Michele BACK

Professional Experience

2021 – now Assistant Professor (Ricercatore lettera b), RTDb), Department of Molecular Sciences and Nanosystems, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy
2020 – 2021 Research Fellow, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico di Aviano, Italy
2017 – 2019 JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow, Kyoto University, Japan
2017 Research Fellow, Department of Molecular Sciences and Nanosystems, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy (in collaboration with NADIR s.r.l.)

Currently, member of the Orientation commission of the Department of Molecular Sciences and Nanosystems and member of the Teaching committee of the master’s degree programme in Science and Technology of Bio and Nanomaterials.
National Scientific Habilitation (ASN) for the position of associate professor obtained in 2020, scientific sectors 03/B2 (CHIM/07), 03/A2 (CHIM/02), 02/B1 (FIS/03) and 03/B1 (CHIM/03).

Education

2013 – 2017 Ph.D. degree, Chemical Sciences, Department of Molecular Sciences and Nanosystems, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy (cum laude)
6 months of research carried out as visiting student at Kyoto University, Japan
2010 – 2013 Master of Science (M. Sc.), Materials Science, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy (110/110 cum laude)
3 months of research carried out as visiting student at Kyoto Institute of Technology, Japan
2006 – 2010 Bachelor of Science (B. Sc.), Sciences and Technologies of the Materials, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy (110/110 cum laude)

Research Interests

The topic of my research is focused on the design and development of luminescent materials (powders, ceramics and nanoparticles) with particular attention on fundamental and applied aspects of transition and post-transition metal-based compounds. The main application fields range from contactless thermal and pressure sensors for physiological and harsh environments to broadband NIR LEDs, from anticounterfeiting tags to persistent luminescence (nano)materials for excitation-free bio-imaging.

Evaluator for International Research Proposals

Since 2021, member of the Expert Review Panel for the EUTOPIA-SIF program (co-funded by the European Union within the framework of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie COFUND action) in the research area of Materials Engineering.

Conference Organization, Committee and Referee Activity

Author/co-author of 35 papers (19 as corresponding author), 1 book chapter, 2 national patents and 2 international patents. Invited speaker at 9 international conferences.
Since 2019, committee member of the “Global Conference on Polymer and Composite Materials”.
Executive committee member of “11th ISIPM & International Workshop on Forward-Looking Materials”, Venice, 2020, Italy (postponed)
Supervisor or co-supervisor of more than 10 bachelor/master students and co-supervisor of a PhD student in Chemistry (XXXII cycle).
Since 2018, member of the Ceramic Society of Japan and, since 2021, member of AICIng (Associazione Italiana Chimica per Ingegneria).

Reviewer of more than 120 papers (https://publons.com/researcher/3525252/michele-back/) for many scientific journals of publishers in the field of Chemical Sciences, Material Sciences, Physical Chemistry and Optical Materials:

- Nature: Nature Communications, Scientific Reports
- ACS: Chemistry of Materials, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, ACS Applied Nano Materials, The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, The Journal of Physical Chemistry C
- Wiley: Advanced Optical Materials, Small, ChemNanoMat
- RSC: Journal of Materials Chemistry C, Nanoscale, PCCP, RSC Advances
- Elsevier: Chemical Engineering Journal, Journal of Luminescence, Optical Materials, Sensors & Actuators

International Collaborations

- Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Division of Material Function, Kyoto University, Japan.
- Department of Energy & Hydrocarbon Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Japan
- National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Japan
- Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST), JAPAN
- Institute of Physics, Tartu University, Estonia
- College of Science, Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, P. R. China
- Department of Theoretical Physics, Jan Długosz University, Poland
- European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (The Rossendorf Beamline, BM20), Grenoble, France
- Institute of Resource Ecology, Helmholtz Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), Germany
- Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics, Institute of Experimental Physics, Laboratory for Characterization of Luminescent Materials and Nanomaterials, University of Gdansk, Poland

Research at Synchrotron Facilities

Proponent/co-proponent of proposals and participant of experiments at synchrotron beamlines:

- ELETTRA Synchrotron, Trieste – Italy.
Temperature dependent X-ray diffraction analysis at MCX beamline.
EXAFS experiments at XAFS beamline.

- UVSOR-III Synchrotron, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Okazaki – Japan.
Low temperature VUV analysis at BL-3B beamline.