FACING COMPLEXITY:
NATURAL COMPUTING AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHEMICAL ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Inanimate matter is driven by force-fields, whereas the interactions between biological systems are information-based. My leading questions are: “How was it possible that from an inanimate world, devoid of agents able to process information, matter self-organized in forms able to make decisions?”
“What kind of intelligence can be implemented through inanimate chemical systems?”
It is possible to develop “Chemical Artificial Intelligence”
For the development of the Chemical Artificial Intelligent, I rely upon the theory and tools of Natural Computing. In particular, I am proposing methods to process Fuzzy logic by molecules, and I am tracing a new path in the field of Neuromorphic Engineering.
For the comprehension of Complexity, I also investigate which are the questions that Science, Philosophy, and Religion share and which are the answers that each of them offers.
PHOTOPHYSICS, PHOTOCHEMISTRY AND CROMOGENISM IN DIFFERENT MICRO-ENVIRONMENTS
The photophysics and photochemistry of Organic, Inorganic, Organometallic, and Coordination Compounds may be extremely sensitive to the surrounding microenvironment. This statement is particularly true for Chromogenic Compounds, which can exert a feedback action on their microscopic environment. To understand the effect of the micro-environment, I exploit the Maximum Entropy Method. To model the interaction of light with solid samples, I use the Kubelka-Munk theory.
After photo-excitation, a molecule can undertake different relaxation pathways that are in kinetic competition among them. The Ultrafast Absorption and Emission Techniques allow investigating the relaxation dynamics. In particular, I have investigated the dependence of the relaxation dynamics on the excitation wavelength and the Vibronic Effects.
SOLAR ENERGY
The energy coming from the sun is relevant and fundamental for our planet. I am contributing to the exploitation of solar energy by studying the Photo-induced Water Splitting reaction and the Up-Conversion of incoherent light. The Up-Conversion of light by using both the Triplet-Triplet Annihilation (TTA) process and the Photo-Physics of Rare Earth Ions allows reducing the waste of solar light.