About me:

I graduated in Physics at Padua University (Italy) in March 2000 with a thesis regarding Electron Paramagnetic Resonance of transient species. Since then I made lot of things but not Science. I was waiter first, I run a restaurant and a hotel as well later, also part time teacher in a high school. My readings span a large variety of fields such as Economy (The Road to serfdom of FRIEDRICH A. HAYEK is a recent one), Religion, Politics, Business Management, and others. That was probably not enough: I applied in Malcolm Levitt's group and now I am based in Southampton with a project concerning hyperpolarized singlet states.

Aim of the project

Nuclear singlet states are quantum spin states described to have much longer lifetimes than the characteristic relaxation time of longitudinal magnetization T₁. In some cases, the nuclear singlet lifetime is as long as half an hour and even more. The group studies the structural and dynamic constraints a spin system must obey to exhibit long-lived nuclear spin order. We are exploring the concrete possibility to combine hyperpolarization techinques such dissolution DNP to singlet states so that to achieve hyperpolarized long living states. This could be of immense importance in fields like clinical imaging and the studies of the structures and dynamics of biomolecules.

The project will also involve in a later stage some MRI. In particular we would like to join MRI and (hyperpolarized) singlet states. For the time being I am trying to simulate some basics MRI pulse sequences using SpinDynamica (check 5 in References for further information).

References:

1. M. Carravetta and M. H. Levitt, "Long-lived nuclear spin states in high-field solution NMR", J. Am. Chem. Soc. 126, 6228-6229 (2004).
2. M. Carravetta, O.G. Johannessen and M. H. Levitt, "Beyond the T1 limit: Singlet Nuclear Spin States in Low Magnetic Field", Phys. Rev. Letters 92(15), 153003 (2004).
3. M. Carravetta and M. H. Levitt, "Theory of Long-Lived Nuclear Spin States in Solution Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. Part 1. Singlet states in low magnetic field", J. Chem. Phys., 122, 214505 (2005).
4. M. C. D. Tayler, M. H. Levitt, "Singlet nuclear magnetic resonance of nearly-equivalent spins", Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 13, 5556-5560 (2011).
5. www.spindynamica.soton.ac.uk

Publications:

1. B. Meier, J.-N. Dumez, G. Stevanato, J. T. Hill-Cousins, S. Singha Roy, P. Hakansson, S. Mamone, R. C. D. Brown, G. Pileio, and M. H. Levitt, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2013 DOI:10.1021/ja410432f
2. S. Singha Roy, J.-N. Dumez, G. Stevanato, B. Meier, J. T. Hill-Cousins, R. C.D. Brown, G. Pileio, Malcolm H. Levitt, J. Mag. Res., 2014 DOI:10.1016/j.jmr.2014.11.004
3. J.-N. Dumez, P. Hakansson, S. Mamone, B. Meier, G. Stevanato, J. T. Hill-Cousins, S. Singha Roy, R. C. D. Brown, G. Pileio, and M. H. Levitt, J. Chem. Phys.,2014
4. G. Stevanato, S. Singha Roy, J. T. Hill-Cousins, I. Kuprov, L.J. Brown, R. C.D. Brown, G. Pileio, Malcolm H. Levitt, PCCP DOI: 10.1039/c4cp05704j
5. G. Stevanato, J. T. Hill-Cousins, P. Hakansson, S. Singha Roy, L.J. Brown, R. C.D. Brown, G. Pileio, Malcolm H. Levitt, Angewandte Chemie DOI: 10.1002/anie.201411978
6. Joseph T. Hill-Cousins, Ionut-Alexandru Pop , Giuseppe Pileio , Gabriele Stevanato , Pär Håkansson , Soumya S. Roy , Malcolm H. Levitt , Lynda J. Brown , and Richard C. D. Brown, Org. Lett., DOI:10.1021/acs.orglett.5b00744

Awards:

1. iMR-CDT: Fully funded PhD studentship.
2. University of Southampton: 1^st Prize on Poster Day Prize for Chemistry Postgraduate Research.
3. EPSRC: Doctoral Prize Award.
4. COST: Short Term Scientific Mission.

Oral Presentation and Posters:

• Oral presentation given at the Joint international meeting on Relaxation and Hyperpolarization at Lymington, from 06-08th May 2014, UK: Geometrically imposed long-lived states in multispin systems.
• Oral presentation given at iMR-CDT Research Conference, from 14-17th April 2015, Warwick University, Coventry UK: Can nuclear spin order survive for hours? Symmetry, design and concepts on nuclear long-lived states.
• Poster presentation presentation at iMR-CDT Research Conference, Dundee University, Thursday 10 - Sunday 13th April 2014, UK: Geometrically imposed long-lived states in multispin systems.
• Poster presentation at EUROMAR 2014: Geometrically imposed long-lived states in multispin systems.
• Poster presentation at Chemistry Postgraduate Research Day 26/11/14: Nuclear spin polarization alive for hours: A rational design.