Francesco Banfi | Materials Science | Research Excellence Award

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Prof. Francesco Banfi | Materials Science | Research Excellence Award

Professor | Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 – Institut Lumière Matière | France

Prof. Francesco Banfi is a leading physicist internationally recognized for his contributions to ultrafast energy transport, nanoscale thermo-mechanics, and time-resolved optical spectroscopy. Over the past two decades, he has advanced the understanding of energy transients in nanostructures, high-temperature superconductors, and surface-based electron systems, establishing a strong interdisciplinary research profile that bridges condensed-matter physics, ultrafast photonics, and nanoscale material science. His scholarly impact is reflected in 1,826 citations, 101 publications, and an h-index of 25, underscoring his sustained influence in the global physics community. Prof. Banfi has led and participated in numerous competitive international projects across Europe, the USA, and Switzerland, contributing significantly to frontier research initiatives. Notably, he served as Principal Investigator for a 500 k€ FIRB Consolidator Grant on ultrafast thermo-mechanics and a 70 k€ French National Research project, strengthening cross-border scientific collaborations. His research group has produced high-impact publications in Nano Letters, Physical Review Letters, Applied Physics Letters, and Nature Communications, complemented by more than 70 conference presentations and 15+ invited institutional seminars. Prof. Banfi has further shaped the scientific landscape through editorial roles in EPJ, IOP, and MDPI journals and by serving on review panels for national research agencies in Italy, the UK, Spain, Hungary, and Germany. His international engagement includes invited positions at CNRS, leadership in joint doctoral programs with KU Leuven, Notre Dame, and institutions in Chile, and coordination of major research-exchange initiatives with IIT India and UNESCO-ICTP. With extensive mentoring experience spanning PhD, postdoctoral, and graduate levels, Prof. Banfi continues to contribute profoundly to advancing ultrafast physics and strengthening global scientific networks.

Profiles: Google Scholar | Scopus | ORCID | ResearchGate

Featured Publications

  1. Dal Conte, S., Giannetti, C., Coslovich, G., Cilento, F., Bossini, D., Abebaw, T., … Banfi, F. (2012). Disentangling the electronic and phononic glue in a high-Tc superconductor. Science, 335(6076), 1600–1603. Cited by: 250

  2. Dal Conte, S., Vidmar, L., Golež, D., Mierzejewski, M., Soavi, G., Peli, S., Banfi, F., … Giannetti, C. (2015). Snapshots of the retarded interaction of charge carriers with ultrafast fluctuations in cuprates. Nature Physics, 11(5), 421–426. Cited by: 130

  3. Nardi, D., Travagliati, M., Siemens, M. E., Li, Q., Murnane, M. M., Kapteyn, H. C., … Banfi, F. (2011). Probing thermomechanics at the nanoscale: Impulsively excited pseudosurface acoustic waves in hypersonic phononic crystals. Nano Letters, 11(10), 4126–4133. Cited by: 118

  4. Giannetti, C., Revaz, B., Banfi, F., Montagnese, M., Ferrini, G., Cilento, F., … Parmigiani, F. (2007). Thermomechanical behavior of surface acoustic waves in ordered arrays of nanodisks studied by near-infrared pump-probe diffraction experiments. Physical Review B, 76(12), 125413. Cited by: 105

  5. Benetti, G., Cavaliere, E., Brescia, R., Salassi, S., Ferrando, R., Vantomme, A., … Banfi, F. (2019). Tailored Ag–Cu–Mg multielemental nanoparticles for wide-spectrum antibacterial coating. Nanoscale, 11(4), 1626–1635. Cited by: 82