Welcome to Strasbourg, Lorenzo !

Lorenzo joined Soprema on February 22 this year ! He will be working on “Mechanical performances and sustainability of industrial polymers involving mechanical bonds”

Tell us more about your background!

I am 24. I am from Italy, from a little town close to Milan, where I lived and studied since now. I studied “Chemical Sciences and Technologies” at the University of Milano-Bicocca both for my Bachelor and Master degree. I graduated with my Master degree in October 2021. I had the opportunity to work on two different and interesting topics in my Bachelor and Master thesis. In the Bachelor thesis I worked on biopolymers and the attempt to graft them on keratin in order to obtain a thermoplastic material derived from wastes of industries, with the idea to reach the circular economy. In my Master degree I worked on chitosan-based multivalent inhibitors of LecB, a protein involved in the development of bacterial biofilms, quite relevant in the arise of antibiotic resistance. In this experience I had the opportunity to spend a period in Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) in Germany for an Erasmus+ traineeship, where I grew my conscience about the importance of an international and multicultural network in science research.

Why did you want to be a part of ArtMoMa?

Since I discovered the existence of molecular machines, in my university studied, I was completely fascinated by this field of research. What fascinates me the most is the possibility to observe in the real world how, along the past centuries, we designed all kind of machines at the macroscopic level and to attempt to translate the same mechanisms at the molecular lever, with all the due necessary adjustment that take in consideration differences in physics laws. I think it’s a research topic where creativity and reality observation are at the center of the design of these objects. In my studies I was even impressed by the possibility to exploit in a very efficient way non-covalent bonds make something unimaginable before.

ArtMoMa gives me the possibility to challenge myself in the top-level network for this research field and to get inspiration from all the ideas of the other ESR to try to achieve my project goals.

What are your expectations of living and working in your host city?

I love the city in which I’m living, Strasbourg, and I expect to enjoy my time here and learn a lot of things. I would like to learn to understand and speak fluently French as soon as possible to integrate as much as possible in the life of the city. It’s my first experience living far from home for such a long time, so it will be a challenge for me to learn how to live independently and manage all the necessary things. Living in a different country and city makes me even more enthusiastic to work on my project.

What do you think will be your main challenge for you the next three years?

As ESR15 my challenge is to try to put in real contact the wonderful world of molecular machines and mechanical bonds with the real necessities of the industry and to demonstrate that all what has been demonstrate until now in the fundamental research in this field can actually have a great impact in solving the technological problems of the years to come.