Davide Bonifazi was born in Guastalla (Italy) in 1975. After obtaining the “Laurea” in “Industrial Chemistry” from the University of Parma (1994-1999) working with Prof. Enrico Dalcanale (organic synthesis and metal-directed self-assembly of cavitands derivatives), he joined the group of Prof. François Diederich as doctoral fellow (organic functionalization of [60]fullerene and porphyrin derivatives) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich (2000-2004). During his doctoral studies he has been also visiting scientist at the Weizmann Institute Scientist working with Prof. David Cahen. He was awarded the Silver Medallion of the ETH for his doctoral dissertation (2005). After a one-year postdoctoral fellowship with Prof. Maurizio Prato at University of Trieste (organic functionalization of carbon nanotubes), he joined the Department of Pharmaceutical Science at the University of Trieste as a research associate first and then as a part-time Researcher/Professor (2012-2016). In 2006, he joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Namur (BE) as Junior Professor (2006-2011) and as Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry (2012-2015). Since 2016 he is Chair Professor of Organic Supramolecular Chemistry in the School of Chemistry at Cardiff University (UK). In 2010, he was awarded with the “Ciamician Medal” from the Organic Division of the Italian Chemical Society and in 2011 he gained an ERC starting grant.

His activities are focused on the creation of functional organic architectures in interdisciplinary projects through targeted organic synthesis, self-assembly and self-organization of organic architectures in solution and on surfaces, physical-organic studies, and material- and bio-based design.

Polina studied Biology at the University of Patras, Greece and she then moved to the Netherlands to obtain an MSc in Medical Biology from Radboud University, Nijmegen.

Pursuing her passion for research, Polina obtained her PhD in Life Sciences from the University of Dundee. In Scotland she focused on characterizing the function of a novel gene in embryonic development.

She moved to Vienna for a postdoc in the Children’s Cancer Research Institute where she worked on identifying new targets and drugs for childhood cancer.

After spending over a decade in research in different labs, she decided to take on a new challenge and transitioned to a new role as a project manager. She joined the Bonifazi group in February 2023, where she is responsible for managing EU-funded projects.

Efthymios Paronis was born in Greece in 1984.

In 2020, he completed his Bachelor degree in Materials Science from University of Patras, Greece, with a degree of 7.25/10 and a thesis on thermo-mechanical design of nano-reinforced composite polymer material.

Then he continued his studies in Materials science and engineering by obtaining his master degree from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, with a final score of 8.69/10. Master degree thesis in “Development and valuation of polymeric solutions containing nano-particles for overlap of superficially modified carbon-fibers” describes the development of sizing solutions which are compatible with epoxy resins for carbon fiber coating.

He joined the group of Prof. D. Bonifazi at the Universität Wien (Vienna, Austria) in November 2023, as a laboratory technician.

Laura Maggini was born in La Spezia (Italy) in 1984. She obtained her Master Degree in Organic Chemistry at the University of Rome – Sapienza (Italy) in 2006 investigating the reactivity of sulfoxide radical cations. She then moved to the University of Namur (Belgium) as a Marie Sklodowska Curie ITN ESR PhD candidate (Finelumen project N°215399), to pioneer the exploitation of the supramolecular functionalisation of CNTs with purposefully designed molecular modules to gain new functions, direct the assembly and enhance the activity of the resulting hybrid systems. During her PhD she was also a visiting scientist in the group of Prof. Aida at the Riken Institute in Tokyo (Japan), where she investigated the directed embedding of the functional hybrids developed into hydrogel matrices. Funded by two consecutive Marie Sklodowska Curie Individual Fellowships she first joined the group of Prof. De Cola at the Institut de Science et d’Ingénierie Supramoléculaires (I.S.I.S.), University of Strasbourg (France), to develop the synthesis of “breakable” functional mesoporous silica NPs for drug delivery formulations (Pop-silica project N° 627788). And later the group of Dr. De Volder at the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM), University of Cambridge (UK), to study the controlled assembly of hybrid nanomaterials exploiting additive manufacturing technologies in the pursuit of multi-scale engineered advanced materials (Supra-CNTs project N° 702435).

