Marta De Luca

Academic Career

• 2023-today

  Associate Professor in the Physics Department, Sapienza University of Rome (Italy), following a direct call for ERC grant owners.

• 2021-2023

  Tenure-track Professor in the Physics Department, Sapienza University of Rome, following a direct call for Rita Levi Montalcini grant owners.

• 2019-2021

  Researcher in the Physics Department of the University of Basel (Switzerland), owing to an Ambizione grant by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

• 2015-2019

  Post-doc researcher in the Physics Department of the University of Basel in the ‘Nanophononics group’ of Prof. I. Zardo.

• 2014-2015

  Post-doc researcher in Sapienza University in the group ‘Optical Spectroscopy of Nanostructured Materials Lab’ of Prof. A. Polimeni.

Education

• 2011-2014

  PhD in Materials Science (curriculum: Physics of semiconductors) in the Physics Department of Sapienza University. Title of the thesis: ‘Optical and magneto-optical studies of III-V semiconductor nanowires’.

• 2009-2011

  Master degree in Physics at Sapienza University, 110/110 cum laude.

• 2006-2011

  Bachelor degree in Physics at the same University, 110/110 cum laude.

Grants

• 2023-2025     

  PRIN grant by Italian Ministry of University and Research in collaboration with CNR Pisa. Project title: ‘GROUNDS: Growth and optical studies of tunable quantum dots and superlattices in semiconductor nanowires’. Role: PI. Funding for Sapienza: 95 k€.

• 2023-2027     

  Sapienza grant for PI of ERC. Project title: ‘HELIOS: Bright telecom-band single photon sources in bottom-up nanowire waveguides’. Role: PI. Funding: 100 k€.

• 2024-2027     

  Sapienza grant for finalists to Horizon Europe grants. Role: PI. Funding: 21.5 k€.

• 2023-2026     

  PNNR grant by Italian Ministry of University and Research. We participate to the activities of spoke 4: ‘Development of single photon quantum states based on quantum dots operating at different wavelengths’. Role: participant with funding.

• 2022-2027     

  ERC starting grant by European Research Council. Project title: ‘NANOWHYR. Dots-in-NANOWires by near-field illumination: novel single-photon sources for HYbRid quantum photonic circuits’. Role: PI. Funding: 1.5 M€.

• 2021-2023     

  Rita Levi Montalcini grant by the Italian Ministry of University and Research. Project title: ‘Engineering the functional properties of semiconductors at the nanoscale: from photonic to thermoelectric applications’. Role: PI. Funding: 302 k€.

• 2019-2024     

  Ambizione grant by the Swiss National Science Foundation. Project title: ‘Quantum structures in nanowires: physical properties on demand by hydrogen irradiation’. Role: PI. Funding: 904 k€.

Prizes

• 2021      

  Italian Society of Physics: ‘Laura Bassi’ prize, for being the best female physicist across all areas of physics in 2021.

• 2020    

  Italian Ministry of University and Research: ‘Rita Levi Montalcini’ prize, for being among the 24 most brilliant researchers (across all disciplines) abroad and become tenure-track Professors in an Italian institution.

• 2016     

  Institute of Physics: ‘Emerging leaders’ award from IOP (Institute of Physics) for scientists in the early years of their research careers identified as leaders who will shape the direction of research in the next 50 years.

• 2015   

  ‘Best PhD thesis 2015’ prize by Sapienza University of Rome for the best five PhD thesis in 2015. The prize allowed the publication of a book based on the thesis by ‘Sapienza University’ Editor.

• 2014   

  Italian Society of Physics: ‘Piero Brovetto’ prize for the outstanding research on the magneto-optical properties of nanostructures during the PhD.

• 2014 & 2012  

  ‘Start a research’ personal grants by Sapienza for the post-doc (2014) & PhD (2012) projects.

• 2012   

  Award by the EU organization COST Action (Novel Gain Materials and Devices Based on III-V-N Compounds) for the ‘ICPS 2012’ Conference in Zurich in 2012.

• 2012   

  European Materials Research Society: Graduate Student award for the best oral presentation in the conference, for research on the electronic properties of hydrogenated InGaN alloys.

Invited talks

• International Symposium on Semiconductor Optoelectronics and Nanotechnology (ISSON) (Australia, 12/2024)

• The Conference on Optoelectronic and Microelectronic Materials and Devices (COMMAD) (Australia, 12/2024)

• The Nanotechnology Materials and Devices Conference of IEEE (Italy, 10/2023)

• The International Conference on Phonon Scattering in Condensed Matter (France, 07/2023)

• The International Symposium on Nanowire Photonics (UK, 11/2022)

• The International Conference on Solid State Devices and Materials (SSDM) conference (Japan, 09/2022)

• The 2DMAT2021 conference (France, 08/2021)

• The Asian Regional High Field Magnet conference (Japan, 12/2020)

• The EMN conference on Nanowires (Mauritius, 11/2019)

• The Swiss Forum on quantum technologies (Switzerland, 05/2019)

• The workshop on Advances in Materials at the EPFL (Switzerland, 03/2019)

• The International workshop and PhD school ‘Nanostructures for photonics’ (Russia, 05/2018)

• The Nanowires 2017 conference (Sweden, 06/2017)

• The workshop on Quantum Science and Technologies in Basel (Switzerland, 03/2017)

Invited colloquia

• Colloquium at the Federico II University of Naples for the seminars cycle in Quantum Science and Technology (Italy, 10/2023)

• Seminar at the Institute of Materials at the EPFL (Switzerland, 02/2022)

  Colloquium at the Physics Department, Sapienza University of Rome (Italy, 10/2020)

• Seminar at the EMPA Institute of the ETH (Switzerland, 07/2020)

• Colloquium at the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (Spain, 02/2020)

• Colloquium at SFB-Kolloquium: emergent relativistic effects, University of Regensburg (Germany, 12/2019)

• Seminar at the Applied Physics Department, Technical University Eindhoven (The Netherlands, 11/2019)

• Seminar at the Physics Department, University of Münster (Germany, 06/2019)

• Seminar at the EMPA Institute of the ETH (Switzerland, 09/2018)

• Seminar at the Laboratoire National des Champs Magnétiques Intenses de Toulouse (France, 01/2015)

Editorial activities

• Editorial board member of the journal Nano Futures (2021-today).

• Associate editor for Wiley-VCH ‘Encyclopaedia of Applied Physics’ (EAP), section: Thermoelectrics (2017-2023).