Advent calendar - December 19th - Federico di Sacco

In the Zernike Institute Advent Calendar, we are presenting 24 short spotlights in December. In these specials, we highlight PhD students, postdocs, and technicians of our research groups - providing a glimpse into their typical day at work. In Episode 19 meet Federico di Sacco.

I am working as PhD candidate at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen in the group of Physical Chemistry of Polymeric and Nanostructured Materials, in collaboration with the Dutch Polymer Institute. My project evolves around performing challenging real-time characterizations of polymeric materials while they undergo processing that mimic the real, and thus harsh industrial conditions. So, my daily bread ‘n butter is experimental design and data analysis.

Working on unveiling the physical and chemical mechanisms that takes place during the transformation of polymeric materials often requires to lean on synchrotron facilities, where the high potency of the x-rays allow to record exceptional information of the highest quality.

Due to this, I often travel abroad which gives me the opportunity to meet other scientist and discover new interesting research in a very diverse field of science. During those trips, I always take my time to enjoy the typical food of every location! As a good Italian guy would do!

Even if slowed by the Covid-19 pandemic (that made these already challenging experiments even harder!), we managed, as a research group, to going forward and complete what we planned for our self.

In particular, my research aim to build a model for understanding the crystallization of polyolefin materials based on structural data recorded in real-time and in-situ during the act of extrusion. I also really enjoy the continuous contact with different companies, which provide us with invaluable insights and, of course, with new materials to test.

Contact: Federico di Sacco