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In the following, Alessandro Cossard’s curriculum vitae:

Current Position: 

Post-doc position at the University of Turin on the project Crystalline Engineering: design, synthesis, and applications of novel supramolecular adducts.

Education:

Ph.D.  in Chemical and Material Science with Honors
Title of the thesis: Chemical Bonding of f-electrons in Materials: Development of Algorithms in the CRYSTAL Program and their Application 
Supervisor: Prof. Alessandro Erba 

Master in Physics of Complex Systems
Interuniversity program with University of Turin, Polytechnic University of Turin and University of Eastern Piedmont.
Degree Grade: 105/110
Title of the thesis: Scaling Laws in Biology
Supervisor: Prof. Mario Ferraro

Bachelor in Physics
University of Turin
Degree Grade: 90/110
Title of the thesis: The Pauli Principle and the Periodic Table
Supervisor: Prof. Mauro Anselmino

Experience: 

Junior Data Scientist
Institute for Scientific Interchange (ISI) Foundation, Scholarship provided by the Lagrange Project for Complex Systems founded by CRT Foundation.
Title of the Project: Data Science Applied for Social Good: Tracking the Italian Vaccination Debate on Twitter
Supervisors: Dr. Yelena Mejova, Dr. Gianmarco De Francisci Morales, Dr. Daniela Paolotti, Dr. Kyriaki Kalimeri and Dr. Michele Starnini

Research Fellow
University of Turin
Title of the Project: Development and implementation of Computational Methodologies for Periodic Systems in the CRYSTAL Software
Supervisor: Prof. Bartolomeo Civalleri

Publications:

A. Erba, J.K. Desmarais, S. Casassa, B. Civalleri, L. Donà, I. Bush, B. Searle, L. Maschio, L.E. Daga, A. Cossard, C. Ribaldone, E. Ascrizzi, N. Marana, JP. Flament, B. Kirtman, CRYSTAL23: A Program for Computational Solid State Physics and Chemistry, Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, 2022
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.jctc.2c00958

A. Cossard, S. Casassa, C. Gatti, J.K. Desmarais, A. Erba, Topology of the Electron Density and of Its Laplacian from Periodic LCAO Calculations on f-Electron Materials: The Case of Cesium Uranyl Chloride, Molecules 26 (14), 4227, 2021
https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/26/14/4227

A. Cossard, J.K. Desmarais, S. Casassa, C. Gatti, A. Erba, Charge Density Analysis of Actinide Compounds from the Quantum Theory of Atoms in Molecules and Crystals, The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters 12 (7), 1862-1868, 2021
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jpclett.1c00100

A. Cossard, G. De Francisci Morales, Y. Mejova, K. Kalimeri K, D. Paolotti, M. Starnini, Falling into the echo-chamber: the Italian vaccination debate on Twitter, Contribution to the 14th International Conference on Web and Social Media, 2020
https://www.aaai.org/ojs/index.php/ICWSM/article/view/7285

M. De Stefanis, C. Ravoux, A Cossard, A. Erba, Thermo-elasticity of Materials from Quasi-Harmonic calculation, Minerals, 9, 16, 2018. Featured front cover journal paper.
https://doi.org/10.3390/min9010016

International Conferences Presentations:

MSSC2022 – Ab initio Modelling in Solid State Chemistry, Virtual School 
Attendee and Speaker

DFTK school 2022: Numerical methods for density-functional theory simulations, Paris (France)
Attendee and Poster Presentation 

XLVIII National Congress of Physical Chemistry, Genoa (Italy)
Attendee and Speaker

Espa 2022, 21-24/06/2022, Vigo (Spain)
Attendee and Poster Presentation

Italo-French Days, Toulon (France)
Attendee and Speaker

International School on Inorganic materials, Bardonecchia (Italy)
Attendee and Speaker

MSSC2021 – Ab initio Modelling in Solid State Chemistry, Virtual School
Attendee and Tutor

