Cristina Africh is research manager at CNR-IOM in Trieste (Italy), where she heads the Surface structure and reactivity at the atomic scale group.

She is expert in the use of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) for the study of surface structures and processes. In particular, she is interested in the in-operando investigation of the kinetics of surface chemical reactions and growth processes, by acquisition of STM movies with atomic resolution in reactive environment and up to video frame-rate. Her recent research focuses on the study of transition-metal-doped graphene, grown via low-pressure CVD on metallic substrates, clarifying its growth mechanisms at the atomic level as well as its morphology, electronic structure and chemical activity. 

In parallel to her research activity, which led to the publication of more than 70 papers in high-impact journals, including 4 research articles in Science, since 2008 she is strongly involved in the design, management and operational coordination of NFFA-Europe, the European distributed research infrastructure for nanoscience and nanotechnology. She is currently infrastructure manager of NFFA-Europe and coordinator of its Italian counterpart NFFA-DI (Nano Foundry and Fine Analysis – Digital Infrastructure), which upgraded eleven leading Italian research institutes/departments belonging to four different Institutions into a single, centrally coordinated, research infrastructure for material science and innovation, with a totally digital access work flow and aiming at being the first FAIR-by-design RI.