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Biography and research focus

Biography and research focus

David-Michele Cappelletti (DMC) is Full Professor of Chemistry at the University of Perugia. He moved at the Department of Chemistry, Biology, and Biotechnology in 2013 as coordinator of the Environmental Chemistry and Technology (ECT) research group after starting his career at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the same University in 1993. This followed on from visiting research positions (Dip. Fisica, Trento, Italy; Dept. Chemistry, Rochester, NY, USA), Post Doctoral position (NTU Taipei, Taiwan), Ph.D. in Chemistry (University of Perugia) and the first degree in Chemistry (University of Perugia). Since 2009 he served as operator of the WGMS (World Glacier Monitoring Service with annual field campaigns mainly at the Calderone Glacier (Gran Sasso d’Italia) and since 2016 he is a member of the Italian Glaciological Committee (CGI). He also participated in several Italian Arctic Expeditions (2011-2024). DMC is a member of the Doctorate Schools of Chemical Sciences (Perugia) and of the Polar Science (National PhD School, Venezia). He participated as a supervisor to various Ph.D. thesis in Chemistry, Physics and Biology and more than 40 undergraduate theses in Chemistry, Physics, Environmental Engineering, and Biology. 

The scientific activity of DMC started, in the 1990s, in the field of elementary chemistry processes in the gas phase, with a particular emphasis on the characterization of nature and role of interatomic and intermolecular forces and stereodynamics of molecular collisions by molecular beam experiments and by semi-empirical modeling. Highlights in this topic are well illustrated by highly cited papers (Nature 1994; J Am. Chem. Soc. 1999; Chem. Phys. 2006). Lately, he has been interested in the study of surface physics (see, for instance, Angew.Chemie, 2006; Prog. Surf. Science, 2008) and hydrogen bonded systems (i.e., Acc. of Chem. Res., 2012). More recently, he turned his attention on environmental chemistry and in particular on atmospheric aerosols research (i.e. Atmos. Environ. 2012; ACP2014) and Polar research (i.e. Atmos. Environ., 2015, ACP2016). On these topics, he has been invited to give more than 40 talks at International Conferences and Universities. Research in the Cappelletti group is based on the chemical and morphological characterization of atmospheric aerosols in the urban, remote and indoor environments, vertical profile measurements of aerosol properties by tethered balloon experiments and aerosol source apportionment methodologies, implementation and optimization of chemical transport models (Lagrangian and Eulerian).