MSSC2020 – Ab initio Modelling in Solid State Chemistry, Virtual School
Attendee and Tutor  

MSSC2018 – Ab initio Modelling in Solid State Chemistry, Turin (Italy)
Attendee and Tutor

Computational Skills:

Programming Languages: Python, Fortran, C, C++

Software and Applications: Git, Github, GitLab, Google Colab, Jupyter Notebook, Anaconda, Wolfram Mathematica, Word, Excel, Power Point

Computational Social Science Specialization, Online Specialization authorized by University of California, Davis and offered through Coursera

Language Skills:

Teacher Assistance:

Tutor (Art.76) for the Physical Chemistry I exam
Chemistry and Chemical Technologies Degree, University of Turin
Teacher: Prof. Alessandro Erba

Tutor (Art.76) for the Physical Chemistry I exam
Chemistry and Chemical Technologies Degree, University of Turin
Teacher: Prof. Alessandro Erba

Awards:

Expert of the Subject (“Cultore della Materia”) in Physical Chemistry by Turin University since 2020

Other:

Academic Advanced Courses:

Big Data Science and Machine Learning, Federica Legger, Gabriele Fronzè, Chemical and Material Science Ph.D. Program (UniTo)
The Magic of DFT, Jacques Desmarais, Bartolomeo Civalleri, Chemical and Material Science Ph.D. Program (UniTo)
Lean thinking for Research and Innovation, Alessandra Bianco Prevot, Enrico Prenesti, 05/2021 – 06/2021, Chemical and Material Science Ph.D. Program (UniTo)
An insight into epistemological and didactic issues related with science teaching, Elena Maria Ghibaudi, Giuseppina Cerrato, 05/2021, Chemical and Material Science Ph.D. Program (UniTo)
Introduction to Scientific Programming (in Python), Alessandro Erba, 11/2020 – 12/2020, Chemical and Material Science Ph.D. Program (UniTo)
Statistical Mechanics, Giuseppe Santoro, 10/2020 – 12 /2020, Condensed Matter Theory Ph.D. Program (SISSA)
Introduction to Parallel Programming with MPI, Andrea Mignone, 03/2020, Physics Ph.D. Program (UniTo)
Complements of Computational Material Science, Bartolomeo Civalleri, 03/2018-06/2018, Master’s Degree in Material Science (UniTo) 

Workshops:

Day of discussion on Physical Chemistry Methods used for the study of condensed phases: information from the interaction between photons and materials
Raman Day, University of Turin, Chemistry Department, Virtual Class
Machine Learning meets Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, Turin
NIS Colloquium on Theoretical and experimental approaches to thermoelectrics for waste heat harvesting, 09/01/2020, Department of Chemistry, Turin
Tutorial on Topological Data Analysis, ISI Foundation, Turin
Women in Data Science Conference OGR, Turin

Online Courses:

Data Science
Basic Data Programing and Visualization – Coursera – University of California San Diego
Data Science on COVID-19 / Coronavirus spread data – Udemy
Deep Learning and Neural Networks with Python: the complete course – Udemy
Complete course of Data Science and Machine Learning with Python – Udemy
Data Science for Sports – Sports Analytics and Visualization – Udemy
Covid-19 Data Science Urban Epidemic Modeling in Python – Udemy
Data Science on Covid-19: Coronavirus spread data – Udemy
Data-Driven Astronomy – Coursera – University of Sidney

Software 
Build from scratch and publish Android apps with Basic 4 Android  – Udemy
Build and Publish Android games using Unity – Udemy
Build your own podcast with Audacity – Udemy
Build your own site using WordPress – Udemy
How to create an arcade game using Construct – Udemy
Discover augmented reality games using Vuforia – Udemy

Social Sciences
Scientific journalism: dissemination theory and techniques – Feltrinelli online
Stanford’s Nutrition and Health – Coursera
How to defend against fake news – Udemy
Instagram marketing  – Udemy
Social Media Marketing: the complete course with certificate – Udemy
Power and Responsibility: Doing Philosophy with Superheroes – EdX

