Chiara Novara

Chiara Novara is an Associate Professor at the Polytechnic University of Turin, Department of Applied Science and Technology (DISAT). She is actively involved in research on biosensors, optical spectroscopy, plasmonic nanostructures, and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), with a focus on biomedical and agro-food applications.

• Member of the Doctoral Colleges for Materials Science and Technology (2019–2025)
• Invited member of the College of Architecture and Design
• Course collaborator for Applied Spectroscopic Methods (2019–2025)
• Lecturer for Chemistry and Chemical Sustainability of Processes and Materials in aerospace and management engineering.

Her research spans catalysis, nanomaterials, and environmental chemistry, particularly in CO oxidation, methane pyrolysis, and SERS-based biosensing. Recent projects include the DESPITE FRAUD initiative for portable food fraud detection. She supervises PhD student Ettore Grimaldi, who investigates metal-dielectric nanostructures for SERS applications.

Key publications address catalytic materials for air pollutants, miRNA detection systems, and CO2 conversion. She contributes to interdisciplinary collaborations and holds a national patent for a microfluidic-optofluidic SERS sensor. Her work integrates chemistry, engineering, and sustainability.