Last Name: Allegrini
First Name: Maria
Position: Full Professor
Department: Physics
Institution: Pisa University
Town/City: Pisa
Country: Italy

Maria Allegrini was born and educated in Italy. She earned a "Laurea" in Physics (1969) from Pisa University and a PhD in Physics (1973) from Reading University (UK).

Current position: Chair of Structure of the Matter, Engineering Faculty, University of Pisa.
Previous positions: Researcher (1972-1988) of the National Research Council (CNR-Italy): Associate Professor of Physics (1988-1994), University of Pisa, Full Professor of Quantum Optics (1994-2000), University of Messina.
She has been research scholar or visiting professor in USA (Brookhaven National Laboratory, University of Missouri-St. Louis, Lehigh University, JILA-Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics Boulder, NIST-National Institute of Standards and Technology Gaithersburg), Canada (Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics Ottawa), France (Ecole Normale Superieure Paris, Laboratoire Aimè Cotton Orsay), Germany (Max Planck Institut für Quantenoptik Gärching, Ulm University, Ludwig-Maximilian University München), Denmark (Niels Bohr Institute Copenhagen), Poland (Warsaw University).
The first part of her research activity has been in atomic, molecular and laser physics. In recent years, she has moved her research interests to material science, in particular nanoscience and nano-optics. Results of her activity are found in more than 300 articles, about 290 contributions to conferences and 3 teaching books. The interplay between her different areas of specialization is of great benefit for her research as well as for mentoring of young students and researchers.
Her expertise includes services as coordinator of the International Relations Committee (2001-2004) for the Istituto Nazionale per la Fisica della Materia (INFM-Italy) member of the Scientific Council (2001-2005) of the "Département des Sciences Physiques et Mathématiques", Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS-France) member of the Executive Committee (2001-2006) of the European Physical Society and Treasurer (2004-2006) member (elected in 2006) of the Executive Committee, Division of Atomic, Molecular, Optical Physics of the American Physical Society member of the Executive Committee (elected in 2006) of the Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Scienze fisiche della Materia (CNISM) expert evaluator for the International Science Foundation (Soros Foundation), the European Commission, various funding agencies and national organizations (Europe and USA).
She was the recipient of the Young Scientist Award (1973) of the Italian Physical Society, is Fellow of the Institute of Physics, Honorary Professor of Physics of the University of St. Petersburg (Russia) and Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences.