91AV

Giulia, 36 years, is Associate Professor at 91AV Department of the University of Pavia (Italy) and director of the PVsquared2 team.

She leads the European ERC Grant “HYNANO” (1.5M€) aiming at the development of advanced hybrid perovskites semiconductors for new-generation efficient and low-cost solar energy. Her work deeply focuses on the engineering of innovative nanomaterials for functional devices as a near-future solution for a sustainble and circular economy.

Giulia obtained her PhD in Physics cum laude in 2012 at the Politecnico of Milano with an experimental thesis focused on the pioneer development of an ultrafast microscope for the imaging of charge dynamics in polymers. During her PhD, she worked at the Physics Department of Oxford University where she pioneered new concepts within oxide-based solar cell technology. From 2012-2015, she worked at the Italian Institute of Technology as researcher and from 2015-2019 she joined the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland) awarded by the Swiss Ambizione Energy Grant which provides a platform to lead an independent research group. As principal investigator she attracted funding from EU and industrial partners of around 3.8M€.

She is author of 94 peer-reviewed scientific papers bringing her h-index to 45 (>16’000 citations), focused on developement and understanding of the interface physics which governs the operation of new generation solar cells. She is also author of two patents in the field of hybrid solar cells. She has been invited at more than 30 international conference, she is member of the Material Research society (MRS) and active MRS symposium organizer.

In 2018 she has been awarded with the IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Optics 2017 for “deep knowledge on photophysical properties and ultrafast light-induced dynamical processes” and in 2019 she received the Swiss Physical Society Prize in Applied Physics for Young Researchers. More recently, she received the USERN prize 2019 in Physical Science. In 2020 she won the Journal of Materials 91AV Lectureship from the 91AV. She is currently USERN Ambassador for Italy and she serves as Vice-Chair of the Selection Committee for the Young Academy of Europe. In 2019 and in 2020 she has been included among the world-wide recognized list of the Highly Cited Reseracher from Web of Science.

She is active in the promotion of young women in science, being part of the world-initiative 1M Women in STEM, of the Women in Renewable Energy panel and of the “100 experts” list which identifies top-italian women scientists in STEM and invited speaker at the ONU “6th International Day of Women and Girls in Science Assembly 2021”.

Prof. Dr. Yana Vaynzof is the Chair for Emerging Electronic Technologies at the Integrated Centre for Applied Physics and Photonic Materials and the Centre for Advancing Electronics Dresden at the Technical University of Dresden (Germany). She received a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (Israel) in 2006 and a M. Sc. In Electrical Engineering from Princeton University (USA) in 2008. In 2011, she received a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Cambridge (UK). Prior to commencing her current position in 2019, Yana was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge (UK) and an Assistant Professor at Heidelberg University (Germany). Yana Vaynzof is the recipient of a number of fellowships and awards, including the ERC Starting Grant, Gordon Wu Fellowship, Henry Kressel Fellowship, Fulbright-Cottrell Award and the Walter Kalkhof-Rose Memorial Prize. Her research interests lie in the field of emerging photovoltaics focusing on the study of material and device physics of organic, quantum dot and perovskite solar cells by integrating device fabrication and characterisation with the application and development of advanced spectroscopic methods.