Diletta Giuntini

Diletta Giuntini is Assistant Professor in the Mechanics of Materials section of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Her research focuses on advanced processing of ceramics and ceramic-based materials, with technologies spanning ultra-fast sintering techniques and additive manufacturing. She contributed to the continuum theory of sintering, which she applies to predictive process modeling and optimization, via both analytical and numerical methods.

Her current projects involve the development of nano-architected and multiscale materials with improved mechanical properties, typically combining a ceramic phase with an organic, metallic or additional ceramic one. Tailoring the structure of a material down to the nanoscale makes it possible to foster emergent collective properties at the upper scales and enhance structural stability. Supercrystalline nanocomposites are a fascinating example of Giuntini’s focus, materials made of nanoparticles organized into periodic structures just like atomic crystals, with promising mechanical behaviors that are yet to be explored. Biosinpiration also plays an important role in her material design.

Giuntini chaired the 2018 Gordon Research Seminar on Solid State Studies in Ceramics, where she contributed to organizing a Power Hour for the inclusion and professional development of women and underrepresented minorities in ceramic research. She is a reviewer for several materials and ceramics science journals. In 2019 she received the Acta Materialia Outstanding Reviewer Award.