Education

• March 1990 Master (Laurea) Degree in Physics from the University of Pisa and Diploma from the Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy; thesis title "High-Resolution Infrared Spectroscopy of Osmium • Tetroxide" (Spettroscopia ad alta risoluzione nell'infrarosso del tetrossido d'osmio); supervisor Prof. M. Inguscio; 110/110 cum laude.
• 1990 - 1993 Ph.D. work in Prof. Theodor W. Hänsch's group at the Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik in Garching and the Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität in Munich, Germany, on an experiment aiming at the realization of a permanent magnetic trap for neutral alkalis.
• March 1994 Ph. D. degree in Physics - Promotion, doctor rerum naturalium - from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany; thesis title "A Magnetic Trap for High-Resolution Spectroscopy" (Eine magnetische Falle für die hochauflösende Spektroskopie); supervisor Prof. T. W. Hänsch; "magna cum laude"/"sehr gut".

Academic career and teaching activities

POSITIONS
• 1994 Post-doc at the Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Garching, Germany, in Prof. Theodor W. Hänsch's group, as a grant holder of the "Human Capital and Mobility" Programme of the European Union.
• 1995-1996 Post-doc at the Physics Department of the University of Trento, Italy.
• 1996-2022 Adjunct Professor ("Ricercatore confermato", "Professore aggregato") at the Physics Department, University of Trento, Italy.
• 2012-2018 Professor with a temporary appointment at the Faculty of Computer Science, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy.
• since 2022: Associate Professor of Physics at the Department of Physics, University of Trento.

*********************************
*** TEACHING ACTIVITY ***
*********************************
• Starting from 2011, and with 4 exceptions, all courses are lectured in English.
• Only the most relevant activities are listed below.

Activities at the University of Trento, Italy:
42 courses (17 in English)
1. [2022-present] Experimental Methods, MSc in Physics.
2. [2011-2013, 2015-present] Laboratory of Advanced Electronics, MSc in Physics.

3. [2019-2022] Laboratory of Physics 3 (Laboratorio di Fisica III), BSc in Physics (in Italian).
4. [2012-2016] Statistical Methods for Experimental Sciences, MSc in Cellular and Molecular Biotechnology.
5. [2012-2013] Statistics and data analysis (Statistica, misure ed errori, trasduzione segnali), Tirocinio formativo attivo (*) (in Italian).
6. [2005-2006; 2007-2010] Laboratory of Advanced Electronics (Laboratorio di Elettronica Avanzata), MSc in Physics.
7. [2008-2010] Mechanics and Thermodynamics (Fisica I), BSc in Biomolecular Sciences and Technology.
8. [2008-2009] Psychophysics (Psicofisica), MSc in Psychology / Cognitive Sciences.
9. [2006-2008] Analog and digital electronics (formerly Laboratorio di Fisica 3, then Laboratorio di Fisica 4. Parte), BSc in Physics.
10. [2007-2008] Monitoring of Biosystems (Monitoraggio dei biosistemi), BSc in Physics.
11. [2006-2007] Laboratory of Analog and Digital Electronics (Laboratorio di elettronica analogica e digitale), Scuola di specializzazione all'insegnamento secondario - SSIS (*).
12. [2006-2007] Advanced Electronics (Elettronica avanzata), Scuola di specializzazione all'insegnamento secondario - SSIS (*).
13. [2005-2006] Advanced Topics in Analog and Digital Electronics (Approfondimenti di elettronica analogica e digitale), Scuola di specializzazione all'insegnamento secondario - SSIS (*).
14. [2000-2005] Quantum Optics (Ottica Quantistica), Ph.D. School of Physics and MSc in Physics.
15. [2001-2002] Classical Electrodynamics (Fisica Generale 2), BSc in Telecommunications Engineering.
16. [1999-2001] Analog and Digital Electronics (Esperimentazioni di Fisica 3, 1. modulo - elettronica analogica e digitale), Bachelor (Diploma) in Physical Methodologies.
(*) postgraduate teacher training school.

Activities at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy:
12 courses (all in English)
1. [2017-2019] Basic electronics and digital signal processing, MSc in Computer Science, Faculty of Computer Science.
2. [2012-2018] Mathematical Methods for Experimental Science, BSc in Computer Science and Engineering, Faculty of Computer Science.
3. [2014-2018] Statistical Methods, MSc in Computer Science, Faculty of Computer Science.

Activities at other Universities:
1. [June 2007] Guest Professor at the Eberhard-Karls-Universität, Tübingen (Germany), teaching - in German - a course on Laser Cooling (Intensivkurs in Laserkühlen), in German.

PhD Supervision
• Supervisor for 7 PhD theses.

BSc and MSc Supervision
• 24 Master thesis works;
• 37 Bachelor thesis works.

PhD examination committees
• Reviewer or member of committee for 24 examinations for the final defense of Ph. D. theses (not taking into account the theses under his supervision).

Research interests

Complex Systems Dynamics. Entropy (Information Theory). Neuroscience. Biostatistics.

Research work

Head of the Nonlinear Systems and Electronics Laboratory (NSE Lab) of the Physics Department of the University of Trento.
https://nse.physics.unitn.it/en/nse_frontpage.html

In the first phase of his career, the research activity by Leonardo Ricci was mainly devoted to the fields of cold atoms: trapping of neutral atoms; high-resolution laser spectroscopy; and development of advanced measurement, processing and control systems (hardware and software, including systems relying on neural networks) for applications in the experimental research. A main point regarding this research line was the measurement and control of magnetic fields.

