Maria Antonietta Loi (born 4 May 1973) is an Italian physicist who is a Professor of Optoelectronics at the

University of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; nl, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, abbreviated as RUG) is a Public university#Continental Europe, public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen (city), Groningen in ...

and member of the

Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials The Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials is the department of nanoscience and materials science of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. The institute is named after the Dutch Nobel prize winner Frits Zernike, famous for his developm ...

. Her research considers the development of functional materials for low-cost, high efficiency optoelectronic device. She was awarded the 2018

Netherlands Physical Society The Nederlandse Natuurkundige Vereniging (NNV) ( en, Netherlands Physical Society) is the national physical society of the Netherlands and a member of the European Physical Society. Established in 1921, the goals of the society are to promote ...

Physics prize (Physicaprijs). In 2020, she was elected Fellow of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

. In 2022 she became a member of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...

(KNAW) and of the European academy of Science ( EurASc). Loi is Deputy Editor-in-chief of '' Applied Physics Letters''.

Early life and education

Loi was born in Quartu Sant'Elena,

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...

. She studied physics at the

University of Cagliari The University of Cagliari ( it, Università degli Studi di Cagliari) is a university in Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy. It was founded in 1606 and is organized in 11 faculties. History The ''Studium Generalis Kalaritanum'' was founded in 1606 alon ...

. She was awarded honours for her undergraduate degree in 1997, before embarking upon a doctoral research program. After earning her PhD she moved to the

Johannes Kepler University Linz The Johannes Kepler University Linz (German: ''Johannes Kepler Universität Linz'', short: ''JKU'') is a public institution of higher education in Austria. It is located in Linz, the capital of Upper Austria. It offers bachelor's, master's, d ...

, where she worked as a postdoctoral researcher on organic solar cells. After one year in

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

she returned to

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, where she joined the

Italian National Research Council The National Research Council (Italian: ''Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, CNR'') is the largest research council in Italy. As a public organisation, its remit is to support scientific and technological research. Its headquarters are in Rome. ...

Institute for Nanostructured Materials.

Research and career

In 2006, Loi was appointed Assistant Professor at the

, and awarded a Rosalind Franklin Fellowship. Her early work considered the investigation of organic semiconductors and carbon nanotubes photophysical and optoelectronic properties. She was made Chair of the Department of Photophyics and OptoElectronics in 2011, and Full Professor in 2014. Loi's research considers the development of solution processable semiconductors and hybrid nanomaterials. In particular, she has explored

perovskite Perovskite (pronunciation: ) is a calcium titanium oxide mineral composed of calcium titanate (chemical formula ). Its name is also applied to the class of compounds which have the same type of crystal structure as (XIIA2+VIB4+X2−3), known as ...

s for solar cells and

X-ray detector X-ray detectors are devices used to measure the flux, spatial distribution, spectrum, and/or other properties of X-rays. Detectors can be divided into two major categories: imaging detectors (such as photographic plates and X-ray film (photograp ...

s. She has shown that Sn-based perovskites have intriguing physical properties such as showing photoluminescence from hot-carriers with long lifetimes.

Awards and honours

* 2011 Minerva Prize * 2013

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 * 2013 Elected to AcademiaNet * 2018 Physica Prize * 2020 Elected Fellow of the

* 2022

Advanced Grant * 2022 Elected Member of the

* 2022 Elected Fellow of the

Royal Society of Chemistry The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society (professional association) in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemistry, chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the Ro ...

* 2022 Elected Fellow of the European Academy of Scienceshttps://www.eurasc.eu/members/m-a-loirug-nl/member/

Selected publications

* * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Loi, Maria Antonietta 1973 births Living people Italian women physicists Fellows of the American Physical Society Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences