Bio
Dr. Grazia Giuseppina Politano is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Calabria at the Department of Environmental Engineering, focusing on light–matter interaction at the nanoscale for solar membrane distillation. She earned her master’s degree in physics (cum laude) in 2016 and a PhD in “Physical, Chemical and Materials Sciences and Technologies” in 2021, with research spanning thin films, nanostructured materials, and advanced optical characterization techniques such as spectroscopic ellipsometry and Raman spectroscopy. Her multidisciplinary expertise bridges physics, chemistry, and materials science, covering topics from two-dimensional materials and nanophotonics to functional membranes for sustainable technologies. Dr. Politano has authored more than 30 scientific publications on thin films.

Talk
Elimination of noise in spectra by linear and nonlinear methods

Bio
Professor Aspnes received his PhD in 1965 from the University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign (UIUC). Following a year as a postdoctoral research associate at UIUC and another at Brown University, he joined Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, as a member of the technical staff. In 1984, he became Head of the Interface Physics Department of the Bellcore, the part of Bell Laboratories that went with the operating companies in the AT&T divestiture. He joined NC State University as a Professor of Physics in 1992, and was named Distinguished University Professor of Physics in 1999. https://physics.sciences.ncsu.edu/people/aspnes/

Talk
Ellipsometric study of porous polymer films with tuneable refractive index

Bio
Adele Sassella is Full Professor of Experimental Condensed Matter Physics at the University of Milano–Bicocca since 2016. At the beginning of her career, starting in the ‘90, her research focused on impurities and defects in single-crystal silicon, as well as on silicon-based dielectric thin films. Since 1997, she has worked on organic molecular materials, which have become her main area of research. Her activity was at first devoted to the establishment of a laboratory for the deposition of thin films and heterostructures of organic molecular materials under ultra-high vacuum, using organic molecular beam epitaxy (OMBE). Subsequently, the characterization and study of the deposited samples became the central focus of her research. Her work has addressed thin films and heterostructures belonging to several families of organic materials, including oligothiophenes, porphyrins, acridines, and oligoacenes, enabling comparative studies within molecular families. A key aspect of her recent research is the selection of crystalline solid substrates that promote epitaxial growth of the materials of interest. This approach allows precise control over the morphological and structural properties of the grown films and, consequently, over their optical and transport properties. The main experimental techniques employed in the study of OMBE-grown films and heterostructures include optical spectroscopy techniques - such as polarized light absorption and ellipsometry - and scanning probe microscopies. Through numerous national and international collaborations, the structural and light-emission properties of the grown systems are also investigated to reach a more comprehensive understanding of their physical properties.

Talk
Title of talk: Wafer-scale quasi-2D gold for optoelectronics applications

Bio
Georgy Ermolaev received a Ph.D. in “Broadband optical properties of MoS2 for photonic applications” in 2022 from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. After receiving a Ph.D. Georgy Ermolaev became Research Studies Manager in Xpanceo (Dubai, United Arab Emirates), a deep tech company specializing in next-generation optoelectronic devices. In 2023 Georgy Ermolaev also joined the University of Rome Tor Vergata (Rome, Italy) as a Visiting Researcher. His research interest encompasses various areas, such as ellipsometry, 2D and quantum materials, integrated nanophotonics, biosensors, plasmonics, scanning near-field optical microscopy, and smart contact lenses. Georgy Ermolaev has an impressive publication record, with over 50 published papers and more than 1500 citations during the last 5 years.