who | danielitos

...let's make it short...

I was born in February 1984 in Rome, Italy. I started my studies in Computer Engineering, switching later to a Master in Energy Engineering. My interest for physics brought me to work in CERN for an internship during the summer of the 2008. The experience convinced me that Switzerland was the right place for my PhD.

Now I am in Boston, enjoying new science.

Curriculum Vitae

Education

01.2009-09.2012 ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering
Area of Specialization: Nonlinear acoustics and interfacial phenomena

01.2006-05.2008 University of Rome “Sapienza”, Rome, Italy
M.Sc. in Energy and Nuclear Engineering, (120 + 40 ECTS, Mark: 110/110 cum laude).
Master thesis written at NTNU Trondheim, Norway.

01-03.2007 ESI, European Scientific Institute
JUAS 2007 Joint Universities Accelerator School, Archamps, France.

09.2002-09.2005 University of Rome “Sapienza”, Rome, Italy
B.Sc. in Computer Engineering (180 ECTS, Mark: 110/110).

Honors and awards

05.2014   Branco Weiss Fellowship, Society in Science Foundation (Switzerland, worldwide competition).
05.2014   Early Postdoc.Mobility Fellowship of the SNF (Switzerland, awarded but declined)
01.2014   "Editors’ Suggestion" and highlight in Physical Review Letters of the paper “Acoustophoretic contactless elevation, orbital transport and spinning of matter in air”
11.2013 Winner of the Gallery of Fluid Motion award, American Physical Society, Division of Fluid Dynamics 2013
10.2013   ETH Medal for outstanding Doctoral Thesis
07.2013   "Highlights of the issue" in PNAS, Acoustic levitation method offers contactless transport and handling
07.2008   Selected as CERN Summer Student
11.2007   Winner of the “Master Thesis in a Foreign Country” Scholarship, University of Rome “Sapienza”

Research Experience

10.2014-present   Post-doctoral Research: Lewis Lab at Harvard University (research advisor: Prof. Jennifer Lewis)
Development of a new printing concept based on ultrasounds. On-going research topics include:
•   Additive manufacturing of functional materials.
•   Rheology of viscoelastic fluids.
•   Microfluidics.
•   Superhydrophobic, oleophobic and omniphobic surfaces.
•   Microfabrication.

10.2012-05.2014   Post-doctoral Research: Laboratory of Thermodynamics in Emerging Technologies at ETH Zurich (research advisor: Prof. Dimos Poulikakos)
Expansion of the core knowledge of acoustophoresis in air. In particular:
•   Automatic control of acoustophoretic devices.
•   Extreme subcooling of acoustophoretically handled liquids.
•   Pendant drop-acoustic field interactions.

01.2009-09.2012   Doctoral Research: Laboratory of Thermodynamics in Emerging Technologies at ETH Zurich (research advisor: Prof. Dimos Poulikakos)
•   Analytical and numerical models for acoustophoresis in air: basic principles, secondary effects and droplet-sound wave interfacial phenomena.
•   Experimental design and construction of electromechanical devices.
•   Biological applications of acoustophoresis in air.
•   Numerical models and experimental characterization of acoustically morphing soft surfaces.

07-09.2008 CERN - European Center for the Nuclear Research, Accelerator Technologies Department (research advisor: Dr. Bernhard Auchmann)
Design of superconducting magnets.

01-04.2008 NTNU, Trondheim, Norway, Energy and Process Department (research advisor: Dr. Andrea Gruber)
Computational Fluid Dynamic design of an Ultra Micro Turbo Gas

06-09.2005 University of Rome “Sapienza”, Ultrafast Photonics Laboratory, (research advisor: Prof. Eugenio Fazio)
Solitonic chaos: Fortran simulator for the propagation of a laser beam in a crystal with a strong nonlinear effect.

Teaching Experience

10.2014-current Lewis Lab at Harvard University. Supervision of Doctoral, Master, and Bachelor students.

01.2015-05.2015 Institute for Applied Computational Science at Harvard University
Teaching Fellow (Applied Computation 297r - Computational Science and Engineering Capstone Project).

01.2009-05.2014 Laboratory of Thermodynamics in Emerging Technologies at ETH Zurich
Supervision of Doctoral, Master and Bachelor students.