Roberta Sessoli is Professor of General and

Inorganic Chemistry Inorganic chemistry deals with synthesis and behavior of inorganic and organometallic compounds. This field covers chemical compounds that are not carbon-based, which are the subjects of organic chemistry. The distinction between the two disci ...

in the Department of

Chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

Ugo Schiff Hugo (Ugo) Schiff (26 April 1834 – 8 September 1915) was an Italian naturalized chemist. The son of a Jewish businessman and brother of the physiologist Moritz Schiff was German by nationality. He discovered Schiff bases and other imines, ...

" at the University of Florence. Sessoli's research has had significant impact upon the field of molecular magnetism.

Education and early career

Roberta Sessoli was born in Florence on the 23 June 1963. She attended Liceo Scientifico Guido Castelnuovo in Florence. She graduated in

from the University of Florence in 1987. In 1992, she obtained her PhD from the same university, under the supervision of Professor

Dante Gatteschi Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His '' Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: ...

. Her PhD thesis was on "Molecular Magnetic Materials" (original title in Italian: "Materiali Magnetici Molecolari").

Research interests

Sessoli began working at the University of Florence in 2000, and became full Professor of General and

in the Department of

" at the University of Florence in 2012. Sessoli is interested in molecular and low-dimensional magnetism. She also worked on the

spin dynamics Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally ...

of nanostructured materials. She investigated the nature of single molecules magnets. Part of her research also focusses on quantistic technologies and

spintronic Spintronics (a portmanteau meaning spin transport electronics), also known as spin electronics, is the study of the intrinsic spin of the electron and its associated magnetic moment, in addition to its fundamental electronic charge, in solid-sta ...

molecular materials. More recently, her studies concentrated on the characterisation of magnetic materials through the use of unpolarised light.

Publications

Sessoli's most influential publication is "Magnetic bistability in a metal-ion cluster", published in ''Nature'' in 1993 only one year after the completion of her PhD. This was a particularly influential article in the field of molecular magnetism, and was co-authored with Dante Gatteschi, Andrea Caneschi and Miguel A. Novak. Since then the article has received more than 2770 citations. In 2018, Sessoli was nominated as one of the most highly cited researchers by Clarivate Analytics. Sessoli co-authored the book "Molecular Nanomagnets" with Dante Gatteschi and Jacques Villain, which was published by Oxford University Press in 2006.

Awards

For her work in chemistry, Sessoli received a wide range of awards: *2000 Medaglia Nasini for best young inorganic chemist in Italy *2002 Gonfalone d’argento from the

Regional Council Regional Council may refer to: * Regional Council (Hong Kong), disbanded in 1999 ** Regional Council (constituency) Regional council may refer to: * Regional council (Cameroon) * Regional council (France), the elected assembly of a region of Fra ...

of Tuscany *2002 Agilent Technologies Europhysics Prize *2012 Beller lectureship 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 ...

*2013 French-Italian Prize from

Société Chimique de France Lactalis is a French multinational dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. The company's former name was Besnier SA. Lactalis is the largest dairy products group in the world, and is the se ...

*2013 Linceo Prize for Chemistry from Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei *2015

Lecoq de Boisbaudran Award Lecoq is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Karl Ludwig von Lecoq (1754–1829) of French Huguenot ancestry, first joined the army of the Electorate of Saxony, later transferred his loyalty to the Kingdom of Prussia and fought Nap ...

from the

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*2015 Fiorino d’oro from Florence City Council *2015 IUPAC Distinguished Women in Chemistry award *2017 Visiting Professorship at the Otago University, New Zealand *2018-2019 Visiting Professorship at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz *2019 RSC Centenary Prize for world-leading research on molecular magnetism

Family and personal life

Sessoli has three sons. The fire station in via La Farina in Florence is named after Sessoli's grandfather, Giuseppe Sessoli, who was a fireman during the Second World War and died trying to save a woman and a little girl who were on a mined bridge.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sessoli, Roberta Italian women chemists 21st-century Italian women 21st-century chemists 1963 births Living people Scientists from Florence 21st-century women scientists Rare earth scientists Academic staff of the University of Florence