PACCHIONI GIANFRANCO

Role
Emeritus Professor  
Office phone
Room:
  • U05, Floor: 2, Room: 2073

Biography

Gianfranco Pacchioni is Emeritus Professor of Materials Chemistry at the University of Milano Bicocca where, from 2013 till 2019, he has been Vice-Rector for Research. He received the degree in Chemistry at the University of Milano (1978) and the Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry at the Free University of Berlin (1984). He has been working at the IBM Almaden Research Center in California (1987) and at the Technical University of Munich (1993).
He received various awards including the Nasini Medal (1994) and the Pisani medal (2017) of the Italian Chemical Society, the National Price “Federchimica” (1996), the Alexander von Humboldt Award (2005), the Blaise Pascal Medal of the European Academy of Sciences (2016), the Chini Medal of the Division of Industrial Chemistry (2018), the Cannizzaro Medal of the Italian Chemical Society (2024). He is Fellow of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (2014), the Academia Europaea (2012), the European Academy of Sciences (2009) and others.
He has been Chairman of the Department of Materials Science at the University of Milano Bicocca (2003-2009); the COST Action “Inorganic oxide surfaces and interfaces” (2006-2010); the Panel PE5 of the European Research Council for the Advanced Grants (2008-2012); the Theoretical and Computational Chemistry Division of the Italian Chemical Society (2011-2013); etc. He has served as Editor-in-chief of the Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter published by the Institute of Physics (UK).
He has been member of the Scientific Council or of the Board of several national and international institutions (Tronchetti Provera Foundation; Consorzio CORIMAV for Advanced Materials; EnergyLab Foundation; Lake Como School for Advanced Studies; KIC Raw Materials; Scientific Council of Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, InterAcademy Partnership, and others.
His main interests are theory and electronic structure of oxides (bulk, surface, thin films, nanostructures), supported metal clusters, materials for catalysis, photocatalysis and energy production. Gianfranco Pacchioni is co-author of about 600 papers with more than 50000 citations (h-index Scopus 101; Google Scholar 118) and has given about 700 invited talks at international conferences and research institutions.

Publications

  • Inico, E., Spotti, M., Pacchioni, G., Di Liberto, G. (2026). Active Site Evolution under Working Conditions in Fe−Co Dual-Atom Electrocatalyst. ACS CATALYSIS, 16(11), 9810-9822 [10.1021/acscatal.5c08565]. Detail

  • Chowdhury, C., Lovato, M., Di Liberto, G., Vines, F., Illas, F., Pacchioni, G., et al. (2026). Predicting the HER activity of SACs on MXenes with simple features and interpretable machine learning models. JOURNAL OF MATERIALS CHEMISTRY. A, 14(9), 5349-5365 [10.1039/d5ta07143g]. Detail

  • Saetta, C., Barlocco, I., Di Liberto, G., Pacchioni, G. (2026). Key ingredients for the screening of single atom catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction: the case of titanium nitride [Altro]. Detail

  • Bonardi, A., Inico, E., Barlocco, I., Pacchioni, G., Di Liberto, G. (2026). From single- to dual-atom catalysts: design rules for oxygen evolution electrocatalysts. MATERIALS TODAY CATALYSIS, 15 [10.1016/j.mtcata.2026.100160]. Detail

  • Spotti, M., Di Liberto, G., Pacchioni, G. (2026). Electrochemical Stability of Dual-Atom Catalysts from First Principles. ACS CATALYSIS, 16(18), 17895-17904 [10.1021/acscatal.6c03772]. Detail

Research projects

PLASMA ASSISTED ELECTROCHEMICAL REDUCTION OF CO2 TO LIQUID FUELS
Year: 2024
Call: FAQC 2024 - prima finestra
Grantors: Università degli Studi di MILANO-BICOCCA
Carbon dioxide conversion into energy-rich molecules with tailored catalysts - CO2ENRICH
Year: 2022
Call: ECONOMIA CIRCOLARE: RICERCA PER UN FUTURO SOSTENIBILE
Grantors: FONDAZIONE CARIPLO
PNRR per la Missione 4, componente 2 Investimento 1.1- Avviso 104/2022 | Charge Transfer Dynamics in Photoactive Materials for Solar Energy Conversion - CHARM
Year: 2022
Call: Bando PRIN 2022
Grantors: MINISTERO DELL'UNIVERSITA' E DELLA RICERCA (MUR)
Charge Transfer Dynamics in Photoactive Materials for Solar Energy Conversion - CHARM
Year: 2021
Call: FAQC 2021 - terza finestra
Grantors: Università degli Studi di MILANO-BICOCCA
Nanostructured solid acid catalysts for sustainable chemical manufacturing
Year: 2020
Grantors: AUSTRALIAN RESEARCH COUNCIL (ARC)

Awards

Awards

  • Paolo Chini Memorial Lecture, 2018
  • Premio letterario "Maria Antonia Gervasio" / Le Due Culture, BIOGEM, 2018
  • Medaglia Cesare Pisani, Società Chimica Italiana, 2017
  • Blaise Pascal Medal, European Academy of Sciences, 2016
  • Alexander von Humboldt Research Award, 2005

Scientific fellowships

  • - Istituto Lombardo Accademia di Scienze e Lettere, 2023
  • - Istituto Lombardo Accademia di Scienze e Lettere, 2019
  • Fellow - Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, 2014
  • Fellow - Academia Europaea (Londra), 2012
  • Fellow - European Academy of Sciences, 2009

Editorial boards

  • - JOURNAL OF PHYSICS. CONDENSED MATTER, 2019 - 2024
  • Membro del Comitato Editoriale - SURFACE SCIENCE, 2014 - 2020
  • - PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS, 2012 - 2017
  • Membro del Comitato Editoriale - THEORETICAL CHEMISTRY ACCOUNTS, 2010 - 2020
  • - CHEMCATCHEM, 2009

Research and teaching assignments

  • Visiting Researcher - Visiting researcher per partecipazione a un progetto di ricerca tra Universita' Milano Bicocca e ENSP - École Normale Supérieure de Paris, 2011

Congresses/Conferences

  • Program chair - Solar Driven Chemistry: towards new catalytic solutions for a sustainable world, 2018

Further links