M. Clelia Righi is Full Professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy of Bologna University. Her research activity focuses on the development and application of computational methods to understand and predict the behaviour of materials from first principles, particularly of surface and interface phenomena.

She adopted pioneering computational approaches in tribology and applied them for understanding chemical reactions activated by mechanical stresses and designing materials to reduce friction. She received an ERC consolidator grant for the project “Advancing solid interfaces and lubricants by first principles material design” (SLIDE) in 2019 and an ERC Proof of Concept grant for the project “Tribosynthesis of carbon coatings for friction and wear reduction” in 2025.

M. Clelia Righi is visiting professor at the Imperial College London, UK and collaborates with multinational companies in the energy and automotive sectors.