Profile

Pier Roberto Danesi was born in Rome in 1938 and graduated from the University of Rome in 1962 with a First Class Honours Doctor degree in inorganic physical chemistry in 1962.

He then joined the Applied Chemistry unit at the Casaccia Nuclear Research Centre of the Italian Atomic Energy Commission in 1962.  Following a post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Inorganic Chemistry at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm (1965-6) he was appointed Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Rome (1970).  Then he returned to the Casaccia Nuclear Research Centre in 1975 as Director of the Physical Chemistry Laboratory before moving to the Argonne National Laboratory, USA in 1982. Here he remained as a Senior Scientist in the Chemistry Division until 1986 when he was appointed Director of the Laboratories of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at Seibersdof, Austria.

Over these years Professor Danesi carried out extensive research in the fundamental and practical aspects of solvent extraction.  One of his major achievements in this field was the development of experiments leading to the understanding of the kinetics and reaction mechanisms of chemical reactions at the liquid-liquid interface. These studies led to fundamental studies on interfacial phenomena at such interfaces and the thermodynamics of metal ion complexes with organic extractants in water and low polarity solvents. 

His group also investigated transport through liquid membranes developing processes for selective separation and concentration of metals. These experiments and those on solvent extraction focused largely on radionuclides, trace and toxic metals from wastes and nuclear material. In addition he has been involved in applications of radiotracers and radioanalytical methods to study environmental problems and the properties of microparticles of radionuclides and other chemical species in the environment. Latterly with the IAEA he has been responsible for radiological studies at nuclear weapon sites or where depleted uranium munition had been used and for carrying out comparative risk assessments. All these studies have led to over 150 scientific publications and 6 book chapters.

Since retiring from the IAEA in 2002 Professor Danesi worked as a consultant to the Deputy Director General of IAEA (2002-4) and is currently Professor of ‘Nuclear and Radiochemistry’ and ‘Comparative Risk Assessment’ at the University of Pavia (Italy), Institute of Advanced Studies.

In addition to the award of the Carl Hanson medal in 1990 he has received two awards from the Accademia Italiana dei Lincei for ‘studies of chemical kinetics’ (1973) and ‘chemical reactions associated with mass-transfer phenomena’ (1975) and a medal of merit at ISEC’83 (Denver).

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