Pezzato

Cristian Pezzato

Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track)

Cristian Pezzato was born in Rovereto, a small town in Northern Italy. He obtained his PhD in Chemistry in 2015 at the University of Padova, Italy, working on nanoparticles-based systems for recognition and catalysis with Prof. Leonard J. Prins. Afterward, he spent three years (2015 – 2018) in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Prof. Sir J. Fraser Stoddart at Northwestern University, United States, focusing on the design and synthesis of mechanically interlocked molecules, molecular machines, and redox systems for battery technology. From 2019 to 2022, he was a junior group leader at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, where he started his independent career thanks to a Swiss National Science Foundation “Ambizione” Grant. There, he developed tools for probing the thermodynamics and kinetics of merocyanine photoacids, which are compounds able to reversibly dissociate protons following visible light absorption. In 2022, he joined the MOC lab as Tenure-Track Assistant Professor sponsored by the Italian Rita Levi Montalcini Program for young researchers. His current research encompasses the synthesis and physicochemical characterization of reversible photoacids and photobases, and the development of devices for solar energy conversion and storage – several Master Thesis projects are now available, have a look here.

Selected publications (as PI*)

ORCID: 0000-0002-6950-8967

Google Scholar