Francesco Sciortino

{{BLP unreferenced section|date=February 2023}}

Sciortino was awarded a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Palermo in 1989 working on the coupling between biomolecules and the solvent, and focusing on the role of water's hydrogen bond cooperativity in supramolecular arrangement of biomolecules. After the Ph.D., Sciortino became research assistant in the Center for Polymer Studies of Boston University, working in the group of Prof. H. Eugene Stanley.

Following his postdoctoral research position in Boston, in 1992 Sciortino became a researcher in Centro di Ricerca, Sviluppo e Studi Superiori in Sardegna, Cagliari. One year later he moved to Sapienza University of Rome, where he became assistant professor in 1993, associate professor in 2000, and full professor in 2005.{{cite web |title=Sciortino's public page on the Sapienza website (in Italian) |url=https://corsidilaurea.uniroma1.it/user/11848 |access-date=16 February 2023}} He serves as associate editor of the Journal of Chemical Physics.{{cite web |title=The list of J. Chem. Phys. editors |url=https://aip.scitation.org/jcp/info/editors |access-date=16 February 2023}}

Sciortino has made seminal contributions in the field of statistical mechanics and soft condensed matter theory. He is one of the original proponents of the Second Liquid Critical Point Hypothesis for water,.{{cite journal |last1=Poole |first1=Peter H. |last2=Sciortino |first2=Francesco |last3=Essmann |first3=Ulrich |last4=Stanley |first4=H. Eugene |title=Phase behaviour of metastable water |journal=Nature |date=1992 |volume=360 |issue=6402 |pages=324–328 |doi=10.1038/360324a0|bibcode=1992Natur.360..324P |s2cid=4302774 }} which explains water's anomalous behaviour with the presence of a hidden critical point in supercooled water. Experimental verification of this hypothesis has been obtained numerically in several models of water,{{cite journal |last1=Debenedetti |first1=Pablo G. |last2=Sciortino |first2=Francesco |last3=Zerze |first3=Gül H. |title=Second critical point in two realistic models of water |journal=Science |year=2020 |volume=369 |issue=6501 |pages=289–292 |doi=10.1126/science.abb9796 |pmid=32675369 |bibcode=2020Sci...369..289D |s2cid=220548225 |url=https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.abb9796|url-access=subscription }}{{cite web |title=Ricerca: scoperte due forme diverse dell'acqua |date=12 December 2020 |url=https://www.adnkronos.com/ricerca-scoperte-due-forme-diverse-dellacqua_76GwYNFkCUMGq9kB4VMpy7 |publisher=Adnkronos |access-date=16 November 2022}}{{cite web |title=Second critical point appears in two models of water |date=18 August 2020 |url=https://physicsworld.com/a/second-critical-point-appears-in-two-models-of-water/ |publisher=Physics World |access-date=16 November 2022}}{{cite web |title=Scientists look inside water, end up solving 30-year-old mystery |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/science/story/scientiests-look-inside-water-end-up-solving-30-year-old-mystery-1997930-2022-09-08 |publisher=India Today |access-date=16 November 2022}} and finally confirmed with scattering experiments using X-ray pulses.{{cite journal |last1=Kim |first1=Kyung Hwan |last2=Amann-Winkel |first2=Katrin |last3=Giovambattista |first3=Nicolas |last4=Späh |first4=Alexander |last5=Perakis |first5=Fivos |last6=Pathak |first6=Harshad |last7=Parada |first7=Marjorie |last8=Yang |first8=Cheolhee |last9=Mariedahl |first9=Daniel |last10=Eklund |first10=Tobias |last11=Lane |first11=Thomas J. |last12=You |first12=Seonju |last13=Jeong |first13=Sangmin |last14=Weston |first14=Matthew |last15=Lee |first15=Jae Hyuk |last16=Eom |first16=Intae |last17=Kim |first17=Minseok |last18=Park |first18=Jaeku |last19=Chun |first19=Sae Hwan |last20=Poole |first20=Peter H. |last21=Nilsson |first21=Anders |title=Experimental observation of the liquid-liquid transition in bulk supercooled water under pressure |journal=Science |date=2020 |volume=370 |issue=6519 |pages=978–982 |doi=10.1126/science.abb9385|pmid=33214280 |bibcode=2020Sci...370..978K |s2cid=227059917 |url=https://bib-pubdb1.desy.de/record/452657 }}

