Patrick Scilabra is a Ph.D. candidate at the Politecnico di Milano (Italy) in the Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering “Giulio Natta”. He holds a Master of Science degree cum laude in Chemistry from Università di Parma (Italy).
In 2016, he joined the Laboratory of Nanostructured Fluorinated Materials (NFMLab) at the Politecnico and started his Ph.D. under the supervision of Prof. Giuseppe Resnati. His research at NFMLab is focused on interactions involving Group 14 – 16 Elements as Electrophilic Sites. His research interests span supramolecular chemistry, material science, and crystal engineering.
The main focus of his research activity is the chalcogen bond: The non-covalent interaction involving elements of group 16 as electrophilic sites. He presented the role of sulfur and selenium as electrophilic sites in different papers and oral communication. He contributed actively to the definition of chalcogen bond in the IUPAC project No.: 2016-001-2-300 “Categorizing chalcogen, pnictogen, and tetrel bonds, and other interactions involving groups 14-16 elements”. He fostered the international collaboration and awareness on this novel topics by serving as Scientific Secretariat in the organization of national and international workshops, e.g., Interactions Involving Group 14-16 Elements as Electrophilic Sites (6/2/2017, Milan, Italy) and IUPAC Workshop@ISXB-3 (9-10/6/2018, Greenville, SC, USA).
He is assistant lecturer in the course “General Chemistry” and tutor in the course “Products from Renewable Resources”, both at the Politecnico di Milano, fostering and stimulating the education of students at all levels. He has also been involved in the activities of UNESCO-UNITWIN network GREENOMIcS, which nicely matches UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Millenium Development Goals 2, 7, and 8: 2) Achieve universal primary education, 7) Ensure environmental sustainability and 8) Develop a global partnership for development.
