Photochemistry of Heterocycles

Prof. Maurizio D'Auria obtained a fellowship of Fondazione Donegani of Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei from 1979 to 1981. He was Researcher at the University of Rome from 1981 until 1992. From 1992 until 2001 he was Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Basilicata. From 2001 he is full professor in Organic Chemistry. From 2009 he is coordinator of the Doctorate in Chemical Sciences at the University of Basilicata. From 1994 to 1996 he was President of the Basilicata Section of the Italian Chemical Society. From 1997 to 1999 he was member of the board of directors of the Interdivisional Section on Photochemistry of the Italian Chemical Society. He is member of the Italian Chemical Society, American Chemical Society, American Society of Photobiology, and European Photochemical Association. He is member of the Editorial Board of Internet Journal of Science and Arkivoc. He was Editor in chief of EPA Newsletter, the magazine of the European Photochemistry Association and member of the Executive Committee of the European Photochemistry Association. From July 2018 he is President of the European Photochemistry Association.Some years ago Prof. D'Auria started to study the photochemical degradation of some naturally occurring compounds; in particular, the photochemical behavior of model compounds of lignin and of lignin itself has been studied in the presence of photochemically generated singlet oxygen. Recently, his activity was centered on the photochemical reactivity of carbonyl compounds with furan derivatives in order to obtain stereoselective Paternò-Büchi reaction. He is author of more than 300 articles on international journals and of numerous patents.Ambra Guarnaccio is a Researcher at the Institute of Structure of Matter (ISM) of the Italian National Research Council (CNR). She gained Master Degree in Chemistry and PhD in Chemical Sciences at the University of Basilicata in 2014. First during her academic training and then during her research carrier she has acquired a deep experience in organic and heterocyclic chemistry for the synthesis of designed organic semiconductors and ¿-conjugated systems to be characterized by steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopies and photoluminescence for electron dynamics studies in materials for OSCs. Moreover, she leads activities about the study of electronic properties of organic donor-acceptor molecules both in the gas phase and deposited as thin films on technological interesting surfaces (e.g., noble metal single crystals, ITO, etc.) by high-resolution Photoelectron (PES) and X-ray Absorption (XAS) Spectroscopies taking advantage of synchrotron light radiation. Currently, she is in charge of the chemistry laboratory for the synthesis of new small-molecule and polymeric materials at the Institute of Structure of Matter (Tito Scalo branch) of the CNR.Rocco Racioppi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Science at the Università degli Studi della Basilicata in Potenza, Italy. His research is mainly focused on photochemical organic synthesis, essentially within these fields: synthesis of halogeno- and nitro-substituted heteroaromatic derivatives; photosubstitution reactions of pyrrole and imidazole haloderivatives; dimerization reactions of aromatic heterocycles coniugated with olefins; [2+2] photocycloadditions between furan derivatives and carbonyl compounds (Paternò-Büchi reactions) with regard to diastereo- and enantioselective aspects; photochemical reactivity of heteroaromatic azides; Hetero Diels-Alder reactions on diazoalkenes. A second research area focuses on the analysis of the aromas produced by various food matrices, like wine, olive oil, honey, curcuma, ginger, and shallot with the innovative technique of SPME.