Science
Global Warming I: the science and Modelling of Climate Change – Coursera – University of Chicago
Covid-19 Contact Tracing – Coursera – Johns Hopkins University
Quantum Mechanics – Coursera – University of Colorado Boulder

Supplementary Information

Alessandro Cossard runs a Podcast for Scientific Dissemination. The podcast name is Scienza Contro Tutti (meaning, Science Versus All), is in Italian and can be found on Spotify, Anchor, and many other platforms
SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ZwwGJhB4FC4rkH6rkDJiQ
For other platforms: https://www.alessandrocossard.com/scienza-contro-tutti/

He also has a Basic Calistenichs coaching certification.

I authorize the use of my personal data, pursuant to Legislative Decree 196 of 30 June 2003.

In the following, Alessandro Cossard’s publications:

A. Erba, J.K. Desmarais, S. Casassa, B. Civalleri, L. Donà, I. Bush, B. Searle, L. Maschio, L.E. Daga, A. Cossard, C. Ribaldone, E. Ascrizzi, N. Marana, JP. Flament, B. Kirtman, CRYSTAL23: A Program for Computational Solid State Physics and Chemistry, Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, 2022
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.jctc.2c00958

Abstract: The Crystal program for quantum-mechanical simulations of materials has been bridging the realm of molecular quantum chemistry to the realm of solid state physics for many years, since its first public version released back in 1988. This peculiarity stems from the use of atom-centered basis functions within a linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO) approach and from the corresponding efficiency in the evaluation of the exact Fock exchange series. In particular, this has led to the implementation of a rich variety of hybrid density functional approximations since 1998. Nowadays, it is acknowledged by a broad community of solid state chemists and physicists that the inclusion of a fraction of Fock exchange in the exchange-correlation potential of the density functional theory is key to a better description of many properties of materials (electronic, magnetic, mechanical, spintronic, lattice-dynamical, etc.). Here, the main developments made to the program in the last five years (i.e., since the previous release, Crystal17) are presented and some of their most noteworthy applications reviewed.

A. Cossard, S. Casassa, C. Gatti, J.K. Desmarais, A. Erba, Topology of the Electron Density and of Its Laplacian from Periodic LCAO Calculations on f-Electron Materials: The Case of Cesium Uranyl Chloride, Molecules 26 (14), 4227, 2021
https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/26/14/4227

Abstract: The chemistry of f-electrons in lanthanide and actinide materials is yet to be fully rationalized. Quantum-mechanical simulations can provide useful complementary insight to that obtained from experiments. The quantum theory of atoms in molecules and crystals (QTAIMAC), through thorough topological analysis of the electron density (often complemented by that of its Laplacian) constitutes a general and robust theoretical framework to analyze chemical bonding features from a computed wave function. Here, we present the extension of the Topond module (previously limited to work in terms of s-, p– and d-type basis functions only) of the Crystal program to f– and g-type basis functions within the linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO) approach. This allows for an effective QTAIMAC analysis of chemical bonding of lanthanide and actinide materials. The new implemented algorithms are applied to the analysis of the spatial distribution of the electron density and its Laplacian of the cesium uranyl chloride, Cs2UO2Cl4, crystal. Discrepancies between the present theoretical description of chemical bonding and that obtained from a previously reconstructed electron density by experimental X-ray diffraction are illustrated and discussed.

