Flavio Giuliani

Ph.D. in Physics

Current address & contacts

Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza University of Rome
P.le A. Moro 5, 00185 - Rome, Italy

• Email address: flagiu98@gmail.com
• My website
• My profile on scientific databases: Google Scholar, ResearchGate, ORCID
• My github profile

Academic positions

• 2022 - 2026: Ph.D. in Physics, ottimo con lode (magna cum laude), Sapienza University of Rome
  • The thesis project involved the study of thermodynamic and kinetic anomalies and crystallization features in supercooled liquid Sb, a candidate phase-change material, and the development of a neural network interatomic potential trained on density functional theory for Ge-alloyed Sb. Supervised by Prof. Riccardo Mazzarello and Prof. Lilia Boeri
• 2022 - 2025: Fellow researcher (Assegnista di ricerca), Physics Department, Sapienza University of Rome
  • The project focused on investigating the behavior of antimony-rich phase-change materials with the tools of statistical mechanics and of atomistic simulations assisted by neural-network interatomic potentials. Funded in 2022/23 by Progetti Medi Sapienza 2021, P.I. Prof. Riccardo Mazzarello, and in 2023/25 by Progetto PRIN 2020 - EMPHASIS, P.I. Prof. Riccardo Mazzarello.

Publications

I have published 2 articles in international peer-reviewed scientific journals. I am first author of 1 of those publications, on the high-Impact Factor (IF) journal “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” (PNAS, IF: 9.1).

1. F. Giuliani, F. G. Mattioli, Y. Chen, D. Baratella, D. Dragoni, M. Bernasconi, J. Russo, L. Boeri, R. Mazzarello, “Liquid anomalies and fragility of supercooled antimony”, Accepted on PNAS (2026)
2. S. Ritarossi, R. Piombo, F. Giuliani, D. Dragoni, M. Bernasconi, R. Mazzarello, “Phase-Change Heterostructures Based on Antimony”, Phys. Status Solidi RRL 19 (7), 2500012 (2025)

Education

• 2020 - 2022: Master’s Degree in Physics, 110/110 e lode (magna cum laude), Sapienza University of Rome
  • The aim of the thesis project was to assess the correlation between supercooled liquid viscosity and glass vibrational properties for a prototype fragile glass former: the rigid model for ortho-terphenyl. Supervised by Prof. Tullio Scopigno and Prof. Francesco Sciortino
• 2017 - 2020: Bachelor’s Degree in Physics, 110/110 e lode (magna cum laude), Sapienza University of Rome
  • The thesis project consisted in reproducing a tug-of-war physical model for simulating the twitching dynamics of a bacterium on a surface, mediated by the adhesion and retraction of type-IV pili. Supervised by Prof. Roberto Di Leonardo.

Teaching

• 2024: Teaching Assistant for “Mathematics and Statistics”, Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome. Interactive exercises and homework corrections (40 h)
• 2023: 1 h lecture “Machine learning interatomic potentials” for the course “Computing Methods for Physics” of Master’s Degree in Physics by Prof. L. Boeri, Sapienza University of Rome
• 2021, 2022: Student-collaboration scholarship for Scientific Programming in C (“Laboratorio di Calcolo”), Bachelor’s Degree in Physics, Sapienza University of Rome. Laboratory assistant and notes-writer (75 h/year)

Certified advanced and soft-skill courses

• 2024: Course “HPC Molecular Modelling”, three-days lessons and hands-on at CINECA, Rome
• 2022 - 2023: Within my Ph.D. education, Sapienza University of Rome
  • “Statistical Field Theory” (40 h, 6 credits) by Prof. A. Cavagna, 30/30 e lode (magna cum laude)
  • “Advanced Topics in Condensed Matter” (40 h, 6 credits) by Prof. J. Lorenzana and Dr. and Dr. P. Barone, 30/30 con lode (magna cum laude)
  • Soft-skills course “Preparing artwork for scientific papers” by Prof. G. Giardina
  • Soft-skills online courses “I principali programmi europei di finanziamento R&I”, “Etica e Scienza”, “Fare start-up in Sapienza, istruzioni per l’uso” and “Publications and research data: Open Access”

Grants

High-Performance Computing (HPC) resources

• 2025: 20k GPUh grant as Principal Investigator (P.I.) of the ISCRA-C project “LIGAN: LIquid-liquid transition in Germanium-doped Antimony with a Neural-network interaction potential” for the Leonardo supercomputer
• 2024: 20k GPUh grant as P.I. of the ISCRA-C project “AntimoNN: Neural-Network interaction potential for Antimony-based phase-change materials” for the Leonardo supercomputer
• 2023: 23333 CPUh grant as P.I. of the ISCRA-C project “DAGAN: First-principles DAtaset of Germanium-Antimony for a Neural-network interaction potential” for the G100 supercomputer

