CURRICULUM VITAE
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
Professor of Physical Chemistry and Nanomaterials
(09/2022- present)
QUEEN MARY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON (U.K.)
Department of Chemistry
School of Physical and Chemical Sciences
Reader (Associate Professor) QUEEN MARY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON (U.K.)
(10/2018- 2022) Department of Chemistry
School of Physical and Chemical Sciences
Senior Lecturer
(2017- 2018) QUEEN MARY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON (U.K.)
& Department of Chemistry
Lecturer (Assistant Professor) School of Biological and Chemical Sciences
(09/2013- 2017)
Associate Research Scientist COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY (New York City, U.S.A.)
(2012-2013) Department of Applied Physics & Applied Mathematics
& and
Postdoctoral Research Scientist Department of Mechanical Engineering
(03/2008-09/2012) (Prof. Hone and Dr Wind groups)
Adjunct Professor THE COOPER UNION (New York City, U.S.A.)
(Fall semester 2011) Department of Chemistry
Teaching CH110 “General Chemistry”
EDUCATION
PhD (Physical–Chemistry) UNIVERSITY LOUIS PASTEUR (University of Strasbourg, France)
(2004-2007)
MARIE CURIE FELLOW supervised by Prof. Paolo Samorì, Laboratory of
Nanochemistry, Institut de Science et d'Ingénierie Supramoléculaires (ISIS) in
Strasbourg (France). Dissertation title: “Supramolecular architectures on
surfaces: self-organization and nanoscale electronic properties”
BSc & MSc (Chemistry) UNIVERSITY LA SAPIENZA (Rome, Italy)
•Laurea in Chemistry (BSc & MSc), with specialization in Physical-Chemistry
University of Rome La Sapienza (Italy): grade 110/110, 14th July 2004 with an
experimental MSc thesis on “Self-assembly and electrical properties of -
conjugated supramolecular architectures” at the CNR, Bologna (Italy).
•Visiting MRes, University College London (U.K.), Prof Cacialli’s Lab, 2004
GRANTS, HONOURS and AWARDS
•PI: Defence Science and Technology Lab.-GOV UK (April 2024- march 2025): £130k
•PI: Defence Science and Technology Lab.-GOV UK (Oct 2022- Sept 2025): £100k
•PI: Knowledge Transfer Partnership, Innovate UK (Jan 2022- May 2024): £277k
•PI: Air Force Office of Scientific Research Grant (Jan 2021- Dec 2023): $299K
•PI: Life Arc (2020- Dec 2022): £136K
•PI: Queen Mary Global Challenges Research Fund (Jan 2020-Dec 2020): £48K
•PI: Queen Mary Impact Fund (Oct 2019-2020) £50K + £50k (June 2021-22 )
•PI: Queen Mary Innovation Grant (Dec 2017-Nov 2018): £38K
•PI: Air Force Office of Scientific Research Grant (June 2017- June 2020): $294K
•PI: Air Force Office of Scientific Research Grant (Sept 2016- Sept 2019) : $225K
•PI: EPSRC Institutional Sponsorship Fund (Oct 2016- April 2017): £15K
•PI: Royal Society International Exchange award (Jan 2016- 2018): £6K
•PI: Eng. and Physical Sciences Research Council first grant (Oct 2015-2017): £124.6K
•Co-PI: BBSRC Grant: lead PI: Dr John Viles (May 2015-2018): £346K
•PI: Chinese Scholarship Council: 8 x full PhD studentships (sept 2013-Aug2026)
•PI: Rita Levi Montalcini grant (IT Ministry of Education): Sept 2013-2017: €100K
(declined in order to take a position at Queen Mary University of London)
•Project Leader while postdoc at Columbia University: awarded grant from the Office
of Naval Research December 2009-2013 (lead PI: Dr. Shalom Wind): $1M
•Fellow of the Higher Education Academy , July 2016
•Young scientist award: European Materials Research Society, 2006.
•Marie Curie Fellow, European Commission, EU (2004 - 2007)
•Best poster: in the nanoelectronic session at the 2nd National Conference of
Nanoscience and Nanotechnology; Bologna, Italy, February 2004.
TEACHING and ADMINISTRATION EXPERIENCE
• Academic Supervision, 1st Supervisor: 14 PhD students (8 PhD students to completion, 6 ongoing);
7 PostDocs; mulitple MSci to completion
• REF 2021 (www.ref.ac.uk) Unit of Assessment Coordinator for the Dept. of Chemistry return
• Lecturing (2013-present), Department of Chemistry, Queen Mary University of London, Teaching:
CHE114 “Fundamental of Physical Chemistry” (1st year undergraduates), CHE304 “Topics in
Physical Chemistry” (3rd year undergraduates), CHE404 “Advanced Topics in Physical Chemistry”
(4th year undergraduates), CHE100 ("Essential Skills for Chemist" (1st year undergraduates) ,
CHE311“Advanced Practical Laboratory”(3rrd year undergraduates)
• Invited Lecturer for the National University of Ireland postgraduate online module in
Principles of Medical Device Design (2017).
