Dr. Giuliana Aquilanti Giuliana Aquilanti received the degree in physics with the first class honors at the University of Camerino (Italy) and after she moved to Grenoble (France) at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility. In 2002 she obtained a Ph.D. in physics at the university J. Fourier in Grenoble with a thesis entitled: “Challenges for energy dispersive X-ray absorption Spectroscopy at the ESRF: microsecond time resolution and Megabar pressures”. After the Ph.D. she got a post-doctoral and after a “scientist” fellowship at the ESRF for the study, using X-ray absorption spectroscopy, of materials at extreme condition of pressure and temperature, in addition to the ESRF users support. Since March 2009 she researcher at the XAFS beamline of the Italian Synchrotron Elettra and since March 2011 she is the head of the XAFS beamline. Her research has been focused on the study of fundamental systems such as metals, semiconductors, oxides as well as geological relevant systems at extreme conditions of pressure and temperature. More recently her research activity has been devoted to the study of the local and electronic structure of functional materials. She is involved in the project EUROLIS (www.eurolis.eu) sponsored by the European commission for the development of LiS batteries for automotive applications. She is author/coauthor of more than 100 publications. She is embodied in the referee panel of several international journals, the Romanian and Latvian ministries of education and the Canadian Synchrotron Light Source. She is the Elettra facility representative of the International X-ray absorption society, and member of the XAFS commission of International Union of Crystallography.
Synchrotron radiation is the light emitted by electrons as they are caused to change direction by magnets while circulating in storage rings at nearly the speed of light. It is successfully used in leading-edge scientific research and technologies. This light is produced over a broad spectral range, from infrared to hard x-rays of tens of kilovolts and is a million to a billion times more intense than that produced by more conventional sources, such as x-ray tubes. At about 50 synchrotron radiation research facilities more than 30,000 scientists and engineers (including thousands of students) conduct basic and applied research.
Elettra – Sincrotrone Trieste is a multidisciplinary Synchrotron Light Laboratory located in Trieste (Italy), open to researchers in diverse fields. The main assets of the research centre are two advanced light sources, the electron storage ring Elettra and the free-electron laser (FEL) FERMI, continuously operated supplying light to more than 30 experimental stations.
In this talk I will overview the numerous advantages of using synchrotron radiation in many scientific topics, with particular emphasis in the Materials science domain.