Benedetta Mennucci

Researcher unique identifiers: Orcid ID: 0000-0002-4394-0129; Scopus Author ID: 7003345374
URL for website: molecolab.dcci.unipi.it

Education
• 1994: Master (Laurea) in Chemistry (cum laude) at the University of Pisa
• 1994-95: undergraduate fellowship at University of Colorado & Carnegie-Mellon University (USA).
• 1999: Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Pisa.

Current & previous positions
• 2002-2012: Associate Professor in Physical Chemistry at the Dept. of Chemistry of the University of Pisa.
• 2010-2013: Adjunct Professor at the Center for Theoretical and Computational Chemistry (Tromsø and Oslo, Norway), established in 2007 as Center of Excellence of the Research Council of Norway.
• 2012-now: Full Professor in Physical Chemistry at the Dept. of Chemistry of the University of Pisa

Institutional & Scientific responsibilities
• 2012-2015: Coordinator of the PhD School in Chemical and Material Sciences of the University of Pisa
• 2014-2016: President of the Theoretical and Computational Chemistry Division of the Italian Chemical Society
• 2016-2019: President of the Bachelor and Master courses in Chemistry for the Department of Chemistry of the University of Pisa
• 2014-now: Senior Editor for the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters (ACS)
• 2014-now: Member of the Editorial Board of Theoretical Chemistry Accounts (Springer)
• 2018-now: Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Chemical Reviews (ACS)
• 2019-now: Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation (ACS)
• 2019-now: Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Cell Reports Physical Chemistry (Cell Press)

Memberships of scientific societies/academies
• 2004-today: member of the Italian Chemical Society
• 2004-today: member of the American Chemical Society
• 2014-today: member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Sciences (IAQMS)
• 2015-today: member of the Board of the World Association of Theoretical and Computational Chemists (WATOC)

Major grants
[2007-2010] National leader of a transnational project Molecules and Light in Individual Metal Nanostructures (MOLIMEN) financed by the ERANET "NanoSci-ERA" within the FP6
[2011-2016] European Research Council (ERC) consolidator grant (n. 277755): The interplay between quantum coherence and environment in the photosynthetic electronic energy transfer and light- harvesting: a quantum chemical picture (EnLight).
[2018-2023] European Research Council (ERC) Advanced grant (n. 786714): Light-Induced Function: from Excitation to Signal through Time and Space (LIFETimeS).

Scientific activity
Benedetta Mennucci’s main scientific activity is in the development of multiscale approaches to describe the effects of the environment on properties and processes of (supra)molecular systems.
In 1997, when she was a PhD student, she developed a completely general model to treat the electrostatic problem of solvation within a quantum-mechanical/continuum approach. Due to its large applicability and high accuracy, the model, known as Integral-Equation-Formalism Polarizable Continuum Model (IEFPCM), has superseded previous versions of polarizable continuum models in many QM packages.
Successively, BM has developed an alternative QM/classical model, where the classical part of the system is described using a polarizable Molecular Mechanics (MMpol) force field based on induced dipoles. The two alternative classical descriptions (IEFPCM and MMPol) have been finally combined so to obtain a three-level approach (QM/MMPol/IEFPCM) where all the components can mutually polarize.
Over the years, BM has worked to improve both the accuracy and the applicability of multiscale models by extending them to the calculation of molecular properties and electronically excited states as well as, more recently, to molecular dynamics simulations. All these theoretical developments have been accompanied by efficient implementations.
In parallel, BM has contrib