Since a decade, pursuing a not-new interest (for example, in 1998, he attended the course "Magnetic Resonance and Brain Function: Approaches from Physics" of the International School of Physics "E. Fermi", organized by the Italian Physical Society - SIF), he progressively changed the goals of his research towards Neuroscience and Biophysics issues, and in particular the role of noise in brain function (perception and cognition). Within this framework, he carried out studies on stochastic resonance phenomena in human perception as well as on dynamical aspects of decision-making mechanisms.

He is presently addressing the following research topics:
• Complex systems dynamics. Detection of chaos in time series.
• Information measures in physical processes. Entropy of Markov chain processes. Permutation entropy.
• Signal analysis via non-linear approaches (e.g. generation of surrogate time series).

Part of the scientific work is carried out at the Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (Centro Interdipartimentale Mente/Cervello, CIMeC) of the University of Trento, which he is partially affiliated with (35 %).

PATENTS
"Dispositivo e metodo per misurazioni di visibilità" ("Device and method for visibility measurements"). Inventors: Leonardo Ricci and Mario Scotoni, University of Trento.
Italian patent: IT201800005817; application on 29 May 2018; granted on 24 June 2020.
European patent: "Automated device and method for visibility measurements", EP3803344A1; application on 28 May 2019; published on 14 April 2021.
USA patent: "Device and method for visibility measurements", US2021199578A1; application on 28 May 2019; published on 01 July 2021.

ONGOING SCIENTIFIC COLLABORATIONS
• Prof. Antonio Politi (Istituto dei Sistemi Complessi, Florence, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy; formerly University of Aberdeen, UK) on physics of complex systems, nonlinear dynamics, entropy (information theory).
• Dr. Iacopo Carusotto (INO-CNR BEC Center, Trento) on development of topological circuits for the generation of photonic lattices.
• Dr. Riccardo Meucci (CNR-INO, National Research Council - National Institute of Optics, Florence, Italy) on hardware implementation of chaotic systems.
• Dr. Ludovico Minati (School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan, China) on nonlinear dynamics.
• Prof. Michela A. Denti (Centre for Integrative Biology - CIBIO - University of Trento, Italy) on investigation of the correlation between miRNA expression and patologies.

EDITOR ACTIVITY
1. Chaos, Solitons and Fractals (Elsevier, Amsterdam, Netherlands), Associate Editor.
2. Entropy (MDPI, Basel, Switzerland), Editorial Board Member.
3. Frontiers in Network Physiology (Frontiers Media SA, Lausanne, Switzerland), Associate Editor for Information Theory.

REVIEWER ACTIVITY
1. Physical Review X (APS, American Physical Society).
2. Physical Review Research (APS, American Physical Society).
3. Physical Review E (APS, American Physical Society).
4. Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science (AIP, American Institute of Physics).
5. Entropy (MDPI).
6. International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos (World Scientific).
7. IEEE Access (IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers).
8. IEEE Sensors Journal (IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers).
9. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics (IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers).
10. Scientific Reports (Springer).
11. Decisions in Economics and Finance (Springer).
12. Nonlinear Dynamics (Springer).
13. Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation (Elsevier).
14. Biological Theory (Springer).
15. Brazilian Journal of Physics (Springer).
16. Applied Physics B - Lasers and Optics (Springer).
17. The European Physical Journal D - Atomic, Molecular, Optical and Plasma Physics (EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag).

Memberships in societies and scientific committees

• IEEE Member (# 94313943).
• SIFS (Italian Society of Statistical Physics) Member.
• INFN Member.

Awards and honours

Teaching activity
• 2016 - Best Teacher Award 2015 of the Faculty of Computer Science - Free University of Bozen-Bolzano.

Research activity
• 2022 - Selection by the Editorial Office of the journal Entropy of the paper "Estimating Permutation Entropy Variability via Surrogate Time Series", by Leonardo Ricci and Alessio Perinelli, as "Cover Story" of Volume 24, Issue 7, among 163 articles.
• 2001 - Co-winner of the "Young Researchers Project" (Progetto Giovani Ricercatori) of the University of Trento. Project title: "Realization of a superconducting magnetic guide for neutral atoms" (Realizzazione di una guida magnetica superconduttrice per atomi neutri).
• 1994 - European Union's "Human Capital and Mobility" Programme Fellowship.

Other work

***************************
*** THIRD MISSION ***
***************************
TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER
December 2020: Founder of "Inspicio srl", a start-up acknowledged by the University of Trento as a "University Start-up".

Notes

LANGUAGES
• Italian: mother tongue.
• English: proficient user.
• German: proficient user.
• French: basic user.

SKILLS
• Electronics: development of circuitry based on analog and digital devices, FPGAs, DSPs, microwave components.
• Software: development of codes in C, C++, bash, R, Verilog.
• Other fields: Optics, Magnetics, Ultra-High-Vacuum, Precision Mechanics.
• Attitudes: Strong attitude to problem solving.
• Others: Organizational management and leadership skills acquired, for example, in the participation to several committees within the University of Trento with responsibility roles.