Silvia M. Pietralunga received her Master degree (cum laude) in Electronics Engineering from Politecnico di Milano, and her Ph.D. in Electronics and Communication Engineering in 1998.

She started developing her career and competences in the field of photonics for optical communications. 

After a period as Adjunct Researcher at Politecnico di Milano ( PoliMI) - Dept. of Electronics, in the Photonics Lab team, in 1996 she joined the research consortium Corecom (a private R&D institution, jointly established between PoliMI and Pirelli company) focusing on the processing of optical signals for telecom applications. With Corecom she became Head of the Material Research Lab and of the Physical Optics Lab and was appointed Principal Investigator for the Area Materials and Devices, provided with a clean-room facility featuring equipments for materials growth and post-growth treatments, nanofabrication using optical and electron-beam lithography, optical and electrical characterizations, SEM electron microscopy and Atomic Force Microscopy. Dr. Pietralunga was Team Leader for CoreCom's activities in the frame of national and international research projects, in the areas of Optical Technologies and Physical Optics. Listing main research activities: photoconductive and electro-optical effects in semiconductors; linear and non-linear optical response of photonic materials (inorganics, organics, hybrids and nanostructured); analysis of the evolution of the State of Polarization in fiber optics signals and related issues and mitigation techniques; growth and characterization of thin films of semiconductors and oxides for integrated photonics applications  by Reactive Magnetron Sputtering; optical properties of metals and plasmonic structures for intra-chip interconnections.

She was involved in the European FP6-IST Project PHOREMOST - Nanophotonics ro realise molecular scale technologies ( Network of Excellence)( 2004-2008, GA ID 511616) as Workpackage Leader and member of the Industrial Advisory Board. 

From 2009 to 2011 she was a researcher in photonics for energy at Fondazione Politecnico di Milano, in collaboration with PoliMI-Dept. Of Electronics and Information, with R&D activities on design and fabrication of plasmonic nanostructures and photonics technologies and nanotechnologies for photovoltaic energy conversion.

Since December 2011 she has a permanent position as a researcher at the Institute of Photonics and Nanotechnologies (IFN) of the Italian National Research Council (CNR) in Milan. She mainly collaborates at the Physics Dept. of Politecnico di Milano with the Surface Physics research group in Electronic, optical and magnetic properties of low-dimensional systems. Current research activities involve Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Scanning Elecron Auger Microspectroscopy (SAM) for morphological and compositional analysis of nanostructured materials and surfaces and the development of new experimental methods in the field. The “Ultrafast electronic Dynamics in Solids” project is devoted to the study of electronic and magnetic dynamics.

She is involved in several national Projects, with activities  in photonics for energy and sensing applications.

She in involved in the european H2020 CSA  Actions  supporting the  photonic platform PPP Photonics21 ( Projects EuroPho21 2015-2017 and NextPho21 2018-2020) as key person for the italian partner ( the national photonic platform CORIFI).

She was appointed the 2013 Research Grant of the C.M. Lerici Foundation ( Stockholm, Sweden), for the experimental research "Physics of low-dimensional III-V semiconductor heterojunctions for solar cell applications", in collaboration with the Dept. of Materials and Nano Physics, ICT School, KTH.

Since 2013, Dr. Pietralunga has been Lecturer and Adjunct Professor  of Experimental Physics at Politecnico di Milano. In years 2006-2008 she has been Professor of Technology of Optical Interconnection and Packaging at Politecnico di Milano and at IUSS-Istituto Universitario di Studi Superiori-Pavia. In years 2000-2008 she has been teaching Courses at Master Level in Optical Communications, on active and passive devices for optical telecomm and datacomm (Poliedra-Politecnico di Milano, Cefriel).

S. M. Pietralunga has authored more than 100 international publications in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings, besides 9 granted patents. She is scientific reviewer for international scientific journals in the fields  of photonics and materials science  and for international funding agencies.

She is  President of the IEEE Photonics Society Italy Chapter, Senior Member IEEE, member of OSA, SIOF, AEIT and SIEM.

More details at the  link: https://www.cnr.it/people/silviamaria.pietralunga

S. M. Pietralunga Indexed Publications can be viewed at:  Pietralunga_SCOPUS