Education

• PhD in Physics ( Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, 1993)
• Degree cum laude in Physics
  (Universita' di Pisa , 1989)
• Degree cum laude in Physics
  (Scuola Normale Superiore , Pisa,
  1989)

Awards

J.C. Jamieson Award for high pressure physics. Awarded at the 1998 Gordon Research Conference on "Research at High-Pressure".

Research Interests

• High-pressure physics: first-principles simulations of phase transitions in covalent, molecular, and metallic systems, with applications to materials science, geophysics and planetary science.
• Surface science: first-principles calculations of surface reconstructions, adatoms on semiconductors, surface magnetism, metal-insulator transitions.
• Polymers: structural, dynamical, electronic and transport properties of ideal and defected polyethylene.
• Nonlinear optics: sum rules and Kramers-Kronig relations, linear and nonlinear optical properties of semiconductor microstructures.