• Adjunct Professor (2011 Autumn semester)
Department of Chemistry, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art
Teaching CH110 “General Chemistry” (1st year undergraduates)
• Examiner of PhD vivas at the Universities of: Oxford, Imperial, Liverpool, King's College London,
UCL, Hazara, IMDEA Madrid, Strasbourg (2017-2022)
• Guest Lecturer: teaching and co-designing courses:
- Columbia University (U.S.A.), School of Engineering and Applied
Science, 2010 & 2011 Spring semesters (course title: Nanoscale
Fabrication)
- Columbia University (U.S.A.), Department of Applied Physics, 2012
Spring semester (course title: Nanotechnology)
- Yeshiva University (U.S.A.), Stern College for Women, 2010 & 2011
Spring semesters (course title: Advanced Chemistry).
• Mentor for the National Science Foundation’s “Research Experiences for
Undergraduates” (NSF-REU) 2009 & 2012 program at the Nanoscale Science and
Engineering Center of Columbia University (U.S.A.), and Mentor for the NSF’s
“Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training” (BIO-IGERT) 2009 program.
INVITED TALKS
• Electrochemical Society Meeting, San Francisco (USA), May/June 2024
• RSC Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Network Annual Symposium, London (U.K.) 2023
• Electrochemical Society Meeting, Vancouver (CAN), June 2022
• NT21 International Conference on Science & Applications of Carbon Nanotubes, June 2021
• Electrochemical Society Meeting, June 2021
• Department of Chemistry, Cardiff University, U.K., March 2021
• Department of Chemistry, Keele University, U.K., Oct 2020
•(Bio)Molecular Electronics Colloquia, June 2020
• IMDEA Nanoscience , Madrid, Spain, January 2020
• Department of Engineering, Univrsity of Pisa, Italy, October 2019
• Institute of Complex Molecular Systems, Eindhoven University of Technology, NL, June 2019
• Department of Physics, King’s College London, U.K., May 2019
• 9th Chemical Nanoscience Symposium Newcastle, U.K., March 2019
• IEEE Research and Applications of Photonics in Defense conference, FL (USA) Aug 2018
• Department of Chemistry, University College London, U.K., January 2018
• Department of Chemistry, University of Southampton, U.K., November 2017
• European Congress on Advanced Materials (EuroMat), Thessaloniki, Greece, Sept 2017
Keynote presentation
• Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology,
Gothenburg , Sweden, May 2017
• Royal Society Chemical Nanosciences and Nanotechnology Network Meeting,
Keele, U.K., January 2017
• Department of Engineering (IfM), University of Cambridge, U.K. August 2016
• Human Effectiveness Directorate, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, U.S.A., May 2016
• Department of Physics, Lancaster University, U.K. Feb 2016
• Department of Physics, The University of Liverpool, U.K. Nov 2015
• School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, U.K. Oct 2015
• Department of Materials, University of Oxford, U.K. Sept 2015
• Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain, June 2015
• 125 Years of Chemistry at Queen Mary, London, U.K., December 2014
• European Materials Research Society, Warsaw, Poland, September 2014
• Medical Device Week, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland, June 2014
• Department of Chemistry, King’s College London, U.K. May 2014
• University of Strasbourg, France, November 2013
• National Institute of Standard and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD (U.S.A.), January 2013
• Alivisatos Group, Department of Chemistry, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
(U.S.A.) April 2011
• Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center, Columbia University, New York City, NY
(U.S.A.) April 2010
• Cooper Union, New York City, NY (U.S.A.) October 2010
(Additional) PRESENTATIONS AT CONFERENCES
Oral presentations
• Electrochemical Society Meeting, June 2021
• Electrochemical Society Meeting, Dallas (U.S.A), May 2019
• Functional DNA Nanotechnology (FDN 2018), Rome (Italy) June 2018
• Electrochemical Society Meeting, Seattle (U.S.A), May 2018
• ChemOnTubes 2018, Biarritz (France) , April 2018
• European Conference on Molecular Electronics (ECME), Dresden (Germany), September 2017
• 5th International Conference on Multifunctional, Hybrid and Nanomaterials, Lisbon (Portugal)
March 2017
• American Chemical Society National Meeting, Philadelphia, PA (U.S.A.), August 2016
• 13th European Conference on Molecular Electronics , France, September 2015
• 12th International Conference of Materials Chemistry , York (U.K). July 2015
• Materials Research Society Spring Meeting, San Francisco , CA (U.S.A.), April 2015