Since 2020 she joined the Institute for Organic Chemistry at the University of Vienna (Austria) as Senior Researcher associated to Prof. Bonifazi’s group, leading the research effort aimed at developing novel manufacturing platforms and scale up production processes for the functional organic supramolecular materials produced in the laboratory.

Oral presentations:

3) 4th EuCheMS Chemistry Congress, Prague, Czech Republic “Supramolecular functionalisation of MWCNTs with Eu(III) Complexes: Novel Luminescent Materials for Photonic Applications”.

2) FNRS Contact Group on “Electronic Interactions in Supramolecular Systems and Nanomaterials”, Universitè Libre de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, Belgium, September 13, 2010. “Light-triggered solubilization of CNTs”.

1) Summer Workshop on “Supramolecular Functional Materials”, Bibione, Italy, May 20-22, 2010. “Coulombic interactions in CNT’s functionalization”

Publications:

9) L. Maggini, M. Liu, Y. Ishida, D. Bonifazi, “Anisotropically luminescent hydrogels containing magnetically-aligned MWCNTs-Eu(III) hybrids”. Adv. Mater. 2013, DOI: 10.1002/adma.201204698 (VIP paper, back cover page).

8) L. Maggini, J.-M. Raquez, R. Marega, J. Jensen-Ahrens, F. Pineux, F. Meyer, Ph. Dubois, D. Bonifazi, “Magnetic Poly(vinylpyridine)-Coated Carbon Nanotubes: An Efficient Supramolecular Tool for Wastewater Purification”. ChemSusChem 2013, DOI: 10.1002/cssc.201200413.

7) L. Maggini, T. Marangoni, B. Georges, J. M. Malicka, K. Yoosaf, A. Minoia, R. Lazzaroni, N. Armaroli, D. Bonifazi, “Azobenzene-based supramolecular polymers for processing MWCNTs”. Nanoscale, 2013,5, 634-645.

6) L. Maggini, F. Toma, L. Feruglio, J. Malicka, T. Da Ros, N. Armaroli, M. Prato and D. Bonifazi, “Luminescent Blooming of Dendronic Carbon Nanotubes through Ion-pairing Interactions with an Eu(III) Complex”. Chem. Eur. J. 2012, 18, 5889-5897 (VIP paper, cover page).

5) L. Maggini, F. De Leo, R. Marega, H. Tohati, K. Kamaras and D. Bonifazi. “CNTs-based Metal-Ion Catchers as Supramolecular Depolluting Materials”. ChemSusChem 2011, 4, 1464-1469.

4) L. Maggini and D. Bonifazi. “Hierarchised luminescent organic architectures: design, synthesis, self-assembly, self-organisation and functions”.  Chem. Soc. Rev. 2012, 41, 211-241.

3) L. Maggini, J. Mohanraj, H. Traboulsi, A. Parisini, G. Accorsi, N. Armaroli and D. Bonifazi. “A Luminescent Host–Guest Hybrid between a EuIII Complex and MWCNTs”. Chem.-Eur. J. 2011, 17, 8533-8537.

2) L. Maggini, H. Traboulsi, K. Yoosaf, J. Mohanraj, J. Wouters, O. Pietraszkiewicz, M. Pietraszkiewicz, N. Armaroli and D. Bonifazi. “Electrostatically-driven assembly of MWCNTs with a europium complex” Chem. Commun. 2011, 47, 1625-1627.

1) E. Baciocchi, O. Lanzalunga, A. Lapi and L. Maggini. “Stereochemistry of the C-S Bond Cleavage in cis-2-Methylcyclopentyl Phenyl Sulfoxide Radical Cation” J. Org. Chem. 2009, 74, 1805-1808.

Josue Ayuso-Carrillo is a native from the Yucatán Península, México. He obtained his first degree in Chemical Engineering from the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán (Mérida, México) and his Master degree in Inorganic Chemistry from the Universidad de Alcalá and the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Madrid, Spain).

He earned his PhD in Chemistry (2016) from the University of Manchester (Manchester, United Kingdom) under the supervision of Prof. M. Ingleson and Prof. M. Turner, where he developed novel synthetic approaches for conjugated polymers.

