Congratulations to our Ph.D. student Patrizia Mazzeo for winning one of the best poster prizes at EuChemS CompChem 2023, an event organized by the European Chemical Society in Thessaloniki. The title of her poster was "Unraveling the Photoactivation of a Blue Light Using Flavin Photoreceptor through Excited-State SCF Dynamics". The AppA photoreceptor has a pivotal role in the regulation of photosynthesis in bacteria. Its activation is initiated by blue-light absorption, and a complex mechanism which combines electrons and protons transfers follows, leading to the active state.
Congratulations to our PhD students Tommaso Nottoli and Ivan Giannì for their publication entitled "A robust, open‐source implementation of the locally optimal block preconditioned conjugate gradient for large eigenvalue problems in quantum chemistry" in the Journal of Theoretical Chemistry Accounts. They present two open-source implementations of the locally optimal block preconditioned conjugate gradient (LOBPCG) algorithm to find a few eigenvalues and eigenvectors of large, possibly sparse matrices.
Congratulations to our PhD student, Elisa Rossi, for the publication entitled "Catalytic Fabric Recycling: Glycolysis of Blended PET with Carbon Dioxide and Ammonia." This work presents a practical, scalable approach for recycling PET and PET/cotton fabrics using catalytic glycolysis with ammonium bicarbonate (NH4HCO3). The catalytic method outperformed conventional acid/base and metal catalysis, enabling selective recovery and upcycling of cotton-based materials on a large scale (up to 213 g).
Congratulations to our Ph.D. student Andrea Giovanelli for winning one of the best presentations at Macrogiovani 2023, an event organised by "Associazione Italiana di Scienze e Tecnologie delle Macromolecole" (AIM) in Catania. The title of his presentation was "Solid State NMR characterisation of a model Anion Exchange Membrane". The urgent need of a green transition requires new strategies for the production and conservation of energy.
