Prof. Matteo Maestri

Education

  • 2008: Ph.D. in Industrial Chemistry and Chemical Engineering (cum Laude – advisor: Prof. E. Tronconi), Politecnico di Milano, Italy
  • 2004: Master of Science in Chemical Engineering (cum laude), Politecnico di Milano, Italy

National positions

  • 2019 – date: Full Professor of Chemical Engineering, Dept. of Energy, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
  • 2015 – 2019: Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, Dept. of Energy, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
  • 2008 – 2015: Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering, Dept. of Energy, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

International positions

  • 2011: Alexander von Humboldt Fellow, Department of Chemistry, TU München, Germany
  • 2009 – 2010: Alexander von Humboldt Fellow, Fritz-Haber-Institut, Max Planck Society, Berlin, Germany
  • 2009: Visiting Scholar, Fritz-Haber-Institut, Max Planck Society, Berlin, Germany
  • 2006 – 2007: Visiting Scholar, Department of Chemical Engineering, Center for Catalytic Science and Technology, University of Delaware, Newark (USA)

Honors and awards

  • 2018: Pregl Lecture, Kemijski inštitut, National Institute of Chemistry – Ljubljana, Slovenia
  • 2017: Listed in the selection of Italy’s 100 best under-40 researchers currently active both in Italy and abroad, CARTADITALIA – Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Brussels
  • 2016: ERC Starting Grant – ERC, European Research Council
  • 2016. Selected for Early Career Series paper in ChemPlusChem (Wiley)
  • 2015: SIR (Scientific Independence of Young Researchers) – MIUR, Rome
  • 2014: appointed as a member of the International Scientific Committee of ISCRE 24 (International Symposium of Chemical Reaction Engineering), Minneapolis, USA, June 12-15, 2016
  • 2012: Young Scientist Award at the 15th International Congress on Catalysis (Munich, Germany, July 1-6, 2012), presented by the International Association of Catalysis Societies (IACS).
  • 2010: Young Researcher Award at the 21st International Symposium on Chemical Reaction Engineer (ISCRE), June 13-16, 2010, Philadelphia, USA
  • 2009: Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship
  • 2008: Young Scientist Award at the 14th International Congress on Catalysis (Seoul, Korea, July 13-18, 2008), presented by the International Association of Catalysis Societies (IACS).

Publication details and research interests

The full list of publications can be retrieved from my ORCID link and from my CV.

During my research activity, I have developed interdisciplinary and multiscale skills and expertise, spanning from macroscopic chemical reaction engineering to first-principles studies addressing elementary processes at the nanoscale. This research experience was gained in an interdisciplinary corridor between catalysis and reaction engineering and between physical chemistry (semi-empirical and first-principles methods) and chemical engineering (transport phenomena, applied mathematics, numerical analysis) in close interaction with kinetic experiments.

My main active research areas are:

  • first principles multiscale modeling of catalytic chemical processes: development of methodologies for coupling atomistic simulations and chemical reaction engineering and their application in the context of heterogeneous catalysis;
  • microkinetic modeling and analysis (CH4 activation; CO2 activation; syngas production at short-contact-times): detailed mechanistic studies and microkinetic development of catalytic processes.
  • computational fluid dynamics of reacting flows: development and application of a numerical framework for the multiscale analysis of chemical processes.
  • operando-Raman kinetic studies and analysis: coupling between spectroscopy and kinetic measurements in order to include structure-effects in kinetic analysis of catalytic processes.

Organisation of scientific meetings

  • 2018: organizer (together with prof. J. Thybaut, Gent University) of the International workshop “Bridging Laboratory Chemical Kinetics to Industrial Scale Reactors – 2nd edition”, Firenze, May 23-27, 2018
  • 2017: member of the organizing committee of ISCRE 25 (International Symposium of Chemical Reaction Engineering), Firenze, Italy, May 20-23, 2018
  • 2017: organizer (together with prof. J. Thybaut, Gent University) of the International workshop “Bridging Laboratory Chemical Kinetics to Industrial Scale Reactors”, Firenze, August 23-25, 2017
  • 2015: member of the International Scientific Committee of ISCRE 24 (International Symposium of Chemical Reaction Engineering), Minneapolis, USA, June 12-15, 2016
  • 2013: organizer (together with G. Groppi, E. Tronconi) of the European Colloquium on Chemical Reaction Engineering 2013 – “First-principles methods in Chemical Reaction Engineering”, Politecnico di Milano, Italy, October 17-18, 2013 – sponsored by the European Federation of Chemical Engineering (EFCE).
  • 2011: organizer (together with R. Horn and K. Reuter) of DeMiR 2011: From Detailed Microkinetics to the Reactor – European Workshop on Multiscale Catalytic Reactor Engineering, TUM, Munich, September 6, 2011

Invitation to international conferences and schools

I have delivered 44 invited talks (24 at international conferences and workshops, 16 at international universities and research centers, 4 at international industries). Particularly relevant are the following invited presentations in key-international conferences and workshops in my field:

  • M. Maestri, “First-principles insights into the WGS mechanism on Rh”, special symposium on “Steam reforming of alcohols” organized by C. Chin (U. Toronto, Canada) and K. Seshan (University Twente, The Netherlands) 15th International Congress on Catalysis – Munich, Germany – July 1-6, 2012
  • M. Maestri, “Efficient Coupling Between Microkinetic Modeling and CFD: Towards a Fully First-Principles Catalytic Chemical Reaction Engineering”, Special Session in Honor of the 2011 Wilhelm Award Winner Dionisios Vlachos, AIChE Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA, USA Oct. 28 – Nov. 2, 2012
  • M. Maestri “First-principles based catalytic reaction engineering”, DECHEMA-Workshop “Complex Reaction Networks: From Topological-kinetic Analysis to the Design of Industrial Reactors”, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems, Magdeburg, Germany, January 24, 2013
  • M. Maestri, “Unraveling reaction mechanisms through hierarchical multiscale approaches”, CECAM Workshop on “From the chemical bond to the chemical reactor”, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore, India, August 25-29, 2014
  • M. Maestri, “A first-principles approach two system complexity in heterogeneous catalysis”, Helmholtz Research School for Energy-Related Catalysis, Stuttgart, Germany, July 20-24, 2015
  • M. Maestri, “Catalysts at work: unraveling reaction mechanisms through hierarchical multiscale approaches”, 4th International conference on electronic materials and nanotechnology for green environment (ENGE 2016), Jeju, South Korea, November 6-9, 2016
  • M. Maestri, “Morphological changes of catalyst materials in reacting conditions by combined ab-initio thermodynamics and microkinetic modeling.”, 7th Bonn Humboldt Award Winners’ Forum “Fundamental Concepts and Principles of Chemical Energy Conversion”, Bonn, October 11-15, 2017
  • M. Maestri, “Structure-dependent microkinetic modeling: methodology and applications”, Pregl Colloquium, National Institute of Chemistry, Lubiana, Slovenia, March 22, 2018

Moreover, I have given 72 contributed presentations at international conferences and workshops (53 orals – 19 posters).