Cristiana Di Valentin

Prof. Cristiana Di Valentin is a Full Professor of General and Inorganic Chemistry at the Department of Materials Science, University of Milano Bicocca, and serves as Group Leader at NanoQlab and the Centro di Nanomedicina. Her research focuses on nanomedicine, photocatalysis, and computational chemistry, with notable contributions to graphene-based materials and surface reactivity. She leads major grants, including an ERC Consolidator Grant (2016-2021) and Cariplo Foundation projects.

Education: She holds a B.S. and M.S. in Chemistry from the University of Pavia (1997, 110/110 cum laude), a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Pavia & TU Munich (2000), and an IUSS Graduate Diploma (2000).

Research Interests: Her work integrates theoretical and computational methods to study nanomaterials for energy, catalysis, and biomedical applications. Key themes include functionalized TiO₂ surfaces, graphene interfaces, and nanoparticle-biomolecule interactions. Recent studies explore photocatalytic oxidation pathways, ligand-mediated targeting, and stealth nanodiamond design.

Publications: Over 147 peer-reviewed articles (Scopus H-index 46), with recent work emphasizing graphene-Pc heterostructures for gas sensing, Pd-cyclometalated catalysts, and molecular dynamics simulations of drug-nanoparticle interactions.

Awards: Nasini Medal (Italian Chemical Society, 2011), ERC Consolidator Grant, and prizes for student research mentorship (IUSS, 1998-2000).

Grants & Labs: PI of the Smart bioinorganic hybrids for nanomedicine (ERC) and Beyond graphene (Futuro in Ricerca). Active in collaborations for computational modeling (CINECA grants) and experimental validation of nanodevices.