Address:	Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Ambientale e Meccanica Università di Trento, via Mesiano, 77 I-38123 Trento (Italia)
Office location:	III piano, Stanza 337
Tel:	+39 0461 282525
Mob:	+39 338 6275625
Fax:	+39 0461 282599
E-mail:	nicola.pugno@unitn.it
Skype:	nicola.pugno

News

• 2nd International Summer School on Smart Materials & Structures. July 22-26, 2013, Trento (Italy).


• N. Pugno, Effetto Loto. LE SCIENZE (2013), n 537, 58-63 (Maggio 2013).


• Prof. Pugno Invited Member of the Young Academy of Europe.


• Highlight in "Trentino" (in italian, March 19, 2013).


• Interview in local newspaper "Trentino" Trentino (in italian, January 31, 2013).


• Highlight in "Trentino" (in italian, December 21, 2012).


• Interview in "Le Scienze" (in italian, October 2012).


• Movie of the "PLENARY LECTURE: FALLING WALLS CONFERENCE. FUTURE BREAKTHROUGHS IN SCIENCE AND SOCIETY, 9 November 2012, Berlin, Germany".
  
  

Movies

Publications

Full list of publications

10 SELECTED PAPERS

1. A. CARPINTERI; PUGNO N., Are the scaling laws on strength of solids related to mechanics or to geometry?, NATURE MATERIALS, pp. 421-423, 2005, Vol. 4, ISSN: 1476-1122.
2. C.H. KE; PUGNO N.; B. PENG; H.D. ESPINOSA, Experiments and modeling of carbon nanotube NEMS device, JOURNAL OF THE MECHANICS AND PHYSICS OF SOLIDS, pp. 1314-1333, 2005, Vol. 53, ISSN: 0022-5096.
3. PUGNO N., Space elevator: out of order?, NANO TODAY, pp. 44-47, 2007, Vol. 2, (Invited) Highlighted by Nature (450, 6, 2007) ISSN: 1748-0132. (see also the related stories in Nature: “The space elevator: going down? Study shows that proposed carbon nanotube cables won't hold up”, News at Nature, 22 May 2006; “Out of reach”, Nature 450, 22 November 2007).
4. N. PUGNO, Spiderman gloves. NANO TODAY (2008), 3, 35-41. (See also the related stories in New Scientist: “Gecko power could turn you into a spider”, New Scientist, 28 April 2007, 26; “With no visibile means of support”, New Scientist, 19 July 2008, 23; “Ten sci-fiction that could soon be in your hands”, New Scientist, 26 January, 2009).
5. PUGNO N.; F. BOSIA; A. CARPINTERI, Multiscale stochastic simulations for tensile testing of nanotube-based macroscopic cables, SMALL, pp. 1044-1052, 2008, Vol. 4, ISSN: 1613-6810.
6. X. Shi, Y. Cheng, N. M. Pugno, H. Gao, Tunable water channels with carbon nanoscrolls. SMALL (2010), 6, 739-744.
7. N. Pugno, The design of self-collapsed super-strong nanotube bundles. J. OF THE MECHANICS AND PHYSICS OF SOLIDS (2010), 58, 1397-1410.
8. S.W. Cranford, A. Tarakanova, N. Pugno, M.J. Buehler, Nonlinear material behaviour of spider silk yields robust webs, NATURE (2012), 482, 72-78. Cover Story and 18 pages of Supplementary Information, DOI 10.1038/nature10739.
9. P. H. Tan, W. P. Han, W. J. Zhao, Z. H. Wu, K. Chang, H. Wang, Y. F. Wang, N. Bonini, N. Marzari, N. Pugno, G. Savini, A. Lombardo, A. C. Ferrari, The shear mode of multi-layer graphene, NATURE MATERIALS (2012), 11, 294-300.
10. J. Zang, Q. Wang, Q. Tu, S. Ryu, N. Pugno, M. Buehler, X. Zhao, Multifunctionality and control of the crumpling and unfolding of large-area graphene, NATURE MATERIALS (2013), 12, 321-325.

