Germano S. Iannacchione
Professor
Physics
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
United States of America
Biography
Education: BS University of Akron 1987 MS University of Akron 1990 PhD Kent State University 1993 After my physics undergraduate and graduate education, I was fortunate to hold postdoctoral fellowship appointments in physics at Kent State University from 1994 to 1996 and in chemistry at MIT from 1996 to 1998, which gave me a broad perspective on interdisciplinary research. I joined WPI as an assistant professor of Physics in August 1998, in addition to maintaining a research affiliate appointment in the Center for Materials Science and Engineering at MIT from 1998 to 1999, where this perspective both broadened and deepened. I was tenured and promoted to associate professor in 2004 and became head of the Department of Physics in April 2006, where I have been responsible for all administrative aspects of this department. Along the way, I was lucky enough to achieve an NSF CAREER Award (2001-2006); produce 74 peer-reviewed publications with 1,417 citations and an h-index of 20; and graduate six PhDs, seven MSes, 43 MQP projects, and 15 IQP projects. I continue to strive to be active in both my research and in leading Physics at WPI, and integrate the two through my teaching.
Research Interest
Order-Disorder Phenomena in Soft Condensed Matter Systems; Phase Transitions and Critical Phenomena; Experimental Studies Liquid Crystals, Polymers, Proteins, Biomaterials, and Complex Composites
Publications
-
K. P. Sigdel and G. S. Iannacchione. "Calorimetric study of the nematic to smectic-A phase transition in octylcyanobiphenyl-hexane binary mixtures,†Physical Review E 82 (5), 051702-8 (2010).
-
K. P. Sigdel and G. S. Iannacchione. “Effect of carbon nanotubes on the isotropic to nematic and the nematic to smectic-A phase transitions in liquid crystal and carbon nanotube composites,†European Physics Journal E 34, 34-43 (2011).
-
A.R. Adhikari, Y.G. Georgiev, K. Sigdel, G.S. Iannacchione, K. Lozano, and M. Chipara. “Thermal behavior of poly(ethylene-co-propylene) containing carbon nanofibers,†Polymer Engineering and Science 52(2), 408-413 (2012).