Italian Principal Investigator
Professor of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry
University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (UNIMORE)
Email:
giovannimaria.piccini@unimore.it
Education
Dr. rer. nat., Humboldt University of Berlin
European Master in Theoretical Chemistry and Computational Modelling,
University of Trieste / University of Groningen
Research Interests
GiovanniMaria Piccini is Professor of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (UNIMORE). Prior to joining UNIMORE, he held faculty positions at RWTH Aachen University in Germany and worked as a staff scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in the United States. He also completed postdoctoral research in the group of Michele Parrinello at ETH Zurich.
His research lies at the intersection of chemistry, physics, computer science, and engineering, with a particular focus on molecular simulations, enhanced sampling methods, machine learning interatomic potentials, and the automated discovery of chemical reactivity. His group develops computational methods that enable the study of rare events and complex reaction mechanisms in catalytic and supramolecular systems.
Within the IRES CRYSTAL Dynamics Program, Giovanni mentors students working on molecular dynamics simulations, machine learning approaches for materials chemistry, and the exploration of complex energy landscapes in molecular solids.
Outside of research, Giovanni enjoys building interdisciplinary collaborations that connect fundamental chemistry with modern computational methods and data-driven discovery.