Born: November 15, 1952 in Mercato Sanseverino, Italy
Present position:
Full Professor at the Department of “DICII, Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile e Ingegneria Informatica” at the Engineering Faculty - University "Tor Vergata", Rome.
Work address:
Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile ed Ingegneria Informatica
Università di Roma Tor Vergata, Via del Politecnico 1, I-00137 Roma
Phone/Fax. +390672597221/+390672597005, balestrino[at]uniroma2.it
Cursus Studiorum
Academic career
Membership in Scientific Committees and Organizing Committees
Giuseppe Balestrino has been member of the Scientific Committee of the THIOX (Thin oxide films) network of the European Science Fundation. He is member of the Scientific Committees of WOE (International Workshop on Oxide Electronics), FOXE (National Conference on Functional Oxide Electronics) and SATT (Conferenza sulla Superconduttività ad Alta Temperatura).
He has participated in the organization of several meetings and conferences as a member either of the organizing or the scientific committee, among them the large International Conference on the Application of the Mössbauer Effect (ICAME 85)
Coordination of research projects
G. Balestrino has been responsible for several scientific cooperation programs both national (mostly funded by the National Council of Research and by the Department of the University and Research, MIUR) , and international.
Hereafter a restricted selection of funded projects:
• INTAS program 96-0452 between European countries and Russia (Local Coordinator).
• Galileo cooperation program between Italy and France (National Coordinator).
• Cooperation program between the University of Roma Tor Vergata and the Moscow Institute of Steel and alloys, 1992-94 (Principal Investigator)).
• Project of Advanced Research of the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica della Materia (PRA 1996): "High temperature Superconducting superlattices" (Principal Investigator).
• Project of Relevant National Interest of MIUR (PRIN 1998): "Synthesis of new high Tc materials by thin film growth techniques" (Scientific Coordinator).
Activities concerning scientific evaluation
Giuseppe Balestrino has acted as a referee of R&D projects for several national and international organizations, among them:
° Evaluator of Ministero delle Attività Produttive for precompetitive industrial research programs (legge 46/82)
° Referee of INTAS (The International Association for the Promotion of Co-operation with Scientists from the New Independent States (NIS) of the Former Soviet Union)
° Referee of FWF (Fonds zur Förderung wissenshaftlichen Forschung, Austria)
° Referee of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, Chemical Sciences.
He has been a member of the evaluation board in several public competitions for permanent positions both at the National Council of Research and the University. Among them the competition for 17 positions of Research Director in the area of physical sciences at the National Research Council (CNR notice n. 3647, 2004)
Teaching activities
Presently Giuseppe Balestrino is teaching the Physics 2 course for the Bachelor’s degree in “Engineering Sciences” and the Solid State Physics for the Master’s degree in Mathematical Engineering. He is also appointed responsible for the English curriculum in Mathematical Engineering.
Research activity
The research activity of Giuseppe Balestrino protracted over almost four decades. Throughout his career as a researcher, Balestrino’s activity has been focussed mostly on the synthesis and physical investigation of novel materials with interesting physical properties. A specific approach was adopted which foresees following the whole process from materials synthesis (in the form of polycrystalline pellets, single crystals, thin films and complex heterostructures) to their structural and physical characterization. Such a “holistic” approach allowed a solid grasp on the problem of developing “materials with designed properties”. Research was often carried out in cooperation with worldwide recognized experts in the different fields. Recently, an important recognition of his activities came from the Advanced Light Source (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories) which invited members of the Balestrino’s group to cooperate in setting up a pulsed laser deposition system directly connected with the beam lines. Such an “in situ” equipment is now operative and it is starting to produce samples for synchrotron characterization. At the same time young researchers educated on thin films deposition at the Balestrino’s group in Rome, were recently appointed, with a permanent position, at the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) in Tsukuba, to set up a laboratory for the thin films pulsed laser deposition of solid oxide electrolytes.
The number of materials investigated as well as the experimental techniques utilized is very large. Hereafter a schematic resume of Balestrino’s scientific activity and of his major achievements is reported.
1976-1986 X ray characterisation of magnetic and semiconducting films grown by liquid phase epitaxy and sputtering. Mössbauer characterisation of magnetic materials. Conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy for the study of the surface properties of magnetic films.
Among the major results, the investigation of the magnetic phase transitions in iron garnets.
1986 - 1996 Growth of high temperature superconducting materials in the form of polycrystalline pellets, single crystals and films. Investigation of their physical properties (structural, transport and magnetic properties). Study of the thermodynamical fluctuations in high temperature superconducting materials.
Among the major achievements, the first report (contemporarily with another group in the same issue of the Journal of Crystal Growth) on the growth of bulk single crystals of YBCO by the flux method, the first report on the growth of thin films of BSCCO superconductors by liquid phase epitaxy, and the pioneering studies on the dimensionality of thermodynamic fluctuations in high Tc cuprates.
1996 - 2006 Synthesis of diamond films by the plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition technique. Development, for the first time in Italy, of the pulsed laser deposition technique ( PLD ) with in situ RHEED for the atomic-layer by atomic-layer growth of complex oxide compounds (Laser MBE technique). Application of the Laser MBE technique to the growth of several oxide compounds: cuprates, ruthenates manganites, niobates, ferrites, ….. Synthesis of superlattices and heterostructures consisting of individual layers few unit cells thick. Induced superconductivity in cuprate heterostructures based on individually non superconductive ultra-thin layers.
2006 - present. Application of the laser MBE technique to the engineering of heteroepitaxial structures based on high temperature superconducting, magnetic, and dielectric oxides of various compositions. Extensive synchrotron investigation of films properties. Study of the interplay between structural and physical properties in ultra thin oxide layers, including the physical mechanism at the origin of the depression of the magnetotransport properties in few unit cells thick manganite layers. Deposition of thin films and heterostructures with enhanced transport properties for micro Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (μSOFCs) applications.
The scientific activity of Giuseppe Balestrino is endorsed by about 200 publications on international scientific journals. (see enclosed list of publications) and by a large number of presentations at international conferences.
He has been invited speaker in several international conferences and gave a plenary talk at the EUCAS'05 conference (September, 2005, Vienna) concerning his activity in the field of artificial superconducting heterostructures.