Silvia M. Pietralunga is a Researcher at the Institute of Photonics and Nanotechnologies at Italian National Research Council (CNR-IFN), since 2011. She is Senior Researcher since 2023.
From 1994-to 2011: She graduated (cum laude) in Optoelectronics Engineering at Politecnico di Milano, Italy in 1993. She got her Ph.D. in Electronic and Communication Engineering in 1998.
She started her career as a photonics engineer, first as an adjunct lecturer at the Dept. of Electronics of Politecnico di Milano, and then with Corecom Lab (1995-2008), a private research consortium co-funded by Pirelli SpA company and Politecnico di Milano. She lately became Principal Investigator and Head of the Materials and Devices Area and Physical Optics Lab.
Her research-and-development activities were related to the processing and switching of signals for fiber-optics communications, with focus on:
-design, realization and test of electrooptical modulators for optical signal at 1500nm, photoconductive and electronic transport phenomena
-Linear and nonlinear optics; optical spectroscopy and ellipsometry
– Evolution of the optical state of polarization in propagation in optical fibers , its dispersion and compensating techniques
-Photoelastic optical tomography for the determination of the stress field and birefringence
-Photon statistics of amplified optical signals and related impact on the performance of transmitted telecom signals.
-Materials science: growth and characterization of nanostructured and hybrid photonic materials; growth of Ge/Si and tellurite glass thin films by magnetron sputtering
-Plasmonics
-Hybrid integration and packaging of optical and optoelectronic subystems
She was then employed by Fondazione Politecnico di Milano (2009-2011), involved in photovoltaics and photonics for energy applications.
From 2012-to present: With IFN-CNR, she is involved in materials and surface science research, mainly devoted to -but not restricted- energy applications. She collaborates with the Dept. of Physics of the Politecnico di Milano, to research activities related to Electron Microscopy, Electron Spectroscopy and X-rays spectroscopy.
She has authored more than 100 international publications, in scientific journals and conference proceedings, and she holds 9 international patents.
Projects with IFN-CNR:
In recent years, with CNR-IFN she has been responsible for activities, workpakages or for the CNR-IFN Research Unit in several national and international research projects, in the areas of Optical Technologies, Physical Optics, and applied photonics
(2013-2015): Project TIMES-” Technologies and materials for an efficienct usage of solar energy”(CNR-Regione Lombardia) ( WP leader )
(2016-2018): Project I-ZEB-Towards smart Zero-Energy Buildings for Smart Cities (CNR-Regione Lombardia).
(2021-2023): Project BEST-4U “Technologies for high-efficiency bifacial 4-terminal solar cells for ‘utility scale” ( WP co-leader and Responsible for IFN-CNR Research Unit)
(2020-2022): Project sPATIALS3- HUB “improving agrifood production and advanced technologies for a healthier, safe and sustainable food” ( Responsible for IFN-CNR Research Unit)
(2023-2024): Project PRIN-PNRR NANOSEES “NANOscale nondestructive spectroscopic mapping of defectS in heterojunction dEvicES – NANOSEES” (Responsible for Activitiy and IFN-CNR Research Unit).
(2024) : Project Proof-of-Concept AMICO2 -BISTROT-“BIfacial SpecTRal splitting Optical concentrator for 4- Terminal photovoltaics” ( Coordinator)
Since 2015 she is also key-person for the Italian Partner in EU networking projects supporting the European Technology Platform & PPP Photonics21:
(2015/2017) H2020-EUROPHO21-“Implementing the European Photonics21 PPP strategy”
(2018/2020) H2020-NextPho21 “Developing and implementing the Next European Photonics21 industrial PPP Strategy”
(2021/2023) H2020-BestphoRM21 “Boosting Europe’s Sovereignty in Technology by driving Photonics from Research to Market – Photonics21”
( 2024/2026) HE – Phorwards21 “Photonics from research to market: Empowering Europe’s strategic autonomy, supporting the green deal and securing resilience – Photonics21”
Scientific Affiliations
Past President IEEE Photonics Society Italy, IEEE Senior Member
OPTICA Senior Member
Academic Teaching
(2006-2007) Adjunct Professor of Optoelectric Packaging at Politecnico di Milano (Italy)
(2007-2008) Professor of Optoelectric Packaging at IUSS-Pavia (Italy)
(2013-2018) Adjunct Professor of Experimental Physics at Politecnico di Milano (Italy) .
(29018-present) Lecturer of Experimental Physics at Politecnico di Milano (Italy)
She is supervisor and/or co-supervisor of Thesis in Electronics and Physical Engineering at the M.Sc.and Ph.D. levels.