Caterina Ducati is a Professor of Nanomaterials in the Department of Materials at the University of Cambridge. She serves as Director of the University of Cambridge Master's programme in Micro- and Nanotechnology Enterprise as well as leading teaching in the

Nanotechnology Nanotechnology, also shortened to nanotech, is the use of matter on an atomic, molecular, and supramolecular scale for industrial purposes. The earliest, widespread description of nanotechnology referred to the particular technological goal o ...

Doctoral Training Centre.

Early life and education

Ducati was born in Milan. She studied at the University of Milan, where she earned an undergraduate degree in physics. Her research project involved designing a time-of-flight mass spectrometer for supersonic cluster beams under the supervision of Paolo Milani. She moved to the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering for her graduate studies, where she worked with

John Robertson John, Jon, or Jonathan Robertson may refer to: Politicians United Kingdom politicians * J. M. Robertson (John Mackinnon Robertson, 1856–1933), British journalist and Liberal MP for Tyneside 1906–1918 *John Robertson (Bothwell MP) (1867–1926) ...

. Her doctorate considered nanostructured carbon for electrochemistry as well as the relationship between morphology, crystallographic phases and electronic properties in nanomaterials. This included the development of

carbon nanotube A scanning tunneling microscopy image of a single-walled carbon nanotube Rotating single-walled zigzag carbon nanotube A carbon nanotube (CNT) is a tube made of carbon with diameters typically measured in nanometers. ''Single-wall carbon na ...

s and investigations into their growth models using transmission electron microscopy.

Research and career

In 2003 Ducati was awarded a Knowledge Transfer Partnership fellowship working on the 4151 programme with Alphasense Limited. In 2004 she was made a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin fellow, where she started to research metal oxide nanostructures for catalysis. She was simultaneously awarded a Sackler junior fellowship. She was subsequently awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship to explore

electron microscopy An electron microscope is a microscope that uses a beam of accelerated electrons as a source of illumination. As the wavelength of an electron can be up to 100,000 times shorter than that of visible light photons, electron microscopes have a hi ...

of nanostructures, and was based in

Churchill College, Cambridge Churchill College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It has a primary focus on science, engineering and technology, but still retains a strong interest in the arts and humanities. In 1958, a trust was establish ...

. This involved developing transmission electron microscopy to study the nanoscale properties of solar cells, which allows better understanding of how electrons move through a structured anode. In 2009 Ducati was made a lecturer in the Department of Materials at the University of Cambridge. She researches the degradation of nanostructured solar cells, and lithium ion batteries in collaboration with Paul Midgley and

Clare Grey Dame Clare Philomena Grey is Geoffrey Moorhouse Gibson Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge. Grey uses nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to study and optimize ...

. She was awarded a

European Research Council The European Research Council (ERC) is a public body for funding of scientific and technological research conducted within the European Union (EU). Established by the European Commission in 2007, the ERC is composed of an independent Scientific ...

Starting Grant to study photoactive nanomaterials and devices, and a Proof of Concept grant to study metal – metal oxide

nanocomposite Nanocomposite is a multiphase solid material where one of the phases has one, two or three dimensions of less than 100 nanometers (nm) or structures having nano-scale repeat distances between the different phases that make up the material. The id ...

s for air purification. She was elected to AcademiaNet in 2011. Ducati has worked with the Institute of Physics Electron Microscopy and Analysis group and the Nanoscale Physics and Technology Group. She worked with

Rachel Oliver Rachel Oliver may refer to: * Rachel Oliver (footballer) (born 1971), New Zealand footballer * Rachel Oliver (scientist), British materials scientist {{hndis, Oliver, Rachel ...

on the delivery of Master's course in Micro- & Nanotechnology Enterprise. She was promoted to Professor of Nanomaterials in 2019 and serves as Tutor and Director of Studies of Materials Science in Trinity College, Cambridge. She has led activities at Trinity to improve the representation of women scientists.

Awards

In 2018, Ducati was awarded the Royal Microscopical Society Medal for Innovation in Applied Microscopy for Engineering and Physical Sciences.

Personal life

Ducati has two sons born in 2003 and 2007.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ducati, Caterina Living people Italian women scientists Italian women physicists University of Milan alumni Alumni of the University of Cambridge Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge Italian materials scientists Women materials scientists and engineers Year of birth missing (living people)