(March 30,1965 - April 24, 2014)
Prof. Daniela Pucci was born in Cosenza (Italy) on March 30,1965. She got the Chemistry Degree (Laurea) Summa cum laude in 1989 at University of Calabria, Italy, under the supervision of Prof. Mauro Ghedini. During her PhD she had several exchange fellowships at University of Milan, Department of Inorganic and Metallorganic Chemistry under the supervision of Prof. E. Cesarotti (November 1989 – June 1990) and University of Paris South, Orsay, France, Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, under the supervision of Prof. J. Malthête (1992 – 1993). In 1993 she obtained her Ph.D. degree, the title of her thesis: ‘Chiral Palladiomesogens’.
From 1995 to 1999 she joined University of Calabria, as assistant professor at the Faculty of Science. Since 2001 she became an associate professor at the same university. She taught several courses of General and Inorganic Chemistry but also Chemistry of the Solid State, Innovative Materials, Radiochemistry, Organometallics, Metals in Diagnostics and Medicine, Coordination Chemistry, Inorganic Photochemistry, etc.
Daniela was member of the Center of Excellence CEMIF.CAL, LASCAMM - CNR INSTM, Unità INSTM della Calabria and CNR-IPCF- UOS di Cosenza - Laboratory Licryl, Dipartimento di Chimica e Technologie Chimiche, University of Calabria, where she coordinated several projects and mentored Ph.D., BSc and MSc students. Her main fields of research were organometallic and coordination chemistry, inorganic materials, metallic complexes in medicine, liquid crystals, metallomesogens. She was involved in the synthesis and characterization of coordination complexes and/or organometallics for applicative purposes. In particular, her main research field was formed by two principal areas: liquid crystals (metallomesogens) and compounds with biological activity.
She was a valued member of the Italian Chemical Society and International Society of Liquid Crystals. Daniela organized several scientific symposiums and workshops. She published more than 75 articles and gave more than a hundred talks at international scientific conferences. She was an inspiring guide for the students, beloved by her colleagues, students and post-doc scholars that worked in her laboratory.
Daniela spent her last sabbatical semester (Fall 2013) of research in USA, at the Nanoplasm Laboratory – Case Western Reserve University, in the framework of a collaborative project with her friend and colleague Prof. Pino Strangi. Daniela passed away on April 24, 2014.