Luisa Torsi
Torsi has been Professor of Chemistry at the University of Bari (https://www.uniba.it/docenti/torsi-luisa) since the age of 40. She earned both her Laurea degree in Physics and her Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Bari and subsequently carried out post-doctoral research at Bell Laboratories (USA). She is a Fellow of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, the Materials Research Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the European Academy of Sciences.
Throughout her career, Torsi has received several prestigious honors, including the Wilhelm Exner Medal, the Heinrich Emanuel Merck Prize for Analytical Sciences (becoming the first woman ever to receive it), the Premio del Presidente della Repubblica awarded by the Accademia dei Lincei, the Distinguished Women in Chemistry or Chemical Engineering Award from International Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), and an Honorary Doctorate from Åbo Akademi University. She has also served as President of the European Materials Research Society.
Torsi is the author of hundreds of scientific publications, including papers published in leading journals from the Science, Nature, and Advanced Materials families, and has secured tens of millions of euros in competitive research funding. Her research focuses on high-performance electronic and photonic biochemical sensors and is characterized by a strongly interdisciplinary approach that bridges analytical chemistry, solid-state device physics, and materials science.
Prof. Torsi is deeply committed to serving as a role model for women in science. In recognition of this engagement, she was featured in a story published in Topolino (the Italian Disney comics series) as “Louise Torduck,” a female scientist from the Calisota Valley, as part of an initiative promoted by Fondazione Bracco.