Andrea Zitolo

OMRI The Order of Merit of the Italian Republic () is the most senior Italian order of merit. It was established in 1951 by the second President of Italy, President of the Italian Republic, Luigi Einaudi. The highest-ranking honour of the Republi ...

(Pescina, born 1980) is an Italian French scientist (with

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

full professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a 'person who professes'. Professors ...

status) and

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

specialized in

physical chemistry Physical chemistry is the study of macroscopic and microscopic phenomena in chemical systems in terms of the principles, practices, and concepts of physics such as motion, energy, force, time, thermodynamics, quantum chemistry, statistical mech ...

and

material science A material is a substance or mixture of substances that constitutes an object. Materials can be pure or impure, living or non-living matter. Materials can be classified on the basis of their physical and chemical properties, or on their geol ...

Life and career

Zitolo, who was born in the

Province of L'Aquila The province of L'Aquila () is the largest, most mountainous and least densely populated Provinces of Italy, province of the Abruzzo region of Italy. It comprises about half the landmass of Abruzzo and occupies the western part of the region. It ...

Abruzzo Abruzzo (, ; ; , ''Abbrìzze'' or ''Abbrèzze'' ; ), historically also known as Abruzzi, is a Regions of Italy, region of Southern Italy with an area of 10,763 square km (4,156 sq mi) and a population of 1.3 million. It is divided into four ...

, grew up in

Ladispoli Ladispoli is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, Metropolitan City of Rome, in the Italy, Italian region of Lazio. It lies about west of Rome, on the Mediterranean Sea. History Modern Ladispoli includes the site ...

, a seaside city that is currently part of the

Metropolitan City of Rome Capital Metropolitan City of Rome Capital () is an area of local government at the level of metropolitan city in the Lazio region of Italy. It comprises the territory of the city of Rome and 120 other ''comuni'' (: ''comune'') in the hinterland of the c ...

. After his diploma at the Liceo Scientifico Sandro Pertini, he started his studies at

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome (), formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", abbreviated simply as Sapienza ('Wisdom'), is a Public university, public research university located in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1303 and is ...

. He graduated in

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

with a specialization in

and top marks ''(110 cum laude/110)''. At the same university, he obtained his PhD in

Chemical Sciences Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions: their com ...

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 Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, 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". On 2020 he obtained a Agence nationale de la recherche grant to start and coordinate “Spectroscope”, an operando X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) study of novel non-precious metal electrocatalysts. He is part of the Supervisors habilitated to research direction at Doctoral School of

University of Paris-Saclay Paris-Saclay University (, ) is a combined Research institute, technological research institute and Public university, public research university in Orsay, France. Paris-Saclay was established in 2019 after the merger of four technical ''grandes ...

. On 2 June 2017 the

President of the Italian Republic The president of Italy, officially titled President of the Italian Republic (), is the head of state of Italy. In that role, the president represents national unity and guarantees that Italian politics comply with the Constitution. The presid ...

Sergio Mattarella Sergio Mattarella (; born 23 July 1941) is an Italian politician and jurist who has served as the president of Italy since 2015. He is the longest-serving president in the history of the Italian Republic. Since Giorgio Napolitano's death in 20 ...

nominated him Knight of the

Order of Merit of the Italian Republic The Order of Merit of the Italian Republic () is the most senior Italian order of merit. It was established in 1951 by the second President of Italy, President of the Italian Republic, Luigi Einaudi. The highest-ranking honour of the Republi ...

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 A suite, in Western classical music, is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral/concert band pieces. It originated in the late 14th century as a pairing of dance tunes; and grew in scope so that by the early 17th century it comprised up to ...

. He is also Editorial Board Member for the

Springer Nature Springer Nature or the Springer Nature Group is a German-British academic publishing company created by the May 2015 merger of Springer Science+Business Media and Holtzbrinck Publishing Group's Nature Publishing Group, Palgrave Macmillan, and Macm ...

Grou

Recent scientific works

His pioneering research interest focuses on the application of x ray absorption spectroscopy in understanding the structure and properties of fuel cell catalysts. Since 2020 he is external review panel member at

DESY DESY, short for Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (English: ''German Electron Synchrotron''), is a national research centre for fundamental science located in Hamburg and Zeuthen near Berlin in Germany. It operates particle accelerators used to ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and at

Paul Scherrer Institut The Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) is a multi-disciplinary research institute for natural and engineering sciences in Switzerland. It is located in the Canton of Aargau in the municipalities Villigen and Würenlingen on either side of the Riv ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

Activism and Philanthropy

On 2016, among other Italian celebrities, he served as Testimonial for the

World Water Day World Water Day is an annual United Nations (UN) observance day held on 22 March that highlights the importance of fresh water. The day is used to advocate for the sustainable management of Water resources, freshwater resources. The theme of eac ...

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. 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 Stem or STEM most commonly refers to: * Plant stem, a structural axis of a vascular plant * Stem group * Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Stem or STEM can also refer to: Language and writing * Word stem, part of a word respon ...

, he highlights the need of bridging the gap between institutions and investigators to answer to the new claims and needs of young scientists. Since 2020 he is a panelist for the L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awardshttps://www.jxafs.org/w/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/021_Andrea-Zitolo_CV.pdf

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zitolo, Andrea 1980 births Living people People from the Province of L'Aquila Italian physical chemists Sapienza University of Rome alumni