Iris L. Torriani

[Torriani]

Iris L. Torriani was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and studied physics at the Universities of Buenos Aires and of La Plata. She obtained her undergraduate degree at the latter institution in 1965. Subsequently she became interested in crystallography and joined a group at the Atomic Energy Commission in Buenos Aires dedicated to the study of small organic molecules. In 1967 she was awarded a Fulbright travel grant to pursue graduate studies at the U. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA. In 1971 she worked on NMR and low-angle X-ray diffraction from model membranes at the Biophysics Dept (Johnson Foundation) of that institution. Upon returning to Argentina she obtained her doctoral degree in physics at the U. of La Plata in 1975. In 1976 she joined the Dept of Condensed Matter Physics at the U. of Campinas (UNICAMP), in Brazil, where her research has been mainly focused on structural problems in solid state physics. Currently she is Associate Professor of Physics and Director of the Applied X-Ray Crystallography Group. Since 1986, she has also been a collaborator at the Brazilian Nat'l Synchrotron Lab (LNLS), where she holds a joint appointment as a research member and coordinator of the small-angle scattering beamline built under her supervision. Her main fields of interest are the application of X-ray diffraction and small-angle scattering to the study of polycrystalline materials, polymers and soft matter, as well as biological macromolecules in solution. She has published 93 articles in international journals and congress proceedings, and directed 8 PhD theses and 15 MSc dissertations.

Since 1989, Dr. Torriani has been Regional Editor for Latin American entries in the World Directory of Crystallographers (IUCr), and since 1999 has been a member of the IUCr Small-Angle Scattering Commission. At the 2003 Congress in Geneva she was elected to the Executive Committee of the IUCr. She is also a Member of the Brazilian Nat'l Council for Crystallography and of the Council of the Brazilian Crystallographic Assn, on which she has served as Secretary, General Secretary, Vice President and President. Other scientific societies to which she is affiliated include the American Crystallographic Assn, the Brazilian Physical Society, the Brazilian Biophysical Society, and the Brazilian Polymers Assn. Dr. Torriani is also a researcher of the Brazilian Nat'l Research Council (CNPq) and referee for several funding agencies in Brazil, such as the CNPq, the Board for Higher Education Programs (CAPES) and the Research Foundation of the State of São Paulo (FAPESP). At the U. of Campinas she is a member of the Selection Committee for Undergraduate Scholarships in the Exact Sciences (CNPq)/UNICAMP and has been appointed coordinator of the Brazil-Argentina Physics Graduate Students Research Program (CAPES/UNICAMP).