Andrea Zitolo

Last updated
Andrea Zitolo
Nationality Italy France
Alma mater Sapienza University of Rome
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions SOLEIL

Andrea Zitolo OMRI (Pescina, born 1980 [1] ) is an Italian French scientist and academic specialized in physical chemistry and material science.

Contents

Life and career

Zitolo, who was born in the Province of L'Aquila, Abruzzo, grew up in Ladispoli, a seaside city that is currently part of the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital. After his diploma at the Liceo Scientifico Sandro Pertini, he started his studies at Sapienza University of Rome. He graduated in chemistry with a specialization in physical chemistry and top marks (110 cum laude/110). At the same university, he obtained his PhD in Chemical Sciences with a thesis on “Structural investigation of lanthanoid coordination: a combined XAS and Molecular Dynamics study” and he started his career as researcher. Years after, he moved to Paris, to work at the Synchrotron Soleil, where he is currently employed as scientist. Italian press said he moved to France "in order to revolution the world of low-cost energy". [2] On 2020 he obtained a Agence nationale de la recherche grant to start and coordinate “Spectroscope”, [3] an operando X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) study of novel non-precious metal electrocatalysts.

On 2 June 2017 the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella nominated him Knight of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic for his contribution to the advancement of Science and in January 2018, the French Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer nominated him Knight of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques. [4]

He is also Editorial Board Member for the Springer Nature Group.

Recent scientific works

His pioneering research [5] interest focuses on the application of x ray absorption spectroscopy in understanding the structure and properties of fuel cell catalysts. [6] [7] [8]

Since 2020 he is external review panel member at DESY in Germany and at Paul Scherrer Institut in Switzerland. [9]

Activism and Philanthropy

On 2016, among other Italian celebrities, he served as Testimonial for the World Water Day campaign of the Green Cross, advocating on the need of saving and protecting natural resources such as Water and showing their importance for the advancement of Science. [10]

Sensitive to the issues related to the transformation of the Higher-Education System and Research, consequently affecting the evolution of young researchers' career in STEM, he highlights the need of bridging the gap between institutions and investigators to answer to the new claims and needs of young scientists. [11] [12] [13]

Since 2020 he is a panelist for the L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Surface science</span> Study of physical and chemical phenomena that occur at the interface of two phases

Surface science is the study of physical and chemical phenomena that occur at the interface of two phases, including solid–liquid interfaces, solid–gas interfaces, solid–vacuum interfaces, and liquid–gas interfaces. It includes the fields of surface chemistry and surface physics. Some related practical applications are classed as surface engineering. The science encompasses concepts such as heterogeneous catalysis, semiconductor device fabrication, fuel cells, self-assembled monolayers, and adhesives. Surface science is closely related to interface and colloid science. Interfacial chemistry and physics are common subjects for both. The methods are different. In addition, interface and colloid science studies macroscopic phenomena that occur in heterogeneous systems due to peculiarities of interfaces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Synchrotron light source</span> Particle accelerator designed to produce intense x-ray beams

A synchrotron light source is a source of electromagnetic radiation (EM) usually produced by a storage ring, for scientific and technical purposes. First observed in synchrotrons, synchrotron light is now produced by storage rings and other specialized particle accelerators, typically accelerating electrons. Once the high-energy electron beam has been generated, it is directed into auxiliary components such as bending magnets and insertion devices in storage rings and free electron lasers. These supply the strong magnetic fields perpendicular to the beam that are needed to stimulate the high energy electrons to emit photons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">X-ray absorption fine structure</span> Specific structure observed in X-ray absorption spectroscopy

X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) is a specific structure observed in X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). By analyzing the XAFS, information can be acquired on the local structure and on the unoccupied local electronic states.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Extended X-ray absorption fine structure</span> Measurement of X-ray absorption of a material as a function of energy

Extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS), along with X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES), is a subset of X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). Like other absorption spectroscopies, XAS techniques follow Beer's law. The X-ray absorption coefficient of a material as a function of energy is obtained by directing X-rays of a narrow energy range at a sample, while recording the incident and transmitted x-ray intensity, as the incident x-ray energy is incremented.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource</span> Research center at Stanford University

The Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, a division of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, is operated by Stanford University for the Department of Energy. SSRL is a National User Facility which provides synchrotron radiation, a name given to electromagnetic radiation in the x-ray, ultraviolet, visible and infrared realms produced by electrons circulating in a storage ring at nearly the speed of light. The extremely bright light that is produced can be used to investigate various forms of matter ranging from objects of atomic and molecular size to man-made materials with unusual properties. The obtained information and knowledge is of great value to society, with impact in areas such as the environment, future technologies, health, biology, basic research, and education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">X-ray absorption spectroscopy</span> Spectroscopic technique

X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) is a widely used technique for determining the local geometric and/or electronic structure of matter. The experiment is usually performed at synchrotron radiation facilities, which provide intense and tunable X-ray beams. Samples can be in the gas phase, solutions, or solids.

The Australian Synchrotron is a 3 GeV national synchrotron radiation facility located in Clayton, in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria. The facility opened in 2007, and is operated by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keith Hodgson</span>

Keith O. Hodgson is a professor of chemistry at Stanford University and formerly director of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource.

ANKA is a synchrotron light source facility at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). The KIT runs ANKA as a national synchrotron light source and as a large scale user facility for the international science community. Being a large scale machine of the performance category LK II of the Helmholtz Association, ANKA is part of a national and European infrastructure offering research services to scientific and commercial users for their purposes in research and development. The facility was opened to external users in 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Synchrotron Light Source II</span> Research and Development Facility in New York, United States

The National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in Upton, New York is a national user research facility funded primarily by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science. NSLS-II is a synchrotron light source, designed to produce X-rays 10,000 times brighter than BNL's original light source, the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS). NSLS-II supports research in energy security, advanced materials synthesis and manufacturing, environment, and human health.

Operando spectroscopy is an analytical methodology wherein the spectroscopic characterization of materials undergoing reaction is coupled simultaneously with measurement of catalytic activity and selectivity. The primary concern of this methodology is to establish structure-reactivity/selectivity relationships of catalysts and thereby yield information about mechanisms. Other uses include those in engineering improvements to existing catalytic materials and processes and in developing new ones.

Romain Murenzi is a Rwandan-American physicist and former Rwandan science minister. He graduated with a bachelor's degree from the University of Burundi in 1982. In 1986 he received his master's degree in physics from Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium and in 1990 earned his doctorate degree there. Murenzi was the executive director of TWAS, The World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries in Trieste, Italy. He first served in that role from April 2011 to May 2016. Then, after spending 14 months as director of the Division of Science Policy and Capacity Building in the Natural Sciences sector for UNESCO in Paris, France, he returned to his role as executive director of TWAS in September 2017 until stepping down in November 2023 to teach at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Zitoun</span> Israeli chemist and materials scientist

David Zitoun is an Israeli chemist and materials scientist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jingguang Chen</span> Chinese-American chemical engineer

Jingguang Chen is a Chinese-American chemical engineer. He is the Thayer Lindsley Professor of Chemical Engineering at Columbia University, with a joint appointment as Senior Chemist at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory. Over the course of his career Chen has made significant contributions to the fundamental understanding and use of novel materials for catalytic and electrocatalytic applications, including research into the development of bimetallic and transition metal carbide catalysts.

Serena DeBeer is an American chemist. She is currently a W3-Professor and the director at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion in Muelheim an der Ruhr, Germany, where she heads the Department of Inorganic Spectroscopy. Her expertise lies in the application and development of X-ray based spectroscopic methods as probes of electronic structure in biological and chemical catalysis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solaris (synchrotron)</span>

SOLARIS is a synchrotron light source in the city of Kraków in Poland. It is the only one facility of its kind in Central-Eastern Europe. Built in 2015, under the auspices of the Jagiellonian University, it is located on the Campus of the 600th Anniversary of the Jagiellonian University Revival, in the southern part of the city. It is the central facility of the National Synchrotron Radiation Centre SOLARIS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maria Asensio</span> Spanish-Argentinian physical chemist

Maria C. Asensio is a Spanish-Argentinian physical chemist, academic, researcher, and author. She is a Full Research Professor at the Materials Science Institute of Madrid (ICMM) of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and Chair of the CSIC Research Associated Unit-MATINÉE created between the ICMM and the Institute of Materials Science (ICMUV) of the Valencia University.

