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In the last years, experimental research in the field of chemistry and materials science is increasingly focusing on molecular systems self-assembled on the nanometer scale. The interest in ordered structures came from the study of biological systems, which are built up by simple molecules arranged into complex structures, which create a wide range of diverse functions. The cell is an example of features integrated into an intricate whole. We are not yet able to reproduce the complexity of a biological system like the cell, but we learned that the assembly of single molecules as components of a more complex system is the key issue to reaching new functional materials.

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Antonio Abate obtained his PhD at "Politecnico di Milano". He worked for 4 years as at the University of Oxford and Cambridge. He was a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and he is currently leading the group of photovoltaics at the Adolphe Merkle Institute within the University of Fribourg.

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