Rossella Castagna

Background

About Rossella Castagna

I am fascinated by science and the possibility of understanding the nanostructured world and being able to design, copy and control it. This passion led me to take a degree and a PhD in Materials Engineering and to work as an international researcher in the field of organic synthesis of molecules and functional materials. I am currently working as Post Doc at the IBEC - Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (Marie Skłodowska Curie COFUND and CIBER - Centro de Investigacion Biomedica Fellow) in the group of Nanoprobes and Nanoswitches led by Prof. Pau Gorostiza. I am working on the design and synthesis of photoreactive compounds to be used as smart ligands in photopharmacology. My research interests are at the interface between materials science, chemistry and biotechnology fields. I have a multidisciplinary background with a focus on chemistry, material science and engineering applied to smart-devices in optics, optoelectronics and biosensing. I acquired competencies in organic synthesis and material functionalization, polymeric micro-nanofibers production by means of electrospinning, materials characterization including morphological and microstructural analyses, functional properties determination and spectroscopic characterization. I am thesis co-supervisor of students research in Materials Engineering at Politecnico di Milano. Teaching, assistant lecturer in the bachelor course of “Nanostructured materials” and for “Functional Materials” at the master in Materials Engineering and Nanotechnology at the Politecnico di Milano. I enjoy science communication and outreach activities with kids, students, professors and the general public. I was speaker for the Women In Science day at a primary school in Barcelona.