Giulia Tagliabue receives an SNSF grant of 1.5 million francs

Giulia Tagliabue received an Eccenllenza scholarship from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) for her project titled“Nanophotonic Control of Charge- and Ion-transport for Advancing Light-energy Storage Devices”. With 1.5 million francs over a five-year period, Eccellenza gives researchers the freedom to launch their own project with a team.

"Nanophotonics has recently revolutionized the control of light-matter interactions at the nanoscale. Importantly, by coupling free-space light to molecular dimensions nanophotonic structures offer unique but poorly explored possibilities to control charge-transfer and ion-transport mechanisms, which underlie photoelectrical and photo-electrochemical energy storage devices. Our vision is to combine fundamental understanding at an unprecedented level of nanoscale detail with the demonstration of novel proof-of-concept devices that leverage these emerging mechanisms. Overall, this project aims at breakthrough advances in the field of light-energy storage devices and will push the boundaries of nanophotonic engineering beyond optoelectronic systems", says Giulia Tagliabue.

This scholarship is important for assistant professors who aspire to a permanent professorship. This year, 244 researchers applied to the Eccellenza scheme. The SNSF selected 45 projects. Women account for 36% of the applications and 47% of the funded projects. That amounts to a success rate for women of 24%. "The figures show that women are succeeding under the Eccellenza scheme", says Julia Cahenzli Jenkins, who leads the funding scheme at the SNSF.