Tuesday 11:30 - 14:00
Thursday 11:30 - 14:00
Other days upon request
PERSONAL DATA AND CURRICULUM VITAE
Diederik Sybolt Wiersma
Born in Utrecht (The Netherlands) on 25st December 1967
Married, 2 children. Dutch citizenship.
Languages English, Dutch, Italian, German, French.
Academic Qualifications
31 August 1991 Graduation (master's) Cum Laude at the Univ. of Amsterdam, Faculty of Physics
21 November 1995 PhD experimental physics, FOM-Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics.
Current Position
Nov 2013 – today Full professor (professore ordinario), Dipartimento di Fisica, Univ. di Firenze.
Jun 2016 – today President Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica – INRIM, Torino.
Previous Positions
Jan 1996 – Nov 1999 Marie Curie research fellow at the LENS in Florence
Dec 1999 – Dec 2002 Researcher National Institute for the Physics of Matter (INFM, Genova)
Dec 2002 – Dec 2006 Assistant research director (primo ricercatore) CNR-INO
Jan 2007 – Nov 2013 Research director (direttore di ricerca) CNR-INO
Nov 2010 – Nov 2013 Director of the European Laboratory for Non-linear Spectroscopy (LENS) in Firenze.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES AND INDICES
Total number of scientific citations (ISI Web of Knowledge, 2021): 13971
Average number of citations per paper: 58
H-index (Web of Science): 54
(has published under different names: D. Wiersma, D.S. Wiersma, and D.A. Wiersma)
More than 200 invited keynote and plenary presentations at international conferences and renowned universities world-wide.
International Awards
2004 Ugo Campisano award of the National Institute for the Physics of Matter (INFM)
2014 National Academy of Sciences award “Premio Tartufari” for physics (handed out by the president of state Giorgio Napolitano)
2015 Enrico Fermi award for physics (Italian Physical Society)
Selected scientific contributions
- Significantly contributed to the development of the field of disordered photonics. Pioneering work on multiple scattering of light and lasing in amplifying disordered materials. Introduction in literature of the – now widely used – terminology random laser.
- Observation and study of Lévy flights and super-diffusion of photons in a new material called Lévy glass. These results are strongly interdisciplinary and have implications in economy (stock market), life sciences (human travel, animal foraging), and geophysics (pollution spreading).
- Realization of a nano-infiltration system to create re-writable optical circuits and tunable photonic structures and components.
- Observation and understanding of several optical analogies of solid state phenomena, like optical Bloch oscillations, Zener tunneling of light, critical localization in quasi-crystals, and optical NTC resistance. Observation of Anderson localization in 2D systems and subsequent application for efficient thin film solar cells.
- First realization of light driven micrometer scale soft robots and soft micro-actuators (e.g. microscopic hand powered by light). New method for micro patterning of elastomers and realization of tunable optical components by optical deformation elastomers.
- Development of a new technology for super-resolution spectroscopy using a random laser as light source.
- Development of bio-compatible photonic devices, including a prototype cardiac assist device using optically active polymer.
Selected publications
Invited “News and Views” papers and commentaries
International patents (PCT and WO)
CAPACITY BUILDING AND OUTREACH
Supervision of students and postdocs
Thesis supervisor of 12 masters students, 18 PhD students, and 15 postdocs of 7 different nationalities, mainly at the University of Florence, on topics in experimental and theoretical physics, and materials science. Nearly all of these are following now a successful (international) career including professor Univ. of Cambridge, director Max Plank Institute, reader Univ. Exeter, research director CNRS, reader Imperial College, professor Tata Institute Fundamental Research, head researcher CNR, researcher at General Electric, etc.
Teaching activities (selection)
2005 – 2009 Lecturer doctorate course on micro and nano photonics, Univ. of Florence.
2010 – 2012 Doctorate course on nano photonics at the European Lab for Non-linear Spectroscopy (LENS).
2012 – today Physics for biology students, Univ. of Florence (using modified peer instruction).
2015 – 2019 Science and Technology of Light, Univ. of Florence, dept. of physics.
2019 – today Photonic Materials, Univ. of Florence, dept. of physics.
