PAOLO MILANI
Paolo Milani is Full Professor at the Department of Physics of the University of Milano.
He graduated in Physics from the University of Pavia (Italy) and he received his Docteur es Sciences (PhD) in 1991 from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale of Lausanne. He founded in 1992 the Molecular Beams and Nanocrystalline Materials Laboratory at the University of Milano.
His research focuses on cluster-assembled nanostructured materials for neuromorphic systems, stretchable electronics, biomedicine, soft robotics. He has published more than 250 papers on refereed journals, several review papers and a monograph on supersonic cluster beam deposition for the synthesis of nanostructured thin films.
Milani is the recipient of the U. Campisano Award from the Italian Institute for the Physics of Matter in 2000 for his contributions to the field of the synthesis and characterization of nanostructured materials. In 2006 he received the L. Tartufari Prize awarded by the Lincei National Academy.
Currently, Milani serves as Director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Nanostructured Materials and Interfaces of the University of Milano.
He is co-editor of the Springer book series Carbon Materials Chemistry and Physics, regional editor for Europe of the Journal of Nanoparticle Research, editor of Advances in Physics X, member of the editorial board of KONA Powder and Particle Journal, and Journal of Aerosol Science.
He holds twenty patents in the field of nanotechnology and he is co-founder of three companies: TETHIS spa active in the field of nanostructured devices for early cancer diagnostics, WISE srl producing implantable electrodes for neuromodulation, EOS srl producing optical diagnostic systems for nanoparticles in complex biological fluids.

TOMMASO SANTANIELLO
Tommaso Santaniello is a postdoc researcher (applied Physics technologist since July 2020) at CIMAINA (Physics Department, University of Milan) where he coordinates the research activities on the synthesis, micro and nano-fabrication and physico-chemical characterization of polymer-based advanced nanocomposite materials since 2015.
His research work is devoted to the development and characterization of novel materials with tailored functional properties and to the integration of innovative manufacturing approaches targeted at the rapid prototyping of smart devices for forefront technological applications, such as soft robotics, deformable electronics and the biomedical area.
The library of materials includes commercially available polymers (mainly bioplastics and elastomers) and in-house formulated materials (e.g. ionic electro-active polymers, hydrogels and polymer/metal nanocomposites). These are investigated by setting up and implementing adequate experimental procedures to identify and correlate the principal physical and chemical properties that determine the functional behavior of the system, with particular interest in the study of the electric transport and charge storage properties in static conditions and under mechanical stimuli.
The fabrication processes to prototype functional devices based on these advanced materials rely on the integration of different techniques, such as micro-molding of photopolymers, additive manufacturing approaches and metallization of soft polymers by means of Supersonic Cluster Beam Deposition (SCBD).
The prototyped systems comprehend soft electromechanical actuators, strain and pressure sensors, microfluidic platforms for cell biology applications, morpho-functional phantoms for radiology and electrochemical sensors.
The main results of his postdoctoral research have been published in peer-reviewed international journals.