Curriculum

Mirco Natali (May 13th, 1986) is Associate Professor at the Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of Ferrara since November 2019. He obtained his PhD in Chemical Sciences in 2014 at the University of Ferrara under the supervision of Prof. Franco Scandola. He was visiting PhD Student in 2013 at the “Institut de Science et d’Ingégnerie Supramoléculaires”, University of Strasbourg, under the guidance of Prof. Luisa De Cola. During his research activity he has been involved in several national and European projects dealing with artificial photosynthesis and photoinduced water splitting (PRIN 2010-2011 2010N3T9M4 “Hi-Phuture”, FIRB 2012 RBAP11C58Y “Nanosolar”, COST Action CM1202 “Perspect H2O”).

He is author and co-author of more than 50 research articles in “peer-reviewed” international journals, comprising of 2 reviews (>1000 total citations), and a book chapter (M. Natali, F. Scandola, in "Supramolecular Artificial Photosynthesis", Springer 2016 "Applied Photochemistry: When Light Meets Molecule", ed. G. Bergamini, S. Silvi). He has delivered several lectures at international and national conferences since 2011. He has delivered invited seminars at the University of Trieste (November 2014), at the University of Milan (school of doctorate degree in Chemistry, June 2018), and at the Ponteficia Universidad Catolica de Chile (Faculty of Chemistry, October 2018). He was invited lecturer at the 3rd Cyclon Hit Summer School in Bologna (September 2016). He is the recipient of the “Copernico Award” (May 2014) for innovative PhD thesis in science and technology and of the 2nd "GIF Young Investigator Award" (December 2017), awarded by the "Gruppo Italiano di Fotochimica" (national section of the "European Photochemistry Association").

Mirco Natali’s research interests span different fields in the photochemical sciences which include: i) Artificial Photosynthesis, namely solar energy conversion into chemical fuels, wherein attention is directed towards the investigation and comprehension of photoinduced energy/electron transfer processes in supramolecular antenna/charge-separating systems as well as towards the understanding of both photoinduced water oxidation catalysis and light-driven proton reduction to molecular hydrogen; ii) photochemical processes in supramolecular assemblies; and iii) photochemistry and photophysics of coordination compounds for potential applications in optoelectronic devices (OLEDs and LEECs). In all these studies particular emphasis is given to the investigation and kinetic characterization of the photoinduced dynamics by means of time-resolved emission and absorption spectroscopic techniques in both the ultrafast (fs-ns) and fast (ns-ms) time-domain as well as on the electrochemical and spectroelectrochemical characterization of molecular systems in both homogeneous and heterogeneous phase.