In 2019, Leibniz Universität Hannover (LUH) was granted a total of more than 20 tenure-track professorships. There were 25 applicants for the tenure-track professorship in Optical Design and Multiphysics Simulation alone. One of them prevailed: Professor Dr. Antonio Calà Lesina. He works at the Hannover Centre for Optical Technologies (HOT) and is also assigned to the Institute of Transport and Automation Technology (ITA) of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.
Impressive educational path
Professor Calà Lesina has been working on nanostructures for many years. He received his Ph.D. at the University of Trento in the field of information and communication technology on "Simulation of plasmonic nanostructures and photonic crystals". During his almost seven years of postdoctoral work at the Canadian University of Ottawa, he focused on the simulation of optical effects in nanostructures. He has written many publications for internationally reviewed journals.
His successful career began early on. After graduating from a mathematical and scientific high school in Capo D'Orlando, Sicily with the highest score possible, Professor Calà Lesina studied electrical engineering at the University of Catania. He completed this course of studies, as well as his subsequent master's degree in communications engineering, with the highest marks.
Activities within the framework of PhoenixD
With Professor Calà Lesina, the PhoenixD team will receive support in the field of wave optics. His strong competence in the field of large-scale simulation of light-matter interactions at the nanoscale with supercomputers, international activities and a strong theoretical knowledge in this area make him an ideal addition to the team. His professorship is located at HOT, but initially his office will be located at ITA. This will also benefit the young scientists at ITA. In the further course of his tenure-track professorship, his working environment will move to the House of Optics, which is currently still in the planning stage: Here, all PhoenixD scientists will conduct joint research.
Scientists with teaching experience
Professor Calà Lesina would also like to pass on his enthusiasm for research in Hannover: In future, he is to give the English-language lecture "Optical properties of micro and nano structures" at LUH. He has already been able to gain experience in teaching, as he worked as a teacher at two Italian technical colleges for a year after his Ph.D. He taught electrical engineering, telecommunications and robotics.