  

Curriculum

Curriculum vitae

Research topics

1. Bio-inspired hierarchical super nanomaterials (eg. self-healing)
2. Super-strong graphene, nanotubes and related bundles and composites (e.g. flaw tolerant space elevator cables)
3. Smart adhesion of insects, spiders and geckos and related gecko-inspired nanostructured surfaces (e.g. Spiderman suits)
4. Self-cleaning & anti-adhesive super-hydrophobic leaves and related lotus-inspired nanostructured surfaces (e.g. anti-ice)
5. Spider-silk and web and related spider-inspired super-tough materials and structures (e.g. anti- catastrophes)
6. Design and fabrication of Nano Electro Mechanical Systems (eg. nanotubes or graphene based)
7. Hierarchical fibre bundle models, ropes, tissues and cellular solids (eg. role of hierarchy)
8. Graphene nanoscrolls and related systems (eg. nanomotors)
9. Nanomedicine: tumor cellular growth, nanovector therapeutics and scaffolds for the regenerative medicine (eg. flexible nanovectors)
10. Nanoindentation and related size- and shape-effects (eg. universal scaling laws on hardness)
11. Quantized Fracture Mechanics, in quasi-static, dynamic and fatigue regimes (eg. role of defects in graphene)
12. Nanoscale Weibull & Fractal Statistics and related size-effects on material strength (e.g. nanotubes statistics)
13. Multiscale fragmentation under impact and explosions and structural dynamics (e.g. universal scaling laws on energy dissipation)

Recent, past and future, plenary lectures

• Graphene and bio-inspiration. 25TH ANNIVERSARY CONFERENCE OF THE ACADEMIA EUROPAEA (AE), AE-LETTERS (for AE members elected in 2012 and Young AE members), Wroclaw, Poland, 16-19 September 2013.


• I Super-materiali del domani. TEDxMilano2013 “Ieri, Oggi, Domani”, June 1, 2013, Piccolo Teatro Grassi, Milan, Italy.


• Tavola Rotonda sul progetto Grafene, con Andrea Ferrari, Vittorio Pellegrini e Nicola Pugno, moderata da Piero Bianucci. May 16, 2013, Salone del Libro, Turin, Italy.


• Biology inspired Supermaterials: from the Space Elevator to Spiderman, LAGRANGE LECTURE (N. 4), Magnus-Haus Berlin Am Kupfergraben, Tuesday, May 7, 2013, Berlin. The discussion will be chaired by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Eberhardt Scientific Director Magnus-Haus.


• I Fantastici 4 (nanomateriali), GIOVEDÌ SCIENZA, February 7, 2013, Teatro Colosseo, Turin, Italy.


• FALLING WALLS CONFERENCE: FUTURE BREAKTHROUGHS IN SCIENCE AND SOCIETY, 9 November 2012, Berlin, Germany. World class researchers present their "ideas that could dramatically transform life worldwide" (Scientific American) every 9 November in Berlin to an exclusive audience from science, business, politics, culture and society. Sponsorized also by ERC and Nature.


• Come costruire la tuta dell'uomo ragno, FESTIVAL DELLA SCIENZA, October 29 2012, Palazzo Ducale, Sala del Maggior Consiglio, Genoa, Italy.


• Nanomechanics of graphene. GRAPHEL, 27-30 September 2012, Mykonos, Greece.


• Designing nature-inspired super materials, in IdeasLab Harnessing Science with Nature Magazine (Facilitated by Dr. Campbell, Editor-in-Chief, Nature Magazine), WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM, 11-13 September 2012, Tianjin, China.


• From mind to market: energy materials (Facilitated by Dr. DiChristina, Editor-in-Chief, Scientific American), WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM, 11-13 September 2012, Tianjin, China.


• Fracture and adhesion of super-nanomaterials, 19th European Conference on Fracture, 26-31 August 2012, Kazan, Russia.


• The fantastic 4 (nanomaterials): graphene (the strongest), spider-silk (the toughest), gecko foot (the most adhesive) and lotus leaf (the most anti-adhesive). First International Conference on Mechanics of Nano, Micro and Macro Composite Structures, June 18-20, 2012, Turin, Italy.


• Chi tesse la tela dell’uomo ragno?, SETTIMANA DELLA SCIENZA, March 15 2012, Teatro del Popolo, Gallarate, Italy.


• Chi tesse la tela dell’uomo ragno?, GIOVEDÌ SCIENZA, January 12 2012, Teatro Colosseo, Turin, Italy.

Adjuncts Scientists

Andrea Ferrari

Rodney Ruoff

Huajian Gao

Markus Buehler

Francesco Pugno

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009 (Responsible of the animals)

ERC Press

• Prof. Pugno in the Erc Annual Report 2012
• Prof. Pugno in the ERC facebook.
  
• Prof. Pugno invited by ERC to give the first italian Plenary Lecture at Falling Walls.
  
• Prof. Pugno invited by ERC as Young Scientist at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2012.
  
• ERC grantee in Nature Magazine (see ERC Press, February 2 2012).
• Prof. Pugno winner of the ERC Ideas Grant (see ERC Press).
  

All photos, images and videos in this website are original and property of the
Solid and Structural Mechanics Group of the University of Trento