Valentina Emiliani

Valentina Emiliani is an Italian physicist and CNRS Research Director at the Institut de la Vision in Paris. She heads the Photonics Department and the Wavefront Modulation team at the institute.

Early life and career Emiliani studied physics at Sapienza University of Rome, graduating in 1991. She completed her doctorate in physics at the same university in 1997, with a thesis on the optical properties of quantum structures. She then undertook postdoctoral research at the Max Born Institute in Berlin, followed by a period at the European Laboratory for Nonlinear Spectroscopy in Florence.

In 2002, Emiliani joined the Institut Jacques Monod in Paris as a postdoctoral fellow. In 2004, she was recruited as a researcher at the CNRS. In 2005, she received a European Young Investigator grant and established the Wavefront Engineering Microscopy group at Paris Descartes University.

Research Emiliani's research focuses on the application of wavefront modulation techniques to neuroscience. Her research has developed methods combining computer-generated holography and temporal focusing with optogenetics to control neuronal activity.

Awards Year Award Awarding body 2005 European Young Investigator Award European Science Foundation 2020 ERC Advanced Grant (HOLOVIS) European Research Council