Postdoctoral positions followed at Chalmers University of Technology (Gothenburg, Sweden) as a MSCA-ITN fellow (Osniro project No. 607585), and then at Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States) with Prof. K. Noonan developing methodologies for chain-growth catalyst-transfer polymerizations. He joined the group of Prof. D. Bonifazi at the Universität Wien (Vienna, Austria) in November 2020 as a University Assistant (postdoc), where he develops novel synthetic methodologies for optoelectronic materials and devices.

André Sequeira was born in Cascais, Portugal, in 1992. He achieved his Bachelor degree in Biochemistry in 2013 at the Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa (FCUL) and his Master degree in Bioorganic Chemistry in 2015 at the Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa (FCT-UNL) under the supervision of Dr. Rita Ventura, working on carbohydrate synthesis of mannose oligosaccharides.

He worked for two years in a REQUIMTE laboratory in FCT-UNL with a partnership with Hovione Farmacêutica SA in the synthesis, characterization and purity analysis by HPLC of three active pharmaceutical ingredients, where he developed experience in solid-phase synthesis, transesterification/esterification processes, chiral separation of mixtures of diastereoisomers and optimization of salts crystallization processes.

He then started in 2018 his PhD under the supervision of Davide Bonifazi at Cardiff University, and he is currently working on Supramolecular Chemistry in the development of a photoswitchable self-assembly system using Secondary-Bonding interactions.

Dong-Min Diem, LEE was born in Cheong-Ju, South Korea, in 1993. He moved to UK in 2013 and in 2014 he completed his secondary School at INTO University of East Anglia Norwich, United Kingdom.

Afterwards, he started to study chemistry at University of Cardiff.  In October 2016, he joined the Staubitz-Group for 1-year ‘Abroad Traineeship Placement’ in Bremen University, Germany.

He was supervised by Msc. Isabel Ramirez y Medina and Dr. Anne Heitmann, working on Synthesis of organo-tin compounds and synthesis of dinucleophiles. In September 2017 he started his Master thesis in Cardiff, working on the synthesis of boron-nitrogen doped systems.

Ruben was born in Portugal, in 1993.

Rúben has a degree in Applied Chemistry and an MSc in Bioorganic Chemistry from the NOVA University of Lisbon. During his studies, Rúben worked in several projects with the Photochemistry and Supramolecular Chemistry Group.

After completing his master, Ruben joining the company Ynvisible, in Lisbon, as a Researcher working on the development and characterization of electrochromic displays. During his work at the company, Rúben worked in several European projects and collaborated with several companies, research institutes and universities. Later on, he moved to Germany were we helped to setup the company new R&D lab.

In April of 2020, Rúben joined the Bonifazi group as a PhD student, his work will be focused in the development of multi-functional electrochromic materials and devices.

Davide Zanetti was born in Torino, Italy, in 1995. He started in 2014 his undergraduate course in Chemistry and Chemical Technologies at the university of Torino (Italy).

He got his Bachelor in 2017 working on a project at the interface between industrial and supramolecular chemistry, focusing on the preparation and physical characterization of new conductive polymers for application in thermoelectric devices. The same year he started his Master course in Advanced Chemistry Methodologies at University of Torino (Italy).

He got his Master degree on October 2019 discussing a thesis about a project in collaboration between the University of Turin and the Institute of Materials Science in Barcelona (Spain) to synthetize, characterize and investigate carborane clusters bearing BODIPY fluorophores in view of possible future application into both medical and material science field.After the Master degree, he worked three months on regional project “Saturno” within Organic Department at University of Torino (Italy), focusing his attention on the identification, separation and quantification of VFA from complex matrices.

In May 2020 he moved to the University of Vienna (Austria) to start his Ph.D. under the supervision of Prof. Bonifazi at the Institute of Organic Chemistry. Specifically, his research is focused on the synthesis of O-based polycycles aromatic hydrocarbon for semiconducting and photocatalysis applications.

Cristian De Luca did his bachelor thesis entitled “New organocatalyzer with point chirality” in 2018 under the supervision of Prof. Armando Carlone at the Università degli Studi Dell’Aquila.

