Curriculum

Prof. Giuseppe CRUCIANI, PhD

Dept. of Physics and Earth Sciences, University of Ferrara

Via Saragat 1 - Bldg B

I-44122 Ferrara (Italy)

E-mail: cru@unife.it Phone: +39-0532974731

Personal information

Born in Todi (Perugia, Italy)

Spoken languages: Italian (native), English (fluent), French (basic)

ERC and CUN subfields

PE10_10 Mineralogy, petrology, igneous petrology, metamorphic petrology

PE10_11 Geochemistry, crystal chemistry, isotope geochemistry, thermodynamics

SC 04/A1 - GEOS-01/A (ex-SSD GEO/06)

Present academic position

Since Dec. 1st, 2012: Full Professor of Mineralogy at the Dept. of Physics and Earth Sciences, University of Ferrara

Previous academic positions

Since Sept. 1st, 2001: Associate Professor of Mineralogy at the Dept. of Earth Sciences, University of Ferrara

Since Dec. 1st, 1993: Researcher in Mineralogy at the Institute of Mineralogy, University of Ferrara

Education

  • 1993: Ph.D. in Mineralogy (Crystallography) and Petrology at the University of Perugia, Italy.
  • 1989: Graduate magna cum laude in Geological Sciences at the University of Perugia, Italy.

Teaching

Present teaching:

  • Course Minerals and Crystal structures/Laboratory of Minerals, Microscopy and X-rays , bachelor degree in Geological Sciences
  • Course Critical Minerals for Sustainability and Renewables , master degree in Geological Sciences

Since 1993 Mineralogy, Applied Mineralogy, and Mineralogical Techniques courses taught at B.S. and M.S. degrees in Geological Sciences

Commitments at the University of Ferrara

  • 2018-2024: Deputy Director of Department.
  • 2017-2022: Contact person for the Departments of Excellence 2017-2022 grant awarded by the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR) to the Dept. of Physics and Earth Sciences.
  • 2015-2018: Coordinator of the Council of degree courses in Geological Sciences.
  • 2025-today: Coordinator of Doctorate Course in Earth and Marine Sciences (EMAS) whose is board member since 2015.

National services and appointments

  • 2016-2019: President of the Italian Zeolite Association (AIZ)
  • 2016-2018: Committee member for National Scientific Habilitation of Professors in Mineralogy, Petrology, Geochemistry and Volcanology
  • 2014-2017: Chairman of the Executive Board of the GEOITALIA Foundation
  • 2012-2013: President of the Italian Society of Mineralogy and Petrology (SIMP)

International commitments

  • 2016-today: Chairman of the Proposal Review Panel S - Hard condensed matter - Structures at ELETTRA Sincrotrone Trieste (Trieste, Italy)
  • 2021: Appointed Ambassador of SIMP for the initiative 2022: a Year to Celebrate Mineralogy (UNESCO-IYBSSD2022) organized by the International Mineralogical Association (IMA)
  • 2005-today: Associate Editor for the European Journal of Mineralogy
  • 2015-2017: Referee for synchrotron beamtime allocation at SPring-8 (Hyogo, Japan)
  • 2011-2015: Member of the Proposal Review Panel S - Hard condensed matter - Structures at ELETTRA Sincrotrone Trieste (Trieste, Italy)
  • 2011, 2013, 2017, 2018, 2019: Member of Norwegian Research Council Review Panel for programs SYNKNOYT and NANO
  • Reviewer of other funding project: NSF (2004, 2008, 2012), Swiss NSF (2021, 2022)

Awards

2022: international prize Prof. Luigi Tartufari for the Geosciences of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei with the motivation that the winner is one of the most brilliant mineralogists active internationally in the field of solving mineralogical problems in the broadest sense with their implications for the geosciences .

Organization and chair of International Congresses

  • Chairman of the 10th Conference of the Federation of the European Zeolite Associations (FEZA), Napoli (Italy), to be held in 2026
  • Member of Scientific Committee, 3rd European Mineralogical Conference, Krakow (Poland), 2021
  • Chairman of the AIZ-CIS-GIC International Meeting on Zeolite Science in Amantea (Italy), 2019
  • Member of Scientific Committee, 4th Iranian International Zeolite Conference, Golpayegan (Iran), 2017
  • Member of Scientific Committee, EUROPACAT XIII, Firenze (Italy), 2017
  • Chairman of the 2nd European Mineralogical Conference, Rimini (Italy), 2016

Research projects funded under competitive public programs

  • 2023-2025: National Coordinator of project Rubble-to-Resource (RUB2RES): Earth science knowledge for sorting and recycling Construction and Demolition Waste , call PRIN 2022 by the Italian Ministry of Science (MUR)
  • 2023-2025: National Coordinator of project ATOMA - riciclo da cernita AuTOmatizzata Macerie, call Non Serviti 2021 by the Italian Ministry of the Environment and Energetic Safety (MASE)
  • 2016-2018: Associate Researcher of project ZAPPING - High-pressure nano-confinement in Zeolites: the Mineral Science know-how APPlied to engineerING of innovative materials for technological and environmental applications , funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR)
  • 2013-2016: Local Coordinator of project Solar energy utilization and water remediation with zeolites , funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR)
  • 2009-2011: National Coordinator of project Nanomaterials for energy, funded under the framework agreement program of the Italian Ministry of Economic Development (MiSE), the National Institute of Foreign Commerce (ICE), and the Conference of Italian University Rectors (CRUI)

