Alberto is a 2nd year doctoral student in the Environmental Engineering program at Yale University. He is currently refining his knowledge on membrane science and technology for drinking water production, while developing his dissertation project preparing for his area exam. Alberto will work at the nexus of water, energy, and environment, focusing on understanding and development of composite and nanocomposite membrane technology for reserve osmosis and forward osmosis systems. The goals are to tackle fundamental membrane transport mechanisms and to synthesize permeable and selective membranes, which will also be energy-efficient for water desalination. He will do so also by incorporating Nanoscale Ionic Materials (NIMs)1 in the synthesis process, and by characterizing the surface properties and the performance of the newly synthesized membranes.
Alberto holds an M.S. in Environmental Engineering from Politecnico di Torino in Italy. For his masters' thesis, Alberto worked under the supervision of Professor Menachem Elimelech (Yale) and Professor Rajandrea Sethi (Politecnico di Torino), studying the colloidal stability of nanoscale zero-valent iron particles before and after coating with "green" polymers, and their mobility in saturated porous media. After his graduation, Alberto spent 10 months in Dr. Sethi's lab, working in the development of a transient state non-equilibrium mathematical model to predict colloid transport in porous media.
Alberto is geeky enough to be convinced that science is culture and that arts and engineerings are alike, having the same formative power2. However, senses and nature usually prevail. Whether this is good or bad, he does not know yet. As of now, he is planning to do a scotch whiskey tour of Islay with his buddies.