Other grants

• 2025: €11k grant for the University call for Starting Third Mission initiatives, Sapienza University of Rome
  • Title: Eutopie - Dialogues on the relationship between science and society for a research on human beings
  • Role: Proponent and Head of Organization. I oversaw the entire organizational cycle: format design, selection of interdisciplinary topics, research and involvement of 15+ high-profile experts, logistics management, communication, and feedback analysis through questionnaires.
  • Objective and implementation: The project created an open space for multidisciplinary debate in the university to address major contemporary social challenges, promoting collective involvement through four public dialogues on: 1) Man, nature, and the climate crisis; 2) Science, women, and rights; 3) Human language and artificial intelligence; 4) Research and imagination in art and science.

Prizes & awards

• 2022: Excellence program of Master’s Degree in Physics, Sapienza University of Rome
  • Awarded to top students based on exam marks. The scolarship value was equal to the university fee of the second year.
    In the context of “Physics of liquids” with Prof. F. Sciortino, I studied with the microscopic derivation of hydrodynamics equations from the formalism of projection operators, with a final report.
    In the context of “Advanced machine learning methods for physics” with Prof. S. Giagu , I studied Variational Diffusion Models and implemented a simple model for image generation in the final project.
• 2020: Excellence program of Bachelor’s Degree in Physics, Sapienza University of Rome
  • Awarded to top students based on exam marks. The scolarship value was equal to the university fee of the second year.
    I attended in-depth courses on selected topics: Electromagnetism, Partial Differential Equations in physics, Monte Carlo simulations (with a final project), Bayesian inference (with a final project).

Conferences and seminars

• 2024: Attendant at “European Phase-Change and Ovonics Symposium” (E), Leibniz Institute of Surface Engineering (IOM), Leipzig, Germany
  • Topics: Experimental and theoretical/computational advances in Phase-Change materials and Ovonic materials
• 2024: Poster presentation at “CMT@BRIXEN ’24: The Meeting of the Condensed Matter Theory Italian Community”, Brixen, Italy.
  • Poster: Ab initio study of supercooled antimony alloys through a machine learning interatomic potential
• 2024: 10’ talk at the worskshop “Multiscale Modeling and Engineering Applications”, ICSC - National Research Center in HPC, Big Data and Quantum Computing - Spoke 6, Sapienza University of Rome
  • Talk: “Neural-network interatomic potential for antimony-based phase-change materials”, within the Flagship Project FP1 - Advanced Materials and New Devices
• 2023: 20’ informal seminar between Ph.D. and Master’s students of the Physics Department, Sapienza University of Rome
  • Talk: “Accessing large-scale molecular simulations through machine learning”
• 2023: Attendant and Technical staff (management of microphones and slides) at E, Sapienza University of Rome
• 2022: Attendant at Workshop “From Water to Colloidal Water - Celebrating the contributions of Francesco Sciortino to Soft Matter”, Sapienza University of Rome
  • Topics: a) Anomalous properties of Water and amorphous ices; b) Self-assembly and DNA nanotechnology; c) Computational methods and Machine Learning for Soft Matter; d) Glasses and disordered systems; e) Soft Matter of colloids and polymers
• 2021: Attendant at “XXVII INC Summer School: Ultrastable Glasses - New perspectives for an old problem”, organized by Instituto Nicolás Cabrera, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, in “La Cristalera”, Miraflores de la Sierra, Madrid, Spain
  • Topics: Frontiers of the experimental and theoretical/computational research on ultrastable structural glasses
• 2020: Attendant at “Summer School: Physics of Life”, organized by the Center for the Physics of Biological Function, Princeton University, online
  • Topics: Active research fields in biophysics and physics of biological systems

Scientific Communication for a Broad Audience

• 2025: Talk for the book presentation “L’atomica e le responsabilità della scienza”, organized by L’Asino d’oro Edizioni at Libreria Spazio Sette, Rome.

Volunteering

• 2019: Co-founder of “STudy to transfORM” (ST.ORM), a nonprofit organization whose educational projects currently span across Italy, Kenya and Tanzania. I was active as the Treasurer for the first year.

• 2019: For about one year, I taught math and sciences to refugees within the activities of the non-profit organization “Baobab Experience” in Rome.

Personal skills

• Language: Italian (native), English (B2), Spanish (A2)
• Driving license: Italian B