Research and teaching activity commissioned by the private sector

Most recent:

  • 2025-2028: Contract for a PhD scholarship co-financed by Officine Maccaferri S.p.A.
  • 2023-2025: Contract for technical/scientific consultancy with INCO Industria Colori S.p.A.
  • 2023-2026: Contract for a PhD scholarship co-financed by Diemme Filtration S.r.l.
  • 2022-2025: Technical Consultant for Provincia di Verona
  • 2021: Contract for tests with CASALE SA (Lugano, Switzerland)
  • 2020: Technical support to College of Technical Consultants of the Milan Public Prosecutor's Office on the January 2020 collapse at Tirana M4 building site
  • 2020: Contracts for Technology Development and Training and Competence Building with Tianjin Zhongjing Building Material CO., LTD (Binhai High-Tech zone, Tianjin, China)

Since 1996 many commissioned research activities managed through the Consorzio Ferrara Ricerche / Consorzio Futuro in Ricerca (CFR) agency at UniFe

Invited talks and keynotes

  • 26th Congress of the International Crystallographic Union in Melbourne (Australia) in 2023 (keynote lecture),
  • 25th Congress of International Union of Crystallography, Prague (Czech Republic), August 22-29, 2020 (keynote lecture)
  • 5th Iran International Zeolite Conference, Tabriz (Iran), August 26-27, 2018 (invited lecture)
  • 15th European Powder Diffraction Conference, Bari (Italy), 12-15 June 2016 (plenary lecture)
  • Workshop on Crystallography by advanced powder diffraction techniques , Arak University (Iran), 19 May 2015 (invited)
  • Goldschmidt Conference 2013, Florence (Italy), August 25-30, 2013 (keynote)
  • 10th International Symposium during the Congress of Italian Zeolite Association, Napoli (Italy), September 14-17, 2011 (keynote)
  • 1st Bilateral Italo/Chinese Workshop on Synchrotron Radiation Time Resolved Concurrent Experiments: Advantages and Future Applications , Shanghai (China), November 11, 2010 (invited)
  • XVII Polish Zeolite Forum, Bedlewo (Poland), May 4-8, 2010 (invited)
  • 2nd Workshop "Minerals as Advanced Materials II , Kirovsk/Apatity (Russia), July 19-25, 2010 (invited)
  • 2nd Workshop on Imaging Techniques with Synchrotron Radiation , Sanya (P.R. China), November 6-10, 2009 (invited)
  • Norwegian Synchrotron User Meeting 2009, Lillehammer (Norwey), 18-19 June 2009 (invited)

Supervised student theses

  • since 2004: 9 Ph.D. theses
  • since 1995: 48 bachelor/master theses

Major research and expertise fields

  • crystallography and crystal-chemistry of minerals and their synthetic analogues
  • studies of silicates and oxides with relevance in geology (e.g. micas in metamorphic rocks), structural behavior of zeolites upon heating/desorption/dehydration (e.g. temperature- and time-resolved in situ studies), mineral physics (e.g. ferroelastic behavior in MFI zeolite; high pressure behavior of perovskites), environment (e.g. zeolites for water remediation technologies), energy (e.g. zeolites for solar energy harvesting and storage, solar perovskites), cultural heritage (e.g. historical mortars), material sciences (e.g. anatase as electrode for solar cells), catalysis (e.g. acid sites in zeolites; anatase for hydrogen production and abatement of pollutants; crystal structures of catalyst supports, CO2 usage, biochar), sensors (e.g. sulfides for VOC sensing), ceramics (e.g. melilite, perovskite, spinel and other oxides, as sustainable pigments; phosphates), cements (e.g. hydration kinetics), building materials (e.g. lime production and use), clay minerals for paleoclimate reconstructions, CDW recycling (e.g. attached mortar problem)
  • experimental expertise mostly focused on single crystal and powder diffraction, both with conventional X-rays and large-scale facility radiations (synchrotron X-rays and neutrons), Rietveld refinement, micro-computed tomography, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

Bibliometrics (Scopus, May 2025)

  • Total number of journal articles: 188
  • Number of book chapters: 12
  • h-index (Scopus, based on 200 documents cited): 41
  • Total number of citations (Scopus, based on 200 cited documents): 5.349

Co-editor of book Celebrating the International Year of Mineralogy- Progress and Landmark Discoveries of the Last Decades published by Springer Nature in 2023.

Giuseppe Cruciani is, among the researchers in Italy belonging to the scientific disciplinary sector of Mineralogy, one of the only five to appear within the top 2% of scientists in their main subfield according to the ranking list of Ioannidis et al. 2024 (the so-called Stanford ranking ), which evaluates scientists on a global scale for the citation impact until the end of 2023 of their career in the long term (DOI: 10.17632/btchxktzyw.7).

Author profiles