Biography

Dr. Riccarda Caputo received the Master of Science in Chemistry (cum laude and thesis prize) working on the absorption of hydrogen in metals at the University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, Italy.

After a family break, she got the PhD in Materials Science at the University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’ in 2005, continuing the experimental work on hydrogen-metal systems and implementing the research with first-principles calculations of thermodynamic properties and phase stability at the University of Cambridge, UK, Department of Chemistry, during the period in 2002-2003.

Since then, the focus of her research interests moved completely to quantum chemistry and density functional theory calculations of thermodynamic, mechanical, dynamical properties of inorganic solid-state phases, along with the crystal structure prediction methodologies.

From 2005, she has worked at different international Universities and Institutes worldwide, from Germany, Max Planck for Polymer Science (Mainz), Ruhr University of Bochum, to Switzerland, ETH (Zurich), and Shanghai University, as high-end foreign expert.

From 2020, she has worked on the Pauling File (LPF) as Property section editor, and from 2025 she has become Editor-in-Chief of Materials Phases Data System (MPDS/LPF) with the goal to grow and implement the great legacy transferred by the owner and founder of LPF, Dr. Pierre Villars.

In parallel, as part of LPF, she continues the first-principles calculations task, in collaboration with a research group at Istanbul Technical University, as well as the publication of the most relevant results on peer-reviewed journal articles, which more than 50 she is the first author and devisor.