He enrolled in a master degree in the same university and he did 4 months internship in the University of Vienna under supervision of Prof. Davide Bonifazi and Prof. Armando Carlone (Università degli Studi Dell’Aquila) in the framework of his master thesis “Design and synthesis of porous organic frameworks for photocatalysis”. Cristian achieved his master degree in chemistry in October 2020 with a final score of 110/110 cum laude.

In February 2021 he moved to Vienna, where he started his Ph.D. in chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Davide Bonifazi, working on the synthesis of Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons oligomers doped with O-atoms for applications in photocatalysis and in optoelectronic devices.

Martina Crosta was born in Milano (Italy) in 1996. She obtained her BSc degree in Chemical Sciences and Technologies at the University of Milano-Bicocca in 2018, after working on the synthesis of carbazole-based photosensitizers for artificial photosynthesis in the Abbotto group. She then moved to Uppsala University (Sweden) to undertake Master studies in Organic Chemistry. In July 2020, she received her MSc degree with a thesis on hypoxia-activated benzothiadiazole fluorophores for cancer cell imaging in the Dyrager group. In October 2020, she joined the Bonifazi group at the University of Vienna as PhD student. Her research concerns the synthesis of boron-nitrogen doped molecular graphenes.

Terézia Morávková was born in Slovakia, 1994. She achieved her bachelor’s degree in Medicinal Chemistry (2018) and her master’s degree in Organic Chemistry (2020) at Charles University in Prague. Her bachelor’s and master’s thesis projects were focused on the enantioselective formal synthesis of natural compounds with the special focus on enantioselective allylation under the supervision of prof. M. Kotora.

Previously, during her high-school studies, she did one year of a study exchange in the USA, Michigan and during her bachelor studies, she did an Erasmus exchange in Finland (University of Helsinki).

Terézia joined Bonifazi group as a Ph.D. student in November 2020 and her work is focused on the supramolecular assembly of optically active pheromones on the surface of yeast cells.

Gianvito Romano was born in Italy in 1993. He obtained a diploma in 2012 at the “Istituto Tecnico Statale Vito Sante Longo” of Monopoli. Subsequently in the same year, after gaining a passion for chemistry, he decided to enrolled in the Materials Science course at the University of Aldo Moro studies in Bari. In 2016 he concluded his bachelor’s degree with a thesis on food packaging and in 2019 he finished his master’s degree, by a vote of 108/110, with a study on surfaces treatment. During this period, he won a fellowship in a project called “Global Thesis” which allowed him to prepare a part of his final thesis in the STRATEC Consumables company located in Salzburg. In 2020 he obtained a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship at the University of Vienna and he started his PhD in smart labels.

Daniele Poletto was born in Padova (Italy) in 1995.

In 2015 he obtained his diploma as chemistry technician from the high school “G. Marconi” in Padova.

After that, he started to study chemistry at the university of Padova. He achieved his bachelor degree in chemistry in 2017. The same year he started his master in chemistry at the university of Padova. Thanks to the Erasmus+ exchange program, he did his master thesis abroad in the university “Sigma Clermont” (Clermont-Ferrand, France), under the joint supervision of prof. Isabelle Thomas (Sigma Clermont) and prof. Fernando Formaggio (university of Padova). During this period he worked on the organic synthesis of piperidine-based molecules for therapeutic applications. He achieved his master degree in chemistry in 2019 with a final score of 110/110. Then he worked for 4 months as a scholarship holder in the department of pharmacy of the university of Padova.

In September 2020 he moved to Vienna, where he started his Ph.D. in chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Davide Bonifazi, working on the synthesis of BN-doped nanographenic structures.

Marco Franceschini was born in Venice, Italy, in 1995.

He graduated in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Padua in 2019, working on the synthesis of new cancer therapeutic agents under the supervision of Prof. Giovanni Marzaro.

Later, he joined Prof. Andrea Mattarei’s group at the University of Padua for one year, to work on synthesis of psilocybin analogues for treatment-resistant depression as a research fellow.

Following his passion for chemistry and multidisciplinary topics, in 2020 he joined the STiBNite project as a PhD student in Prof. Bonifazi’s group in Vienna, where he works on synthesis of borazine-doped organic semiconductors.

