EuChemS Historical Landmarks Award

Un Premio Nobel per un grande Futuro | Conferenze @ Dipartimento “G. Natta”
Chairperson: Prof. Maurizio S. Galimberti
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MATERIALI

Gaetano Guerra | Università di Salerno 
Claudio Cavalieri | LyondellBasell, Centro Ricerche G. Natta, Ferrara

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The impact of Natta's discoveries on industry and everyday life

Gaetano Guerra
Gaetano Guerra is Emeritus Professor of Industrial Chemistry of University of Salerno. All his scientific activity was devoted to theoretical and experimental studies relative to polymeric materials. A large part of his research activity has been devoted to the study of structure-property relationships for semicrystalline polymers of industrial relevance. This research activity is documented by more than 370 scientific papers on international journals as well as by many industrial patents and chapters of books.
Prof. Guerra was President of the Italian Association of Macromolecular Science and Technology (AIM) and President of Società Chimica Italiana (SCI), from January 2020 to December 2022. From November 2017 he is a member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei and he was member of the Expert Group of the European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC) for the Policy Report 39 on “Packaging plastics in the circular economy”.

Abstract:
The main objective of the seminar is to describe the significant impact of the discoveries of Natta and his School (which led to the 1963 Nobel Prize in Chemistry) on the polymer industry and more generally on the manufacturing industry globally.
A large part of this contribution is addressed to isotactic polypropylene (i-PP), which is currently the polymer of largest industrial production. The great and lasting impact of Natta's discoveries on the rubber industry will also be shown.
The final part of the seminar will also discuss polyacetylene, a polymer much less well known to the uninitiated, which was first synthesised in 1958 in Natta's laboratories. Important research into the electrical conductivity of this polymer led to Heeger, MacDiarmid and Shirakawa being awarded the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Polypropylene: A Pillar of the Global Manufacturing Industry

Claudio Cavalieri
Claudio Cavalieri graduated in Chemistry from Milan State University in 1998 and currently works in the Polypropylene Research and Development department of LyondellBasell in Ferrara.
He started at Targor Italia in 2000 covering over the years various roles and responsibilities mainly in the field of product development and applications for Polyolefins. He also gained international experience in Germany (at Targor GmbH in Ludwigshafen) and in America (at LyondellBasell in Cincinnati OHIO) always as product development group manager.
Since 2022 he has been leading and coordinating the Advancing Portfolio and Circular Design Polypropylene Group for the development of new products and new, more sustainable solutions to offer our customers that also include the use of recycled materials.
He is the author and co-author of a hundred product and application patents.

Abstract:
The main objective of the talk is to describe the impact today of Giulio Natta's discoveries and in particular of polypropylene on the manufacturing industry at a global level. This will be done by emphasising the importance of the properties of these materials through application examples in important market segments, such as automotive, packaging, medical, etc.
Examples will be given of how recent global megatrends are calling upon polyolefins to respond more and more rapidly to the different demands of consumers and industry.