Invited Speakers
Career path session
- Academic
Francesco Zamponi
Department of Physics at Sapienza University of Rome
Associate Professor
Francesco Zamponi is an Italian theoretical physicist. His research focuses primarily on statistical physics and statistical mechanics, with a particular interest in glass theory and jamming transitions. He has more than 20 years of post-graduate research experience. He worked at the italian INFM (2002), as a PhD student in Rome Sapienza (2002-2005), as a Postdoc in Theoretical Physics Laboratory at Ecole Normale Supérieure (LPT-ENS) and Saclay Theoretical Physics Institute at French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (SPhT-CEA) in Paris (2005-2007), and as a Marie Curie Fellow (2007-2008). In 2008, he became a permanent Researcher of CNRS and LPT-ENS in Paris, and he was promoted to Research Director in 2018. He was also appointed (2015-2021) as a Professeur Associé at the Physics Department of ENS Paris. He joined Sapienza University of Rome as a Professor of Theoretical Physics in 2023.
He published about 140 papers in prestigious journals covering many different fields, and co-authored two books on the physics of glasses and on inference methods for biological data. He gave about 80 invited talks in international research institutes and co-organized about 30 international scientific events. He has been one of the PIs of the international collaboration Cracking the glass problem funded by the Simons Foundation (2016-2023) and was awarded the ERC consolidator grant GlassUniversality (2017-2023).
Daniela Bonetti
Merck Healthcare
Associate Scientist
Daniela Bonetti is an Italian physicist and biochemist who has been working as an Associate Scientist at Merck KGaA, since 2018. She pursued her academic studies at Sapienza University of Rome, where she earned a Master's degree in Physics of Biosystems and a PhD in Biochemistry. In 2017, she worked as a researcher in the Biochemistry department at Sapienza University of Rome, focusing on protein folding and intrinsically disordered proteins. In 2018, she joined Merck KGaA, as a Junior Researcher, where she began to focus on the characterization of higher-order structures (HOS) of antibodies and hormones using spectroscopic techniques and calorimetry. Additionally, she has developed expertise in aggregation, employing techniques such as SV-AUC, DLS, and microscopy.
Career path session
- Non-academic
Career path session
- Non-academic
Nathan Adams
NanoTemper Technologies
Team Lead, Chemical Biology
Dr. Nate Adams leads Chemical Biology at NanoTemper Technologies, a Biophysical Tools company in Munich, Germany. At NanoTemper, Nate and his team are cooking up the next generation of assay development and labelling chemistry for in solution biomolecular interaction analysis, and along the way developing innovative detection technologies, and integrating robotic automation, and finally turning all these signals into usable results with data science and machine learning. Their latest device, the Dianthus uHTS, is the fastest biophysics screening tool on the planet, capable of screening 250,000 molecules binding to biological targets per day, or characterizing 1000 biological interactions per hour.
Before NanoTemper hired him in 2021, Nate was a senior research associate at the University of Sheffield, where he explored chlorophyll, heme, and phosphorus metabolism in marine organisms. He holds a PhD in Enzymology and Biophysics, having uncovered the protein-protein and protein-ligand interactions within the magnesium chelatase enzyme that kickstarts chlorophyll biosynthesis. He also earned a Masters in Chemistry from the same university.
Nate's career path too NanoTemper took a few turns, in addition to academic science, he's presented and written for children's television, lectured on science communication, installed giant artworks in forgotten spaces, set fire to politicians, authored books, and has won the coveted 'Over Ambitious Demonstration Challenge', These transferrable skills have given him the knack for convincing executives to back his projects and idea. When he's not doing science, Nate is a circus artist, performing aerial rope and straps.
Claudia Fasolato
Institute for Complex Systems of the National Research Council (CNR)
Researcher
Claudia Fasolato is an experimental physicist specialized in condensed matter physics, with a particular focus on functional nanomaterials. Her research has centered on the investigation of molecular systems through surface-enhanced spectroscopies, leveraging plasmonic nanostructures as nanoantennas to achieve exceptional optical sensitivity in the visible range.
By developing biofunctionalized plasmonic nanocarriers, Claudia has been able to tackle key biomedical challenges, including biosensing, cancer diagnostics, and more recently, metabolomics. Her work also extends to the study of functional inorganic nanostructures and low-dimensional systems using advanced optical techniques.
Alongside her scientific pursuits, Claudia has actively promoted science communication and outreach, collaborating with academic institutions and organizations such as The Science Zone and Doc Educational to lead educational initiatives and public engagement projects.
Since 2021, she has been a researcher at the Institute for Complex Systems (ICS) of the National Research Council (CNR) in Italy.
Recently, she was awarded a prestigious Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for her project CHIROLE, which aims to investigate the quantum role of chirality in biological systems through entirely optical experiments.
The project will be realized at the Physics Department of Sapienza University, in collaboration with ISC of the CNR.
Christoph Zechner
SISSA (International School for Advanced Studies), Trieste
Senior Assist. Professor
Christoph Zechner is a faculty member of the Molecular and Statistical Biophysics group within the Physics Area at SISSA (International School for Advanced Studies) in Trieste. His research focuses on systems biology, quantitative modeling, and stochastic processes, with particular interest in how noise and variability shape cellular decision-making. Combining theoretical approaches with close collaborations with experimental groups, he develops and applies mathematical models to investigate the dynamics of biological systems at the molecular level.
He earned his PhD from the Automatic Control Laboratory at ETH Zurich, receiving the ETH Medal in 2015 for an outstanding doctoral thesis. In 2017, Christoph established his independent research group at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) and the Center for Systems Biology Dresden (CSBD). He was named a TU Dresden Young Investigator in 2018 and became an EMBO Young Investigator in 2020.
Since December 2024, Christoph and his group have been based at SISSA, continuing their research at the intersection of physics and biology.
Funding opportunities session
- EMBO Young Investigator award
Funding opportunities session - Getting prepared for the MSCA-PF
Elisa Gigliarelli
Sapienza University, Rome
International Grant Office
Elisa Gigliarelli is an International Research Officer at Sapienza University. Since 2022, she has been involved in the strategic promotion and technical support of international programmes, with a particular focus on international funding schemes, especially within Horizon Europe (notably MSCA).
Before working at Sapienza, Elisa worked in international project support with the University of Buenos Aires and trained as public policy and programme assistant at the European Commission. She has also earned a Master in European Project Management.
Alongside her work, she has been actively involved in community building and grass-root initiatives, non-formal and popular education and international networking, committed to knowledge sharing at all levels as a driver for social impact.