-doctoral fellows 2001-2004

Member of the editorial board of Inorganic Chemistry (ACS)

2002-2006

Member of the editorial board of Chemistry of Materials (ACS)

2011- 2019

Member of the editorial board of ChemPhysChem (Wiley) and ChemPlusChem (Wiley)2013-

2016-2019

Member of the editorial board of Material Horizons (RSC)

2019-2023

Member of the editorial board of Angewandte Chemie (Wiley)

2020-2024

Member of the editorial board of Materials Today Bio (Elsevier)

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Member of the American Chemical Society, German Chemical Society, Italian Chemical Society and French Chemical Society

Scientific Output

Prof. Luisa De Cola is working in 2 main research areas: a) luminescent and electro-luminescent assemblies and supramolecular structures; b) responsive nanomaterials and soft matrices for imaging, diagnostics and therapy. She has published 389 papers (including Nature, Nature Chemistry, Nature Communications) and filed 38 international patents. She has a H-index = 83 and more than 23000 citations (from google scholars). She has been invited to more than 250 conferences as plenary or as invited speaker (Gordon Conferences, ESF, Solvay Conference 2011, Accademia dei Lincei, distinguished lecture 2010 Georgia Tech, Bürgenstock Conference 2012, E-MRS 2012, ACS 2015, MRS 2016, MRS 2017, ICCC 2018, Nanomedicine, ICOMM, EuCheMs...) and she has delivered more than 500 seminars/talks all over the world. She has organized several international conferences, schools and workshops. She is also in the panel of scientific organization and evaluation committee (Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) for chemistry, ERC starting grant..) including the famous Premios Rei Jaume I (section new technologies) with 16 Nobel Laureates. She has been visiting professor in Japan, USA, France, Italy and Belgium. She has completed 50 PhD thesis, supervised more that 80 post-docs and several Master students. Prof. De Cola is a member of the German Chemical Society (GDCh), the Italian Chemical Society, the French Chemical Society and the American Chemical Society. She is fellow of the Royal Chemical Society. She has been a devoted teacher and she has received several recognitions for her excellent student supervision and for the encouragement she gives to her coworkers. Her group has been awarded with several prizes: e.g. E- MRS award for the best PhD presentation (F. Fiorini 2015), Wissenshaft Prise (Nanoscience Award 2011 for C. Strassert and in 2008 for Z. Popovic), DSM Science and Technology award (finalist Z. Popovic 2008) Elsevier award 2011 (M. Tsotsalas), best PhD thesis awards: 2015 (A. Aliprandi), 2017 (S. Sinn), and electrochemical society 2017 S. Carrara, just to cite some of them. Most of her former coworkers are now university professors or cover important roles in the private sector. Finally she enjoys to give talk to general public, EXPO Milano, Berzelius lecture Sweden, TV shows, several interviews, Settimo Torinese festival della scienza and she is a AXA funding ambassador. In 2008 with the University of Muenster she has organized, and participated with a stand, to a 2 weeks exhibition “High-Tech Underground" (https://www.uni-muenster.de/AFO/projekte/abgeschlossen/hightechunderground.html) to present to the general public the most important fields of research at the University of Muenster. She loves chocolate and give scientific talks on this subject (http://www.canalc2.tv/video/10866).