CARDIANO Paola

Paola Cardiano obtained the Degree in Chemistry cum laude (1997) and the PhD in Chemical Sciences (2001) from the University of Messina, with a doctoral Thesis entitled “Synthesis of novel polymers for the Conservation of Lithic Materials. Evaluation of their efficacy and comparison with commercial products” under the supervision of Prof. Sergio Sergi. Later she gained a Research Contract (2001-2002) on the project “New Materials for historical stones” within MURST national research program “Polymers for consolidation and protection of stone”. During 2003, she was a visiting researcher at the Department of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, University of Szeged (Hungary), where she worked, under the supervision of Prof. Laszlo Nagy, on multinuclear NMR spectroscopy aimed at the modeling of metal-ligands interactions in aqueous solution for environmental applications. From 2002 to 2006 she worked as a Research Fellow at Department of Inorganic Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry and Physical Chemistry, University of Messina, for the project "New materials for consolidation and/or protection of works of art" under the supervision of Prof. Pasquale Piraino.
Since 1997, starting from her PhD studies, the research interests of Prof Cardiano have been mostly oriented towards the synthesis of novel polymer-based materials for stone conservation and environmental applications. Her scientific activity is documented by 74 papers on peer-reviewed international journals (based on Scopus). In particular, her studies have been at first mainly devoted to the design, synthesis and characterization of novel hybrid organic/inorganic nanostructured materials for cultural heritage conservation. In this context she also carried out some research on chemical and physicochemical characterization of ancient artificial lithic materials such as bricks, mortars and mosaic tesserae. Then she expanded her scientific interests towards the synthesis of ionic liquids-based materials for cultural heritage conservation and environmental applications. Beside investigations on Cultural Heritage, she has been also involved in metals and organometals cations speciation studies, in aqueous solution, to evaluate their bioavailability in the presence of natural and synthetic sequestering agents, by means of multinuclear NMR techniques for environmental applications. In this sense, recently she oriented her research activities towards the design, synthesis and characterization of novel PIMs (Polymer Inclusion Membranes) properly modified for the selective sequestration of Sn(II) and Cd(II) cations by means of experimental design.
In her research career she was involved in 6 National Projects financed by Ministry of Instruction, University and Research, one of which as Local Unit Principal Investigator, and 9 Local Projects financed by University of Messina, some of which as Research Leader.
Currently, she is Associate Professor in the CHIM/12 SSD (Chemistry of the Environment and Cultural Heritage) at the Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina. She started her teaching activity in 2005 with “Physical Chemistry for Cultural Heritage” course at the Literature and Philosophy Faculty (University of Messina) in the bachelor degree course of “Cultural Heritage” until 2010. Since 2006 she is teaching “Chemistry of Cultural Heritage” course in the bachelor and master degrees in Chemistry and “Environmental Chemistry” in the bachelor degrees in Chemistry, directing 8 bachelor and 3 master theses, as well as a PhD thesis on Novel IL-s based materials for conservation and environmental applications. During this period, she was involved as committee member in various bachelor and master theses. From 06/06/2016 to 02/09/2016, from 20/10/2018 to 20/12/2018, and from 20/01/2020 to 21/02/2020 she hosted Dr. Olivia Gómez Laserna for three short post-doctoral stays within a research project based on synthesis and characterization of new polymeric materials in order to protect and restore the intergranular cohesion of historical lithic materials of Built Heritage. From 13 to 17 of march 2017, she was hosted in Bilbao, Department of Analytical Chemistry, Ibea Research Group, in the frame of the Erasmus+ Program, KA103 - Staff Mobility for Training, A. Y. 2016/2017, for a collaboration regarding the synthesis of new materials to be used in the field of conservation of Cultural Heritage. From 19 to 23 of march 2018, she was hosted again by Ibea Research Group, in the frame of the Erasmus+ Program, Staff Mobility for Training, A. Y. 2017/2018, for the continuation of the research activities previously started. In June 2018 she started another joint activity with Ibea Research Group, focused on the characterization of archaeological mosaic tesserae coming from the excavation of Villa San Pancrazio in Taormina (Sicily), with the collaboration of Dipartimento di Civiltà Antiche e Moderne (DICAM) of University of Messina. On 31/05/19 she was invited to give a seminar on “Smart membranes for water pollution remediation” at EHU/UPV. From 03/06/19 to 07/06/19 she was hosted again in Bilbao, Department of Analytical Chemistry, Ibea Research Group, in the frame of the Erasmus+ Program, KA103- Staff Mobility for Training and Teaching, A.Y.2018/2019, with a teaching activity of 8 hours on “Organic-inorganic nanohybrids as multifunctional materials for stone conservation. State of the art and commercial formulations” and “Design and development of new advanced eco-sustainable conservation hybrid products for stone conservation: new perspectives”. From 13/06/19 to 18/07/19 she was hosted University of Strasbourg, Equipe de Chimie Analytique des Molécules BioActives IPHC - DSA, CNRS, Faculté de Pharmacie, as a Visiting Researcher, for a collaboration with Prof. Christophe Marcic, in the framework of the funded UniME Research and Mobility project “ARCADIA - smARt materials for landfill leaChAte remediation”. She is involved in the activities of “Network for Equilibria and Chemical Thermodynamics Advanced Research” COST ACTION 18202.
She presented her research activities in more than 50 congresses, including international, with oral and poster presentations. She is an active referee of several international peer review journals, such as J Mol Liq, Anal Chim Acta, J Cult Herit, Polymer, Eur Polym J, Appl Surf Sci, Surf Coat Technol, Constr Build Mater, J Non-Cryst Sol, J Membr Sci, J Appl Polym Sci, Prog Org Coat.
From the management point of view, from 2014 to 2019 she was the Job Placement delegate of Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical and Environmental Sciences. She was a member of the Sicilian committee for SCI, Società Chimica Italiana (2018-2021); in this framework she was the local responsible for “Giochi della Chimica”. She is a member of the PhD committee in Chemical Sciences since 2008. In September 2016 she was member of the organization committee of the “XXVI Congresso Nazionale di Chimica Analitica” held in Giardini Naxos (ME).