Giovanni Ferraris
In suo onore è stata denominata la specie Ferrarisite (Ca5(AsO3OH)2(AsO4)2 · 9H2O)
Dal sito personale http://ferraris-prarolo.com/interests.php
Giovanni FERRARIS
- Università degli Studi di Torino - Dipartimento di Scienze Mineralogiche e Petrologiche Istituto di Geoscienze e Georisorse, CNR
Biography
Born 1937 ( Prarolo , Italy)
- Professor of Crystallography, Faculty of Sciences, University of Torino
- Chair of the Commission Inorganic and Mineral Structures (CIMS) of the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr)
- Past-Vice-Chairman of the Commission on New Minerals and Minerals Names (CNMMN) of IMA
- Initiator of the Special Interest Group (SIG) "Mineralogical Crystallography" of the European Crystallographic Association (ECA)
- Collaborator of the Institute of Geosciences and Georesources (IGG) of the Italian Research Council (CNR)
- Past-President of the European Mineralogical Union (EMU)
- Past-President of the Italian Crystallographic Association (AIC)
- Member of the Executive Committee of the Federazione Italiana Scienze della Terra (FIST)
- Member of the Academic Senate of the University of Torino
- TEMPUS and ERASMUS activity with Romania and Hungary
- Dedication of the mineral ferrarisite
- Foreign member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences
- Plinius medallist (1999) of the Italian Society of Mineralogy and Petrology (SIMP)
- Tartufari Prize (2000) of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei
- Doctor Honoris Causa University of Bucharest (Romania)
- Honorary member of the Russian Mineralogical Society and of the Romanian Mineralogical Society
- Doctor Rerum Naturalium Honoris Causa (Dr. rer. nat. h.c.) of the Darmstadt University of Technology (Germany)
Main fields of research are as follows.
- Characterisation of rare and new minerals, in particular titanosilicates and other minerals from hyperalkaline rocks. Synthesis of mineral phases; pillaring of heterophyllosilicates.
- Crystal-chemistry and crystal-physics of inorganic compounds.
- Structural and general crystallography.
- Modular crystallography; polysomatism, polytypism and twinning.
- Results have been obtained mainly by diffraction (X-rays, neutrons, electrons) and electron microscopy.
- The main results can be grouped as follows.
- Characterisation of some 80 mineral species; most of them with crystal structure determinations; 33 are new species [altisite, balangeroite, bykovaite, canavesite, carbokentbrooksite-(Ce), carlosturanite, caryochroite, cattiite, eveslogite, ferriallanite-(Ce), gjerdingenite-Fe, hydroxylclinohumite, kalifersite, kanonerovite, kapitsaite-(Y), kristiansenite, labuntsovite-Fe, labuntsovite-Mg, magnesiocloritoid, magnesiodumortierite, manganonaujakasite, nabalamprophyllite, nafertisite, nechelyustovite, neskevaaraite-Fe, phaunoxite, potassicarfvedsonite, raadeite, seidite-(Ce), shirokshinite, stoppaniite, tsepinite-Ca, zirsilite-(Ce)]. Some new species are connected with asbestos (balangeroite, carlosturanite), very high pressure metamorphism (magnesiochloritoid, magnesiodumortierite) and hyperalkaline rocks (e.g., Kola Peninsula).
- Evolution with temperature and pressure of the crystal structure and equation of state of rock-forming layer minerals, in particular micas.
- Development and applications of the theory of polysomatism [inophites (carlosturanite), heterophyllosilicates (nafertisite) and palysepioles (kalifersite) series have been defined].
- Theoretical studies of twinning (merohedry; definition of allotwins, plesiotwins, metric merohedry, selective merohedry, hybrid twins, and polyholohedry) and diffraction methods.
- Contributions to bond valence and charge distribution theory; crystal-chemistry of the hydrogen bond.
