Giovanna Fragneto

European Spallation Source ESS Science Director

“Possibilities for soft matter science at the European Spallation Source”

October, 16. 11:30

Giovanna Fragneto is the Science Director of the European Spallation Source based in Lund Sweden, an ERIC facility under construction that has the ambition to become the most powerful neutron source in the world. She spent 25 years at the Institut Laue-Langevin, an international research institute based in Grenoble, France, delivering high flux neutron beams for the study of matter in the realms of soft and hard condensed matter, biology, magnetism, materials science, nuclear and particle physics.

She obtained her first degree at the University Federico II of Naples in Italy and a DPhil from the Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory of the University of Oxford, UK. As from 2016 she holds the Chair Grands Instruments Européens at the University Grenoble Alpes.

She investigates surfaces and interfaces with special emphasis to the structure of model biological membranes, characterised with reflectivity techniques using neutron beams or synchrotron radiation, as well as interactions of lipid bilayers with cholesterol, peptides, proteins, enzymes, cationic lipoplexes, nanoparticles.

She was awarded the 2006 BTM Willis Prize of The Institute of Physics and Royal Society of Chemistry for her research work on biomembranes and the 2023 Darsh Wasan award from the Journal of Colloids and Interface Science for outstanding achievements in colloids and interface science. She is editor-in-chief of the European Physical Journal E and author of >220 publications in peer-reviewed journals.

She is actively involved in promoting a better gender balance in science.

https://www.ill.eu/users/scientific-groups/large-scale-structures/people/giovanna-fragneto