Chair : Prof . Carlo Bottani DOCTORAL PROGRAM IN RADIATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

The thesis works that are presented in this Yearbook are very representative of the multi-disciplinary research activity performed within the context of the PhD educational and research program in Radiation Science and Technology (RST). The latter is specifically designed to provide the student with the state-of-the-art in a wide range of research fields related to the application of nuclear and non-ionizing radiations, to foster the growth and strengthening of research skills in our young researchers, to fully integrate their efforts made by our young researchers within the research performed in our Department of Energy, which is aimed both at obtaining basic results in RST through innovative instrumentation and methods, and at developing and testing effective technological solutions for specific applications. In the last decades the research activity was mainly devoted to: Planning and development, by means of analytical-numerical ∙ methods, empirical models, and experimental studies, of innovative nuclear plants for energy conversion, aerospace, and fusion applications. Methods of safety and reliability analysis applied to the design ∙ and diagnostic of nuclear systems, and in general of high risk environments. Radio-protection for environmental monitoring, nuclear plants ∙ decommissioning, radioactive waste disposal, underground dispersion of contaminants. Development of innovative high-performance radiation detectors, ∙ and their applications to R&D fields such as space science, synchrotron radiation, high-energy physics, or to topics of interest for the large community such as medical investigations, cultural heritage preservation, environmental monitoring, nuclear safety. Synthesis by ionic implantation or pulsed laser ablation of ∙ innovative materials, such as nanostructures and “soft” materials, and their structural characterization by radiation scattering techniques (Raman, Brillouin, X-ray, neutron, and quasi-elastic light scattering), or tunnel/atomic force microscopy.