Ulrike I. Kramm is a German chemistry professor at Technische Universität Darmstadt. Her research considers the development and characterisation of metal catalysts for fuel cells, CO2 conversion and solar fuels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Günther Rupprechter</span> Austrian scientist

Professor Günther Rupprechter is a distinguished Austrian scientist, full professor and currently Head of the Institute of Materials Chemistry, Technische Universität Wien. He is renowned for his contributions to the fields of physical chemistry, surface science, nanoscience and nanotechnology, particularly in the area of catalytic surface reactions on heterogeneous catalysts, identifying fundamental reaction steps at the atomic level by in situ and operando spectroscopy and microscopy.

Anatoly I. Frenkel is an American physicist and professor. Frenkel is a researcher in the physicochemical properties of materials, focusing on the processes that link the nanoscale details of their structure to the mechanisms of work. His work has led to new techniques for materials characterization, including machine learning methods for X-ray absorption spectroscopy and multimodal, operando methods for catalytic studies using synchrotron radiation.

References

  1. "Andrea Zitolo: lo scienziato di Ladispoli che ha conquistato la Francia - www.baraondanews.it". Archived from the original on 2015-12-10. Retrieved 2015-12-07.
  2. "Si chiama Andrea Zitolo, è di Ladispoli ed è andato in Francia per rivoluzionare il mondo dell'energia a basso costo - Terzo Binario News". 12 August 2015.
  3. "Operando SPECTROscopies for unveiling the activity and Stability mechanisms of novel non-precious metal Cathode catalysts under OPEration in fuel cell and electrolyzer".
  4. web, Segretariato generale della Presidenza della Repubblica-Servizio sistemi informatici- reparto. "Le onorificenze della Repubblica Italiana". Quirinale.
  5. Timoshenko, Janis; Roldan Cuenya, Beatriz (2021). "In Situ/Operando Electrocatalyst Characterization by X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy". Chemical Reviews. 121 (2): 882–961. doi:10.1021/acs.chemrev.0c00396. PMC   7844833 . PMID   32986414.
  6. Zitolo, Andrea; Goellner, Vincent; Armel, Vanessa; Sougrati, Moulay-Tahar; Mineva, Tzonka; Stievano, Lorenzo; Fonda, Emiliano; Jaouen, Frédéric (September 2015). "Identification of catalytic sites for oxygen reduction in iron- and nitrogen-doped graphene materials". Nature Materials. 14 (9): 937–942. Bibcode:2015NatMa..14..937Z. doi:10.1038/nmat4367. PMID   26259106.
  7. "A quoi sert... Le Synchrotron et ses techniques structurales".
  8. Zitolo, Andrea; Ranjbar-Sahraie, Nastaran; Mineva, Tzonka; Li, Jingkun; Jia, Qingying; Stamatin, Serban; Harrington, George F.; Lyth, Stephen Mathew; Krtil, Petr; Mukerjee, Sanjeev; Fonda, Emiliano; Jaouen, Frédéric (16 October 2017). "Identification of catalytic sites in cobalt-nitrogen-carbon materials for the oxygen reduction reaction". Nature Communications. 8 (1): 957. Bibcode:2017NatCo...8..957Z. doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-01100-7 . PMC   5715157 . PMID   29038426.
  9. "Project Review Panel Members".
  10. "Un tweet (e un'azione) per salvare l'acqua". 22 March 2016.
  11. "ESY 2017 "Energies and SYnergies" - French national synchrotron facility". www.synchrotron-soleil.fr.
  12. "Energies and Synergies: Debating the role of the Higher Education System in the career advancement of scientific researchers". UNESCO. 13 April 2017.
  13. "SESAME Beamline Scientist spends 4 weeks at SOLEIL".
  14. https://www.jxafs.org/w/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/021_Andrea-Zitolo_CV.pdf