Università di Padova
The University of Padova is the second oldest University in Italy and one of the oldest in Europe. It is a large institution that nowadays manages about 66,000 students and more than 2,200 academics. In the last five years, the University of Padova has been always ranked first among the large Italian academic institutions for its level of training and research (source: CENSIS – La Repubblica). Furthermore, the University of Padova has been recently ranked third in Italy for the level of its research in chemical sciences in the years 2001–2003, far above the average level of other italian academic institutions of similar size (source: Italian Committee for Research Evaluation, CIVR; the results are available online at http://vtr2006.cineca.it/index_EN.html).
The unified Department of Chemical Sciences was founded in 2004 by merging the pre-existent Departments of Physical Chemistry, Organic Chemistry and Inorganic Chemistry. It is one of the largest Departments of the University, having about 100 academics and an adequate number of technicians and administrative staff members. The structures of the Department host numerous chemistry and chemistry-related courses, as well as the PhD school in Molecular Sciences and the PhD school in Materials Science and Engineering.
The Department possesses a large library devoted to chemical sciences and numerous laboratories and facilities for fundamental and applied research in the various chemical disciplines. Some of the general research areas that are currently investigated are the following:
- Environment and energy
- Cultural heritage
- Materials chemistry
- Surface chemistry
- Chemistry and biology
- Chemistry and technology
- Chemistry for health
- Supramolecular chemistry and nanoscience
- Theoretical and experimental methodologies.
Web: www.chimica.unipd.it [new window]
Andrea Biffis studied chemistry at the University of Padova, Italy. After a half-year postgraduate period at the Technical University of Bratislava, Slovak Republic, he joined the group of Professor G Wulff at the University of Düsseldorf, Germany, where he obtained his PhD in 1998 with a thesis on molecularly imprinted polymers and microgels for molecular recognition and enantioselective catalysis. He then moved to the University of Essen, Germany, to take up a postdoctoral position in the group of Professor G Schmid working on metal nanoclusters, after which he returned to Padova, where in 2001 he was appointed assistant professor. He is co-author of about 50 publications covering various aspects of polymer chemistry and catalysis.
The current research interests of Dr Biffis include the chemistry of microgels and in particular their applications as formulation additives, as exotemplates and stabilisers in the preparation of inorganic nanoparticles and as soluble supports for homogeneous catalysts. Another area of research is focussed on the development of late-transition metal catalysts for carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bond forming reactions and their application in conventional and non-conventional solvents (perfluorinated solvents, supercritical CO2, ionic liquids).
Contact details:
Dr Andrea Biffis
Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche
Università di Padova
Via Marzolo 1
I-35131 Padova
Italy
Tel: +39 049 9285216
Fax: +39 049 8275223
email: andrea.biffis@unipd.it
Web: www.chimica.unipd.it/index.php?context=&contact=37 [new window]
