Sara Dalle Vacche

Graduated with honors in Chemical Engineering from the University of Rome “La Sapienza” (1997), where she also earned a Ph.D. in Industrial Chemical Processes (2002). After graduation, she worked for Procter & Gamble in Italy and Belgium (1998–2003), and from 2003 to 2005 for General Electric (Netherlands and Spain), where she took part in the Edison Engineering Development Program, a two-year leadership program for young talents. During this time, she carried out process engineering projects in technical centers, pilot plants, and polycarbonate production sites, while also receiving advanced training in technical fields (Six Sigma, Design of Experiments) and managerial skills (project management, leadership, business skills). From 2006 to 2008, she completed a Master of Advanced Studies in Nano and Microtechnologies at the University of Applied Sciences of Eastern Switzerland and began a postdoctoral fellowship at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), where she remained until 2010, working on the development of polymer composites and nanocomposites for photovoltaic and automotive applications. After a maternity break and a short collaboration with CSEM (Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology) on inorganic coatings obtained through sol-gel processes, in 2013 she was awarded a Marie Heim-Vögtlin grant by the Swiss National Science Foundation. The project, carried out at EPFL (2013–2015), focused on the development of piezoelectric composites with a fluoropolymer matrix. She continued at EPFL until 2017 as a postdoc, working on fiber-reinforced polymer composites with thermoplastic and thermosetting matrices for applications in high-volume automotive production and the wind energy sector. In 2017, she was a research fellow at the Polytechnic University of Turin, contributing to the “Glass & Co.” project on materials for protecting glass from stress corrosion. In 2018, she was awarded a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship for the “ComBIOsites” project (2018–2020), dedicated to the development of sustainable and recyclable composite materials for packaging. Since 2021, she has been an Assistant Professor (fixed-term, type A) at the Polytechnic University of Turin. Her research focuses on the development of environmentally friendly thermosetting polymeric and composite materials, based on biomass-derived precursors and reinforcements, using low-energy crosslinking processes such as photopolymerization or reversible approaches to promote recycling. Within this context, she is also studying biomass-based thermosetting composites for Liquid Deposition Modeling 3D printing.