Elena Selli is full Professor of Physical Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Milan. She graduated in Chemistry cum laude in 1977 at the University of Pisa and at the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa.
In 1978-1981 she was a PhD student of the Scuola Normale, for one year (1978) working at the Institut für Physikalische Chemie of the Ruhr Universität Bochum, Germany. Then she became ricercatore universitario confermato (research assistant) of Physical Chemistry at the Scuola Normale Superiore (1981-1983) and at the University of Milan (1983-1998), and associate professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Milano (1998-2010).
She has a long experience in teaching courses of Physical Chemistry for the Bachelor degrees in Chemistry and in Industrial Chemistry; she also teaches Photochemistry to Master students. Since many years she is a member of the Board of the Doctorate School in Chemical Science and Technology; member of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Nanostructured Materials and Interfaces and responsible for its Photocatalysis research line; local delegate of the European Chemistry Thematic Network. For many years, she has been local coordinator of the Erasmus program for Chemistry.
She has been President (2016-2018) of the Physical Chemistry Division of the Italian Chemical Society (SCI). She has been President (2012-2014) of the Italian Photochemistry Group, Italian section of the European Photochemistry Association, and the coordinator of the Photochemistry Interdivisional Group of the SCI, and still she is in its board. She is member of the American Chemical Society. She is in the Board of the International Conference of Photochemical Conversion and Storage of Solar Energy (2008-2014 and 2016-2022) and member of the Scientific International Committees of the European Conference on Solar Chemistry and Photocatalysis: Environmental Applications and of the International Conference on Semiconductor Photochemistry.
She has been involved in several coordinated activities, e.g. PRIN 2002, PRIN 2005, PRIN 2009, COST 540 Action, FIRB. She has been responsible for several research projects financed by Cariplo Foundation and Regione Lombardia, and in particular PI of the SmartMatLab joint project, and she is presently local leader of a PRIN 2015 project. She is very active as reviewer for the American Chemical Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry and for Elsevier journals. She has been reviewer of several international research projects. In particular, in 2012 she was Rapporteur of the Regenerative produced fuels by light driven water splitting of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and more recently expert in the panels for project evaluation of the European Commission in Brussels.
For many years involved in studies on the kinetic aspects of photoinduced processes, in the last decades her interests have been mainly focused on the mechanistic aspects of photocatalysis on semiconductors for environmental and energy applications, and in particular on the effects of surface modification on the photocatalytic reaction paths and in the development of sensitive and efficient photocatalysts and devices for solar energy conversion processes, such as hydrogen production from water. She authored or coauthored more than 180 papers and presented more than 220 communications (including several invited talks and lectures) at international and national scientific conferences.
Her h-index is 47 (Scopus).