Fábio A. S. Leite is a Project Development Specialist at Ynvisible developing novel electrochromic technologies.

He holds a BSc in Biochemistry and a MSc in Bioorganic Chemistry from Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

Fábio has gained hands-on experience in the field of printed electrochromics as a junior scientist in different EU projects.

Following his passion for Material Science, Electrochromics and the Internet of Things, in 2020 he joined the CHARISMA project as a PhD student in Vienna University. Fabio’s main research topic is the development of irreversible electrochromic inks.

Liubov Rubicheva was born in Arkhangelsk, Russia, in 1997.

She obtained bachelor’s degree in chemistry at Saint Petersburg State University in 2019, followed by master’s degree there in 2021. Her thesis were devoted to the synthesis of variously substituted porphyrin-fullerene dyads.

After that, she joined the Electrochemical Department of Saint Petersburg University, where she worked on the synthesis of TEMPO-substituted monomers for electroactive polymers.

In August 2022 she joined Prof. Bonifazi group to work on the synthesis of boron-nitrogen doped graphenic structures.

Nils was born in Linz, Austria in 1998.

After graduating from a technical high school for chemical engineering (HTL Wels) in 2017, he moved to Vienna to study chemistry. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Vienna in September 2020 and subsequently started his master studies, focusing on the synthesis and characterization of organic molecules and coordination compounds. During his studies, Nils completed several internships in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry (e.g. at Thermo-Fisher Scientific and GE Healthcare).

In March 2022 he joined the group of Prof. Bonifazi for his master’s thesis, where he was working on the synthesis and characterization of BN-doped helicenes. After defending his master thesis and earning his degree in February 2023, he re-joined the Bonifazi group to carry out his PhD studies. He is currently working on the development of novel BN-doped polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) architectures.

From May to November 2023 Nils completed a research stay with Prof. Timothy M. Swager at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), supported by a MSCA staff exchange grant through the VIT-project. His work at MIT was revolving around the synthesis of microporous polymers, bearing BN-doped PAH-chromophores.

Chiara was born in Lucca, Italy, in 1997. She completed her Bachelor and Master in Chemistry at the University of Pisa, where she optimized the synthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles doped with aluminium and cobalt.
In November 2022, Chiara moved to Vienna joining BrightComSol GmbH, a company that develops and produces perovskite-based materials and nanomaterials to be used in X-rays scintillators.
In September 2023, she joined the Melomanes project as a PhD student in Bonifazi group. Her work will be focused on synthesis and characterization of iron carbide nanoparticles with a graphitic carbon coating for magnetic and optical hyperthermia.

El Czar Galleposo was born in Dapitan City, Philippines in 1996. He earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry at the University of the Philippines Diliman (UP Diliman) in 2017. Then, he joined the Institute of Chemistry at UP Diliman as an instructor from 2017 to 2021. He received his master’s in chemistry from the same university in 2020, working on metal-organic framework synthesis for proton conduction applications.

In 2021, he was awarded the Erasmus Mundus Scholarship to attend the Master in Materials Science for Energy & Use of Large-Scale Facilities (MaMaSELF+) program, spending his first year at the University of Turin and the second year at Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich. Then, he joined Empa, St Gallen, Switzerland, to work on his master’s thesis, which focused on probiotic-derived membrane vesicles for wound healing applications.

In 2023, he started his doctoral studies in chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Davide Bonifazi, working on materials for applications in optoelectronic and light-harvesting systems.

Lorenzo was born in Florence, Italy, in 1999. He completed his Bachelor in Chemistry at the University of Florence, with a thesis on the synthesis of graphene quantum dots doped with nitrogen.

Then he decided to continue the university career still in Florence and he completed his Master in Chemical Sciences with a thesis on the preparation of liposome-gold nanoparticles hybrids for SERS imaging.

In October 2023, he joined the Melomanes project as a PhD student in the Bonifazi group. His work will be about the synthesis and characterization of iron carbide nanoparticles coated with polydopamine and boron-carbon-nitrogen for magnetic and optical hyperthermia.