Francesca Venturini

Francesca Venturini is a Professor of Applied Optics at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), School of Engineering, where she leads the Spectroscopy Team. She has been with ZHAW since December 2017 and serves as Deputy Head of the Applied Optics research focus. Additionally, she co-founded and leads R&D at TOELT GmbH since November 2018 and serves as an expert at Innosuisse since January 2023. Her professional journey includes significant roles at Mettler-Toledo AG and Bruker BioSpin AG in R&D leadership positions.

• PhD in Physics, Technical University of Munich (1998-2003)
• M.Sc. in Physics, Università degli Studi di Firenze (1992-1997)
• Research stay at The George Washington University (1997-1998)
• CAS in Higher Education Didactics, Pädagogische Hochschule Zurich (2016)
• PGCert in Business Administration, The Open University Business School (2007)

Professor Venturini's research spans optics, spectroscopy, and sensor technology with a strong emphasis on applying machine learning to physical measurements. Her work particularly focuses on fluorescence and Raman spectroscopy for food quality assessment, especially olive oil analysis, where she has developed innovative approaches combining optical sensing with AI techniques. She has made significant contributions to oxygen and temperature sensing using luminescence technologies and has pioneered methods for analyzing physicochemical properties through spectral data.

Her recent publications reveal a strong trend toward applying deep learning to spectroscopic data analysis, particularly in food science applications. The majority of her recent work centers on olive oil quality assessment using fluorescence and Raman spectroscopy combined with machine learning techniques. She has developed novel approaches for domain adaptation with small datasets, feature extraction methods, and explainable AI for spectroscopic analysis. Her research increasingly bridges the gap between fundamental optical physics and practical applications in agrifood quality control.

• Reviewer for Springer Nature
• Reviewer for Elsevier
• Reviewer for Optica
• Reviewer for MDPI
• Reviewer for Royal Society of Chemistry
• Reviewer for European Research Council

Professor Venturini actively leads multiple research projects including DEEPWine (virtual oenologist using deep learning and optical spectroscopy), Internet of Things #Amfora, and Raman for Process Analytics. She has secured funding for numerous completed projects focused on sensor development, including optical gas sensors, miniaturized gas sensors, and diagnostic tools for NMR CryoProbes. Her research group collaborates extensively with industry partners to translate optical sensing technologies into practical applications.

She is actively involved with the Spectroscopy Team at ZHAW's School of Engineering, which focuses on developing innovative optical sensing solutions. Her team works at the intersection of physics, engineering, and data science, creating compact, intelligent sensors for various applications including food quality assessment, environmental monitoring, and industrial process analytics. The group maintains strong connections with international research networks and industry partners to ensure practical relevance of their developments.