Interview with Max Cavallini
Max Cavallini, 39 years old, has been working on the SONS Project FUN-SMARTs for the past three years. He is also one of 2006 EURYI award winners.
We asked him a few questions.
Q. What does winning the EURYI award means to you?
A. Winning the EURYI recognises the work I did these past years, and that I worked well. It means an improvement in my current research position, because I can start my own group, with the hope of being a permanent researcher in Italy one day.
Q. What research project will you support with it?
A. My project, DYMOT (Dynamics of Molecules on Organic Transistors), aims to develop the next generation of sensors with the ultimate goal to screen a wide variety of diseases. In this project we will investigate a new method for the study of interactions of molecules with FET (Field-Effect Transistors). These molecules can be important for biological purposes, and form the basis of a new generation of biological sensors, such as sensitive molecules involved in health, blood analysis and screening of some metabolites.
All of these are long-term applications. Other applications could be screening for chemicals responsible for the environment pollution. In the first phase we will study the surface’s response to physical, chemical and biological species.
Q. What research projects are you working at the moment?
A. My group’s research activities are based on fabrication and characterisation of multifunctional materials with nanometer scale resolution, and the use and development of new unconventional nanolithographic methods.
I am working on the FUN-SMARTs Project, which is part of the EUROCORES SONS Programme. In FUN-SMARTs we developed new methods for bottom-up nano-lithography. In collaboration with CSIC (J. Veciana’s group) we patented a new method based on control of demixing of molecular magnets dispersed into a polymeric matrix. I am also involved in EU-IP NAIMO where I am studying self-organising properties of functional materials and how it is possible to control self-organisation by unconventional lithographies. I am also the PI in a Marie Curie network named CHEXTAN where we study chiral molecules and the effects of chirality in self-organisation.
Q. Why have you become involved in this area of research?
A. After my PhD (in electrochemistry) I moved from Florence University to CNR in Bologna. In Bologna I started to study thin films and self-assembled monolayers. The control of these phenomena are the basis of bottom-up nanofabrication, thus to be involved in this area of research was the natural evolution of my activity.
Q. Do you think the SONS Project was important in your research career? And why?
A. My involvement with EUROCORES SONS was very important for my research career because it gave me the opportunity to interact with eminent scientists and important research groups in Europe. Also one of the colleagues highly supported me for the EURYI award. It gave me the opportunity to collaborate with important groups, without too much bureaucracy.
It gave me visibility because as SONS is an international projects and the possibility to be invited in conferences.
My SONS interaction resulted the publication of papers in high-quality journals, reviews with high-impact factors and the production of a patent in collaboration with ICMAB-CSIC. This patent has now been licensed to a spin-off company, SCRIBA Nanotecnologie.
Q. What was the most important discovery that the FUN-SMARTs project has achieved?
A. The molecular magnets were very interesting, as well as the method that we patented; a new lithographic method based on mixing of polymers with the substrate. This was published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2005, 44, 888-892.
Q. What is the European added value of the SONS EUROCORES Programme? And of FUNSMARTs?
A. I work in a group that has a very multidisciplinary approach to research, with chemists, physicists and engineers all working together and my project reflects this characteristic. In SONS and in particular in FUN-SMARTs there are several groups with different backgrounds. This is fascinating and enthusiastic, because to carry out research with people that have a different points of view is something fantastic, and helps to solve problems in a easer way.
Q. Do you think this kind of collaboration in Europe is important for the development of science? (the future of science lies in multidisciplinary research)
A. When you are young and you work in a multidisciplinary group it is easy to loose the focus, because if you are not lucky and you are not specialised it can be difficult to have targets and to publish papers, and in the end you can loose your identity.
Q. Would it have been possible to achieve the same results without the collaborations with the other partners?
A. No, these important results were due to the fact that I met very important scientists and I started interacting with them, and if you have good collaboration with scientists you will achieve very god results.
Q. What were the highs and lows of the SONS Project and of FUN-SMARTs?
A. I have already mentioned the highs. Regarding the lows, there is still a lot of bureaucracy, compared to other EC projects, and this can be improved. The financial report is very difficult to do for a researcher, without any help from a specialist.
Q. What discovery or research in SONS, outside your own CRP FUN-SMARTs, you have found particularly fascinating?
A. When I started working in SONS, I was introduced to very good scientists who were able to synthesize new material with fantastic properties and functionality. I particularly found the molecular magnets very fascinating. The study of magnetism is not my field but I found the idea to have ferromagnetism in a single organic molecule fantastic.
Q. Do you think you have created good links with other European partners? In your future research what other partnerships and links with other researchers will you develop? Is there any new line of research you would like to develop through your SONS collaboration?
A. To have good collaboration is the basis of my activity. To have something good you need the collaboration of several good people and in EUROCORES there are very good scientists. I need to continue collaborating with the people in SONS because the collaboration is very productive.
Q. What are your research goals?
A. Several important publications. As the project is ambitious, and since I want to open a new area of research, I would like to have good publications in high impact journals and some patents. There are several possibilities in real applications for biological sensors, but they are more long-term applications, but I believe that some sensors for inorganic molecules could be realised in short-term.
Q. What kind of timeframe?
A. A few years for a patent is possible but to arrive at a production state is another story, like it was for organic LED (OLED). The first LED paper based on organic thin film was published about 25 years ago, but the first OLED production was only a few years ago. I do not expect to have production in a short time, but I want to put down the basis for a new generation of sensors.
Q. Where do you see yourself in 10 years time?
A. Thanks to the EURYI I could have a permanent position. This is one of the drawbacks of the EURYI, not being guaranteed a permanent position. I think this should be introduced in the next EURYI awards, that the national institution should give permanent positions to the winners. In fact, having a permanent position means working in a better way as you have job security. In addition, during the five years of the EURYI award, you only have to work on one project. This limits your CV, and you really have to prove that you have good results and that you are a team leader.
