Vanina Cristaudo

Vanina obtained her PhD in Engineering Sciences in 2017 at UCLouvain (Belgium). Her contribution consisted in the development of new secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) methodologies by large argon cluster sputtering, combined to principal component analysis (PCA) and Wavelet-PCA data treatments, for the surface and in-depth chemical characterization of plasma-treated and plasma-deposited polymers under atmospheric pressure. In addition to the SIMS studies of plasma-related systems, her research activities were also focused on the fundamentals of the molecular depth-profiling of polymers by massive argon cluster ion bombardment (Ar_500-5000⁺). After her PhD, she continued to work at UCLouvain as a postdoctoral fellow and a scientific collaborator on the elucidation of the fragmentation process of polymer thin films at the interface with different types of substrates during large Ar cluster sputtering.

Vanina joined the SURF group as a postdoctoral researcher in November 2019. She focuses on the unravelling of chemical interactions at the hybrid polymer/metal(oxide) interfaces by a combined X-ray photo-electron spectroscopy (XPS) and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) approach. She also investigates interfacial effects on the barrier properties of polymer coatings in odd random phase multisine electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (ORP-EIS) for automotive applications.