Antonino LICCIARDELLO

Antonino Licciardello is currently full professor of Physical Chemistry at University of Catania. He earned his degree in Chemistry (1981, *summa cum laude*) and his PhD in Chemical Sciences (1987, 1st cycle) from the University of Catania. He continued his research activities as a research fellow and contract researcher at the University of Catania's Department of Chemistry (1987–1990). From 1991 to 1998, he served as a Researcher in Physical Chemistry at the University of Catania. Following a national selection process, in 1998 he was appointed Associate Professor of Physical Chemistry by the Faculty of Mathematical, Physical, and Natural Sciences at the University of Catania, a position he held until the end of 2017. In 2014, he obtained the national habilitation as a Full Professor. Since January 2018, he has held the position of Full Professor of Physical Chemistry at the Department of Chemical Sciences of the University of Catania.

He served as coordinator of the PhD program in Materials Science at the University of Catania for cycles XV through XXII (2006–2012) and was a member of the faculty boards for both that PhD program and the one in Chemical Sciences. From 2020 to 2024, he served as Head of the Department of Chemical Sciences at the University of Catania.

Antonino was a member of the Executive Board of the Physical Chemistry Division of the Italian Chemical Society (SCI) and of the Executive Board of the SCI’s Sicily Section.

From the workshop's inception in the 1990s until 2022, he served on the Advisory Board of the biennial international workshop "SIMS Europe".  He was a member of the International Committee for the Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) conference from 2009 to 2013 and has served as member of the International Scientific Committee for the same conference series from 2009 to the present. In 2011, he chaired the "18th International Conference on Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry" (SIMS XVIII) in Riva del Garda, and he will chair the SIMS 2027 conference, to be held in Catania from September 19 to 22, 2027.

Antonino Licciardello authored about 140 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals, one patent, and over 150 conference presentations and seminars, including around 30 invited talks. His scientific interests focus on the physical chemistry of surfaces and thin films.  He is particularly interested in the physicochemical processes involved in the interaction between energetic particles and matter, with special focus on chemical processes in ion-matter interaction, on the development and application of surface techniques, and on surface engineering by means of different methods, ranging from interaction with fast particles to self assembly methods for the construction of supramolecular architectures with functional properties. Some of his scientific results have been published on high-ranking journals such as Nature Materials and Advanced Materials, and in 2011 one of his papers received the Beynon Prize Award.
In the framework of his research activity, Antonino Licciardello established collaborations with many research groups in Italy and abroad, and has served as principal investigator on various research projects funded by European and national agencies.