Mario Pagliaro - Biography#

Mario Pagliaro is a chemistry and energy scholar based at Italy’s Research Council in Palermo, Italy, where he leads a research Group focusing on nanochemistry, green chemistry, solar energy, and the bioeconomy.

In recognition of his “significant contributions to the chemical sciences”, in 2014 he was designated Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He ranks in the top 2% World Ranking list of Scientists in all fields of science, 927th among 111,388 chemistry scholars active (publishing) in the field of organic chemistry, and in position 50,889 in the complete list including 159,684 researchers (World Ranking of top 2% in all fields) based on c-score (composite indicator for career-long impact), an indicator introduced by Ioannidis and co-workers compiling in 2020 the first Ranking.

The achievements of his Group’s research developed in co-operation with leading research groups based in over 20 countries include numerous important advances such as the the catalyst later commercialized with the 'SiliaCat TEMPO' name, or the new and highly bioactive citrus pectin he dubbed 'IntegroPectin'. Dr Pagliaro has authored or co-authored nearly 300 frequently cited research papers (14,583 citations as of June 21, 2021, Google Scholar), 30 of which featuring on the cover of journals such as ChemSusChem, Nanoscale, Catalysis Science & Technology and ChemCatChem, and 22 books, some of which have become the reference in their field. His book 'Flexible Solar Cells' (Wiley-VCH, 2008) has been translated in Chinese in 2010 by Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press.

In 2017, he was recognized as one of the most prolific authors for ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering in the past 4 years. In 2016 he was selected first among the top five highly prolific authors of Organic Process Research & Development. In March 2016 he was found in the top 10% of highly cited authors in the general chemistry portfolio of RSC journals. ChemistryOpen started its 2019 volume with a Meet the Board editorial dedicated to his work.

Frequently cited for his excellence in teaching, Dr Pagliaro has given more than 100 invited public presentations at conferences, seminars, workshops and meetings on the topics of his research and educational work. On August 28, 2019, he gave in St. Petersburg, Russia, one of the six plenary lectures at the XX International Sol-Gel Conference, the leading conference on sol-gel science and technology. In 2005 he was appointed “Maître de conférences associé” at Montpellier’s Ecole Nationale Superieure de Chimie.

He regularly organizes conferences and gives courses and seminars on the topics of his research. In 2009 he chaired the 10th FIGIPAS Meeting in Inorganic Chemistry held in Palermo, Sicily, on July 2009. Betwen 2004 and 2017 he organized the prestigious Seminar "Marcello Carapezza" whose 2011 edition was hosted by Italy’s Parliament. He has co-chaired the “SuNEC Sun New Energy Energy Conference” and the “FineCat Symposium on heterogeneous catalysis for fine chemicals”, two important meetings held annually in Sicily between 2011 and 2018.

Dr Pagliaro is an active advocate of open science, and and active scholar in chemistry and energy education research. His 2017 joint study on preprints in chemistry eventually published in the open access journal ACS Omega, is 4th most viewed chemistry preprint at the Preprints preprint server (https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201707.0095.v1). With over 11,000 views, his joint study on the use of the h-index to evaluate chemistry research is amid the most viewed articles published by Chemstry Central Journal, an OA journal later renamed BMC Chemistry. In 2019, he published in the Israel Journal of Chemistry a new aproach to chemistry education to foster creativity in the digital era. His joint 2016 studies on rethinking solar energy education in Renewable & Sustainable Energy and 'Reshaping the education of energy managers' in Energy Research & Social Science are amid the most read and cited articles in two key areas of the emerging solar economy.

In 2008, when a few scholars believed in the forthcoming emergence of photovoltaic technology as a significant contributor to the global energy generation mix, Dr Pagliaro introduced the term 'helionomics' in his joint book Flexible Solar Cells (Wiley-VCH, 2008).

Between September and December 2015 he was president of Palermo's energy utility AMG Energia. Online since 2000, his website qualitas1998.net contains updated information on his research, educational and public outreach activities.