Vittorio Privitera is Senior Scientist at the Italian National Council of Research (Istituto per la Microelettronica e i Microsistemi, Unità di Catania-Università, CNR) and Head of the Group “Nanostructures for electronics, energy and environment?. His current research program is focused on the application of nanostructures, mainly based on metal oxides and carbon materials, to water purification.He was a post-doc Marie Curie fellow in 1992-93 at IMEC, Belgium. He was a member of the project management committee of several European Projects (ENDEASD, FRENDTECH, IMPULSE) in the field of nanomaterials and nanoelectronics. He was the Coordinator of the European project “Fundamentals and applications of laser processing for highly innovative MOS technology? (FLASH) and of several national projects. He currently coordinates the European Coordination Action “Winning Applications of nano Technology for Resolutive hydropurification? (WATER), granted by the European Commission with 4 M€.He is author of 200 publications in international scientific journals, delivered several invited talks at international conferences, won 4 awards at national and international conferences and holds one patent.He chaired two international conferences (E-MRS Symposium 2001, IEEE-RTP 2007, IEEE-NMDC 2014) and is a member of the International Scientific Committee of several conferences. He is referee of the Journal of Applied Physics, Applied Physics Letters, Journal of the Electrochemical Society, Applied Physics A, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices.He was supervisor of several theses in the field of materials science at the University of Catania and member of the Doctoral Examination Committee at the University of Oslo (Norway) and at the Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands).