Sara Nocentini

Sara Nocentini is a Researcher at the National Institute of Metrological Research (INRiM) in Turin, working in the Division of Metrology of Innovative Materials and Life Sciences. She holds an International PhD in Atomic and Molecular Photonics from the European Laboratory for Nonlinear Spectroscopy (LENS) in Florence (2017) and completed postdoctoral positions at LENS and CNR-INO.

Her academic background:

• International PhD in Atomic and Molecular Photonics, LENS, Florence (2017)
• Postdoctoral Researcher, LENS (2017-2019)
• Postdoctoral Researcher, CNR-INO (2019)

Nocentini's research integrates smart polymers with photonic systems to create autonomous responsive materials. She pioneers work in liquid crystal polymers, two-photon direct laser writing, and nonlinear photonic materials for applications in microrobotics and optical cryptography. Her focus on low-power nonlinear optical effects enables breakthroughs in integrated photonics and cryptographic functions.

Her scientific contributions have earned the Woman in Science Fellowship at Humboldt University (2022) and an ERC Starting Grant for '3DnanoGiant' (2024). Additional recognition includes national and international scholarships supporting her photonics research.

Nocentini leads major initiatives as coordinator of a metrology project, the national PRIN 2022 project 'Photag', and the ERC-funded '3DnanoGiant' project developing nano-porous 3D-printed polymer networks with liquid crystals. She serves as a reviewer for high-impact journals in material science and photonics.

At INRiM, her team fabricates 2D/3D photonic structures for all-optical logic gates, ultrafast nonlinear activation, and self-oscillating photonic crystals. Current work explores soliton propagation in 3D+1 space to pioneer unsupervised bottom-up 3D printing technologies for next-generation photonic devices.