Liberato Manna received his MSc in Chemistry from the University of Bari (Italy) in 1996 and his PhD in Chemical Sciences from the same University in 2001. During his PhD studies, and later as postdoctoral fellow, he worked at the University of California Berkeley (USA).
In 2003 he moved back to Italy, as staff scientist at the National Nanotechnology Lab of CNR-INFM in Lecce, (Italy) where he became later responsible for the Nanochemistry Division in 2006.
In April 2009 he moved to the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Genova as head of the Nanochemistry Department.
Since November 2010 he is also professor of Quantum Nanoscience at the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience at TU Delft (Netherlands). His research interests are the advanced synthesis, structural characterization and assembly of inorganic nanostructures, with emphasis on the development of complex, three dimensional nano-hetero-structures for applications in energy, photonics and biology. He pioneered the field of shape control of nanoparticles, with nanorods, branched nanocrystals and nanoparticle heterostructures, their surface functionalization, as well as the assembly of nanocrystals such as rods and octapods in ordered superstructures.As of May 2012 Liberato Manna has about 160 publications in chemistry, materials science and nanoscience, contributed to 14 book chapters, and holds 10 patents and 13 patent applications in nanotechnology. Among the various prizes, he received the "Lawrence Berkeley Lab (LBL) Technology Transfer" award in 2002, the "INFM young investigator" award in 2007, the "R&D 100" award in 2009 as a member of the LBL Berkeley team for "Nanocrystal Solar Cells" and the "Journal of Materials Chemistry Lectureship" award in 2011. He was recently ranked among the top 100 Chemists worldwide of the last decade by Thomson Reuters (ISI). He is (and has been) involved in several EU projects, including one (2005-2008) in which he was coordinator. Also, in 2009 he was recipient of a European Research Council (ERC) starting research grant for carrying out research on nanocomposite architectures.