A. Cossard, J.K. Desmarais, S. Casassa, C. Gatti, A. Erba, Charge Density Analysis of Actinide Compounds from the Quantum Theory of Atoms in Molecules and Crystals, The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters 12 (7), 1862-1868, 2021
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jpclett.1c00100

Abstract: The nature of chemical bonding in actinide compounds (molecular complexes and materials) remains elusive in many respects. A thorough analysis of their electron charge distribution can prove decisive in elucidating bonding trends and oxidation states along the series. However, the accurate determination and robust analysis of the charge density of actinide compounds pose several challenges from both experimental and theoretical perspectives. Significant advances have recently been made on the experimental reconstruction and topological analysis of the charge density of actinide materials [Gianopoulos et al. IUCrJ, 2019, 6, 895]. Here, we discuss complementary advances on the theoretical side, which allow for the accurate determination of the charge density of actinide materials from quantum-mechanical simulations in the bulk. In particular, the extension of the Topond software implementing Bader’s quantum theory of atoms in molecules and crystals (QTAIMAC) to f– and g-type basis functions is introduced, which allows for an effective study of lanthanides and actinides in the bulk and in vacuo, on the same grounds. Chemical bonding of the tetraphenyl phosphate uranium hexafluoride cocrystal [PPh₄⁺][UF₆^–] is investigated, whose experimental charge density is available for comparison. Crystal packing effects on the charge density and chemical bonding are quantified and discussed. The methodology presented here allows reproducing all subtle features of the topology of the Laplacian of the experimental charge density. Such a remarkable qualitative and quantitative agreement represents a strong mutual validation of both approaches—experimental and computational—for charge density analysis of actinide compounds.

A. Cossard, G. De Francisci Morales, Y. Mejova, K. Kalimeri K, D. Paolotti, M. Starnini, Falling into the echo-chamber: the Italian vaccination debate on Twitter, Contribution to the 14th International Conference on Web and Social Media, 2020
https://www.aaai.org/ojs/index.php/ICWSM/article/view/7285

Abstract: The reappearance of measles in the US and Europe, a disease considered eliminated in early 2000s, has been accompanied by a growing debate on the merits of vaccination on social media. In this study we examine the extent to which the vaccination debate on Twitter is conductive to potential outreach to the vaccination hesitant. We focus on Italy, one of the countries most affected by the latest measles outbreaks. We discover that the vaccination skeptics, as well as the advocates, reside in their own distinct “echo chambers”. The structure of these communities differs as well, with skeptics arranged in a tightly connected cluster, and advocates organizing themselves around few authoritative hubs. At the center of these echo chambers we find the ardent supporters, for which we build highly accurate network-and content-based classifiers (attaining 95% cross-validated accuracy). Insights of this study provide several avenues for potential future interventions, including network-guided targeting, accounting for the political context, and monitoring of alternative sources of information.

M. De Stefanis, C. Ravoux, A Cossard, A. Erba, Thermo-elasticity of Materials from Quasi-Harmonic calculation, Minerals, 9, 16, 2018. Featured front cover journal paper.
https://doi.org/10.3390/min9010016

Abstract: An effective algorithm for the quasi-harmonic calculation of thermo-elastic stiffness constants of materials is discussed and implemented into the Crystal program for quantum-mechanical simulations of extended systems. Two different approaches of increasing complexity and accuracy are presented. The first one is a quasi-static approximation where the thermal dependence of elastic constants is assumed to be due only to the thermal expansion of the system. The second one is fully quasi-harmonic, takes into account thermal expansion, and explicitly computes Helmholtz free energy derivatives with respect to strain. The conversion of isothermal into adiabatic thermo-elastic constants is also addressed. The algorithm is formally presented and applied to the description of the thermo-elastic response of the forsterite mineral.

Scienza Contro Tutti (meaning Science Versus All) is a podcast for science dissemination.

The podcast was born during the Coronavirus outbreak to give people some basics of Biology and epidemiology to identify and avoid fake news. Over time, it became a podcast for scientific dissemination, focusing on helping people understand what is reliable and what is not in this confusing and complex world.

Check it out on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/6ZwwGJhB4FC4rkH6rkDJiQ

And many other platforms like Google Podcast, Apple Podcast, Anchor, and Castbox;

https://anchor.fm/alessandro-cossard