• European Materials Research Society, Warsaw, Poland, September 2014
• Materials Research Society Meeting, Boston, MA (U.S.A.), November 2012
• American Chemical Society National Meeting, San Diego, CA (U.S.A.), March 2012
• International Confrence on Electron, Ion, Photon Beam Technology and Nanofabrication; Las
Vegas, NV (U.S.A.), June 2011
• Materials Research Society meeting, San Francisco, CA (U.S.A.), April 2011
• American Chemical Society National Meeting, Anaheim, CA (U.S.A.), March 2011
• NewYork ACS Younger Chemists Committee (YCC) Research Symposium, The Cooper Union, New
York City, NY (U.S.A.), March 2011
• American Vacuum Society 57th International Symposium, Albuquerque, NM
(U.S.A.), Oct 2010; selected by the American Institute of Physics as a “meeting highlight”
• American Chemical Society National Meeting, San Francisco, CA (U.S.A.), March 2010
• American Chemical Society National Meeting, San Francisco, CA (U.S.A.), March 2010
• American Vacuum Society 56th International Symposium, San Jose, CA (U.S.A.), Nov 2009
• American Chemical Society Colloid & Surface Science Symposium, New York City (USA) June 2009
• American Chemical Society National Meeting, Salt Lake City (USA), March 2009
• International Conference on Nano-science and Technology, Basel (Switzerland) August 2006
• European-Materials Research Society meeting, Nice (France) 2006
Poster Communications
• “Exploring nanoscale structural and electronic properties of supramolecular architectures
from p-conjugated discotics” M. Palma, J. Levin, G. Pace,V. Lemaur, J. Mativetzky, A. Liscio,
V. Palermo, J. Cornil, Y. Geerts, M. Lehmann, P.Samorì. European Conference of Molecular
Electronics, Metz, France, Sept 2007
• “Supramolecular cavitand-based host-guest assemblies on surfaces” M.Palma, R. Yebeutchou,
F. Tancini, P. Samorì, E. Dalcanale; Conference on Nano-science and Technology, Stockholm,
Sweden, July 2007
• “Self-organization and nanoscale electronic properties of azatriphenylene-based
architectures” M. Palma, J. Levin, V. Lemaur, A. Liscio, V. Palermo, J. Cornil, Y. Geerts, M.
Lehmann, P.Samorì. Trends in Materials and Nanoscioences (TMN) Strasbourg (France)
November 2006
• “Nanoscale structural and electronic properties of nanographene based mono- and bi-
component architectures: a Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy study” M. Palma, V. Palermo,
S.Morelli, Ž. Tomović, M.D. Watson, R. Friedlein, K. Müllen, P. Samorì. International
Conference on Nano-science and Technology, Basel, Switzerland, August 2006
• “Nanoscale structural and electronic properties of nanographene based mono- and bi-
component architectures: a Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy study” M. Palma, V. Palermo,
S.Morelli, Ž. Tomović, M.D. Watson, R. Friedlein, K. Müllen, P. Samorì. International
Conference on Science and Technology of Synthetic Metals, Dublin, (Ireland), July 2006
• “Supramolecular dynamic architectures from π-conjugated discotics: nanoscale structural
and electronic properties” M. Palma, J. Levin, V. Lemaur, A. Liscio, V. Palermo, J. Cornil, Y.
Geerts, , M. Lehmann, P. Samorì. Royal Society Discussion Meeting on "Supramolecular
nanotechnology for organic electronics", London, UK, June 2006
• “Influence of the molecular order on the local work function of nan ographene architectures:
a Kelvin Probe Microscopy study” M. Palma, V. Palermo, Ž. Tomović, M.D. Watson, R.
Friedlein, K. Müllen, P. Samorì. 8th European Conference of Molecular Electronics, Bologna
Italy, June-July 2005
• “Influence of the molecular order on the local work function of nan ographene
architectures: a Kelvin Probe Microscopy study”
M. Palma, V. Palermo, Ž. Tomović, M.D. Watson, R.Friedlein, K. Müllen, P. Samorì. XXXIV
Congresso della Divisione di Chimica Fisica -
Società Chimica Italiana, Siena, Italy, June 2005
• " Unravelling the work function of self-assembled nanographene architecture by Kelvin Probe
Force Microscopy” M. Palma, V. Palermo, Z. Tomović, M.D. Watson, R. Friedlein, K. Müllen,
P. Samorì. European-Material Research Society Strasbourg, France, May-June 2005
• “Conjugated supramolecular nanowires from soluble giant polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons”
M. Palma, V. Palermo, Z. Tomovic, M. Watson, K. Müllen, P. Samorì. European-Material
Research Society, Strasbourg, France, April 2004
• “Conjugated supramolecular nanowires from soluble giant polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons”
M. Palma, V. Palermo, Z. Tomovic, M. Watson, K. Müllen, P. Samorì. 2nd National
Conference of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Bologna, Italy, February 2004