Erminia Leonardi is a senior researcher in the Bioengineering group at CRS4. She holds a Chemistry degree (1991) at the University of Sassari, and a Ph.D degree (1996) in Physical Chemistry at the University of Siena. Prior to joining CRS4, she conducted research in the field of quantum chemistry, by using appropriate theory and mathematical tools to study vibronic structures of small molecules of environmental interest. This activity was conducted at the Departments of Chemistry of the University of Pisa and Wuppertal (Germany).
Her research interest at CRS4 included modeling and simulations to solve problems related to groundwater pollution (RaCoS project), solar desalination (Lebanon project), interaction of nuclear fission fragments with hydrogen in nuclear space engine (Rubbia's P242 project), multicomponent diffusion within zeolites for water cleaning (Eni), thermodiffusion and concentrating solar power systems, solar tower technologies (EU-STAGE STE).
She has papers in the major international refereed journals, as Int. J. of Heat and Mass Transfer, Solar Energy, J. Chem. Phys., J. Phys. Chem, Mol. Phys., Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. and two patents: "Heat extraction process from the solar pond" (1999), "Method and device for controlling a solar energy system of the type to focus on more towers with heliostats" (2013).