Sciortino has worked extensively on the physics of arrested states of matter, making seminal contribution to Mode Coupling theory{{cite journal |last1=Kob |first1=Walter |last2=Nauroth |first2=Markus |last3=Sciortino |first3=Francesco |title=Quantitative tests of mode-coupling theory for fragile and strong glass formers |journal=Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids |year=2002 |volume=307 |issue=1 |page=181 |doi=10.1016/S0022-3093(02)01457-6 |arxiv=cond-mat/0109285 |bibcode=2002JNCS..307..181K |s2cid=96387052 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022309302014576}} and the Potential Energy Landscape formalism.{{cite journal |last1=Sciortino |first1=Francesco |title=Potential energy landscape description of supercooled liquids and glasses |journal=Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment |date=31 May 2005 |volume=2005 |issue=5 |page=P05015 |doi=10.1088/1742-5468/2005/05/p05015 |bibcode=2005JSMTE..05..015S |s2cid=55598590 |url=https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-5468/2005/05/P05015 |access-date=10 April 2022|url-access=subscription }} He and his collaborators hypothesised a novel type of glass (re-entrant glass) in short-range attractive colloidal systems, and this prediction was later confirmed by several experiments and numerical simulations.{{cite journal |last1=Sciortino |first1=Francesco |title=One liquid, two glasses |journal=Nature Materials |date=1 November 2002 |volume=1 |issue=3 |pages=145–146 |doi=10.1038/nmat752 |pmid=12618795 |s2cid=5051410 |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/nmat752 |access-date=10 April 2022|url-access=subscription }}

Sciortino and his co-authors were also the first to identify colloidal gels as the outcome of a dynamical arrested phase separation process.{{cite journal |last1=Lu |first1=Peter J. |last2=Zaccarelli |first2=Emanuela |last3=Ciulla |first3=Fabio |last4=Schofield |first4=Andrew B. |last5=Sciortino |first5=Francesco |last6=Weitz |first6=David A. |title=Gelation of particles with short-range attraction |journal=Nature |date=2008 |volume=453 |issue=7194 |pages=499–503 |doi=10.1038/nature06931|pmid=18497820 |bibcode=2008Natur.453..499L |s2cid=4409873 }} His contributions to the physics of reduced valence interactions are numerous:{{cite journal |last1=Russo |first1=John |last2=Leoni |first2=Fabio |last3=Martelli |first3=Fausto |last4=Sciortino |first4=Francesco |title=The physics of empty liquids: from patchy particles to water |journal=Reports on Progress in Physics |date=11 January 2022 |volume=85 |issue=1 |page=016601 |doi=10.1088/1361-6633/ac42d9 |pmid=34905739 |arxiv=2112.08318 |bibcode=2022RPPh...85a6601R |s2cid=245144320 |url=https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6633/ac42d9}} the discovery of empty liquids, equilibrium gels, re-entrant topological transitions in network fluids, among many others{{cite web |title=Il gel "stabile" che risolve il rebus della maionese impazzita |date=30 December 2010 |url=https://www.ilsussidiario.net/news/scienze/2010/12/30/fisica-il-gel-stabile-che-risolve-il-rebus-della-maionese-impazzita/137633/ |publisher=sussidiario.net |access-date=16 November 2022}}{{cite web |title=In arrivo dai laboratori i nuovi supermateriali |date=14 August 2013 |url=https://www.corriere.it/scienze/13_agosto_14/supermateriali-non-cristallizza-mai-piu-assorbente_5ac42aca-04c6-11e3-a76b-5d1a59729335.shtml |publisher=Corriere della Sera |access-date=16 November 2022}}

According to Scopus, Sciortino's work has been cited 27315 times, and his H-index is 93.{{cite web |url=https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=7005775345 |website=Scopus |access-date=4 April 2022 |title=Francesco Sciortino}} Google Scholar lists 38415 citations and an H-index of 105 .{{cite web |url=https://scholar.google.it/citations?user=XNG9LrQAAAAJ&hl=en |website=Google Scholar |access-date=4 April 2022 |title=Francesco Sciortino}} Thanks to these bibliometric indexes, he is ranked among the top 10 Italian Physicists in activity.{{cite web |title=Top Italian Scientists Physics|url=https://topitalianscientists.org/TIS_HTML/Top_Italian_Scientists_Physics.htm}}

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Category:1960 births

Category:Living people

Category:Computational physicists

Category:20th-century Italian physicists

Category:21st-century Italian physicists