Alessio Zaccone

Biography

2014 - 2015: W2 Professor of Theoretical Physics, Physik-Department, Technical University Munich 2011 - 2014: Oppenheimer Research Fellow, Cavendish Laboratory,  University of Cambridge 2010 - 2011: Swiss National Science Foundation Fellow, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge 2006 - 2010: PhD in Chemical Physics, ETH Zurich 2000 - 2005: Laurea (MSc),  Politecnico di Torino

Research Interest

Alessio Zaccone and his group are interested in obtaining a deeper understanding of the atomic and molecular-level many-body dynamics in a variety of condensed matter systems and materials, from liquids to glasses, crystals and granulars. He and his group aim to combine two fundamental schools of thought in condensed matter physics: one known as atomistic theory of real solids, the historical continuation of the works of Enrico Fermi, Edward Teller, Max Born, John Slater, Walter Kohn among others, and the other known as the nonequilibrium statistical mechanics approach to condensed matter, going back to Hendrik A. Kramers, Léon van Hove, Robert Zwanzig, and Wolfgang Goetze among others.  One of his main interests at the moment is the development of nonaffine lattice dynamics, which is a general theory framework for disordered condensed matter systems (e.g. defective crystals, liquids and glasses) with many applications ranging from the molecular spectroscopy (Brillouin and Raman) of liquids and solids, to the mechanical, electronic and thermal properties of metallic glasses, polymer glasses, molecular glasses, colloids and suspensions, nuclear materials, and granular systems. He is also very much interested in biomolecular systems and their self-assemby into aggregates and large-scale structures, with applications in biotechnology and medical science. Alessio Zaccone, who has been awarded the title of Professor of Physics in Germany and in Switzerland, has published 71 articles in peer-reviewed journals (since 2007) on several problems of physics (incl. condensed matter, statistical physics, soft and biological matter, astrophysics and plasma physics, nuclear physics), physical chemistry, metallurgy, and on engineering-motivated problems.