Organization of international conferences and schools (selection)
2005 Conference chair, SPIE meeting EOM03: Nano- and Micro-Metrology, Munich, Germany.
2005 Course director, 42nd course on quantum optics, Ettore Majorana center in Erice, Italy.
2007 Director of OSA topical meeting META, Jackson Hole, USA.
2007 Course director, Complex Optics in Mesostructured Materials, Ettore Majorana in Erice, Italy.
2008 Course director, 44nd course on quantum optics, Ettore Majorana center in Erice, Italy.
2008 Co-director of the conference 50 years of Anderson localization, Institut Henri Poincaré, Paris.
2009 Program director CLEO Europe, Munich, Germany.
2009 Director international school of physics Enrico Fermi, Nano optics and atomics, Varenna, Italy.
2010 Course director of the summer school Advances in Nanophotonics III, Erice, Italy.
2012 Course director of the EPS – SIF school on Energy, Varenna, Italy.
2013 Co-director Workshop on Nonlinear Photonics, Disorder and Wave Turbulence, ICTP Trieste.
2014 Member technical program committee CLEO Focus 2014.
2014 Course director of the Institut d'Etudes Scientifique de Cargese, Corsica, France.
2015 Course director Enrico Fermi School of Physics, Erice, Italy.
2017 Director of the school International School of Quantum Electronics, Ettore Majorana Foundation, Erice, Italy (recurrent event since 2018 – today).
2019 Course director of the International School of Physics Enrico Fermi, New frontiers for metrology:
from biology and chemistry to quantum and data science, Varenna, Italy.
Project management and coordination (selection)
- Coordinator of the INFM project Tunable Random Lasers for New Light Sources 346 kEuro (2002 – 2003).
- INFM project GaAs-based photonic crystals 322 kEuro (2002 – 2004).
- National project on Silicon Based Photonic Crystals 310 kEuro (2002 – 2007).
- National project on New Nanophotonic Devices, Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze 450 kEuro (2008-2009).
- Deputy coordinator of the European network of excellence on nanophotonics Phoremost 4.7 MEuro (total) 450 kEuro (local) (2004 - 2008).
- Industrial contract ENI Italy on nano photonic structures for efficient solar cells 150 kEuro (2009-2011).
- European network of excellence on nanophotonics for energy efficiency 2.7 MEuro (total) 300 kEuro (local) (2009 – 2012).
- Seed project on smart materials funded by the Italian Institute of Technology 630 kEuro (2009-2011).
- Advanced ERC grant on Nano photonic Micro Robotics 2.2 MEuro (2012-2018).
- Laserlab Europe – Joint Research Activity Photonic Materials 150 kEuro (2015-2019).
- Industrial grant Mettler-Toledo on photonics for gas sensing 120 kEuro (2019-2020).
- Deputy Coordinator European FET-open project on Photonic and Atomic Bio-Sensing 2.5 MEuro (total) 500 kEuro (local) (2019-2024).
- National Project of ‘Particular Strategic Relevance’ (FISR) MicroRNA and Smart Patches for the Treatment of Accute or Chronic Myocardium Infarction 1.3 MEuro (total) 514 kEuro (local) (2021 – 2022).
SCIENTIFIC EVALUATION
Panel member evaluation of Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks (since 2016).
Panel member of ERC starting grant panel PE2 (2013).
Panel chair of ERC consolidator grant panel PE2 (2015 – 2020).
Panel member of ERC synergy grant panel (since 2021).
Vice-chair for the European Commission's Horizon Europe Widening participation and strengthening the European Research Area program (since 2021).
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board Spanish Consolider program "NanoLight" (2008-2012).
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the ICON Foundation (2012-2016).
Frequent referee of Nature, Nature Physics/Photonics/Materials, and The Physical Review Letters.
Regular reviewer for scientific programs, including those of the Israel Science Foundation (ISF), Swiss National Foundation for Scientific Research (Bern, Schweiz), Department of Energy of the United States Government, European Science Foundation (Eurocores program), Italian Ministry of Education and University, and the French National Research Agency (ANR).
SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITY AND TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER
Known for his creative pioneering-style research while at the same time capable of bringing research results to the level of applications useful for society. Testimony of this is the large number of publications in high impact journals as Nature and Science, (including a substantial amount of cover stories), while at the same time having a consistent patent portfolio and having been actively involved in technology transfer.
His work is often of interdisciplinary nature, involving concepts of photonics, solid state physics and atomic physics, but also chemistry and engineering. In particular, D.W. is known worldwide for his work in disordered photonics, a field that he pioneered and co-founded. Other important breakthroughs he obtained are in the field of high precision nano scale imaging and nano scale realization of materials and their characterization. He recently started a new research direction, thanks to an ERC Advanced research grant, by combining nano scale fabrication with elastic materials and photonics. The project includes the synthesis and patterning of liquid crystalline elastomers and their formation into optically active components, and opens the road towards light driven robotics, actuators, and biological (human body) compatible photonic devices.
Of his team’s results, 19 were published as cover stories, including Nature (2x), PRL (2x), Physics Today, Nature Photonics (3x), Nature Materials, Advanced Materials (7x), Light Science & Applications (2x).
Legenda
