Marco Grande
Trani, 8 July 1980 – 20 October 2023
Marco Grande, Associate Professor of Electromagnetic Fields at Politecnico di Bari, passed away prematurely on 20 October 2023. He had been part of nPEG for almost twenty years, and much of what the group is today carries his mark.
His path
Marco joined nPEG in 2005 as a student. He received the Master’s degree in Electronic Engineering summa cum laude in 2006 and the PhD from Politecnico di Bari in 2010, and grew within the group to become Associate Professor. His research covered the design, fabrication and optical characterization of integrated optical devices, photonic band-gap structures, plasmonic nanostructures and graphene-based devices, and he published extensively in leading international journals.
He was the principal investigator for Politecnico di Bari of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network OPTAPHI (Optical Sensing using Advanced Photo-Induced Effects, 2020–2023), and he supervised many master’s and PhD students, several of whom continue the research lines he started.
The person
Beyond his research, Marco was a splendid person: generous, supportive, patient, honest and friendly. He was always ready to help students and colleagues. His brilliant, analytical mind seemed to have an answer for everything, and it gave confidence to everyone around him. His willingness to help others and his integrity earned him the respect and affection of colleagues, students and friends.
No words can describe how much we miss him.
His work continues
The research Marco started lives on in the group: papers on silicon nitride photonic crystal resonators for sensing, developed with the OPTAPHI partners, are still being published with his name among the authors. His full list of publications is available on Scopus.