Professional Background

Chiara Saggese earned her PhD in Industrial Chemistry and Chemical Engineering from Politecnico di Milano in 2015. She then worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, where she conducted experiments and kinetic modeling on the combustion chemistry and emissions of gasoline and aviation fuels. In 2019, she joined the Reaction Dynamics Group at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Her research focuses on developing reaction kinetics models for conventional and synthetic fuels to support combustion applications and emission predictions. She also investigates the thermal decomposition of solid fuels and energetic materials through both experimental and numerical approaches.

Research Interests

• Reaction kinetics of hydrocarbon fuels, oxygenated fuels, and energetic materials
• Soot formation
• Multiscale modeling
• Synthesis of nanomaterials

PhD, Industrial Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Italy, 2015

MS, Chemical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Italy, 2011

BS, Chemical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Italy, 2009

C. Saggese, R. Whitesides, S. W. Wagnon, T. Chatterjee, F. P. Hagen, P. Vlavakis, N. Schraud, D. Trimis, Soot formation and precursor chemistry in counterflow flames of aviation fuel surrogates, Proceedings of the Combustion Institute 41 (2025) 105816.

C.P. Bjork, M.K. Ashour, E.K. Stefanidis, C. Saggese, S.W. Wagnon, F. Carbone, The effect on soot and its gas precursors of doping ethylene with 2,2,4,6,6-pentamethyl-heptane in the nitrogen-fuel stream of a laminar non-premixed Planar Mixing Layer Flame (PMLF) Proceedings of the Combustion Institute 41 (2025) 105787.

T. Chatterjee, C. Saggese, C., X. Xue, G. Kukkadapu, W. J. Pitz, S. W. Wagnon, C-J. Sung, Experimental and kinetic modeling of soot formation in counterflow non-premixed flames of surrogate fuel components: n-dodecane and iso-dodecane, Proceedings of the Combustion Institute 40 (2024) 105368.

C. Saggese, A. Burnham, Experimental and modeling study of the effect of confinement on the thermal decomposition of organic materials, Thermochimica Acta 736 (2024) 179741.

C. F. López-Cámara, C. Saggese, W. J. Pitz, X. Shao, H.G. Im, and D. Dunn-Rankin, Reduced chemical kinetic model for CH4-air non-premixed flames including excited and charged species, Combustion and Flame 253 (2023) 112822.

Chatterjee, T., Saggese, C., Dong, S., Patel, V., Lockwood, K.S., Curran, H.J., Labbe, N.J., Wagnon, S.W. and Pitz, W.J., 2022. Experimental and kinetic modeling study of the low-temperature and high-pressure combustion chemistry of straight chain pentanol isomers: 1-, 2-and 3-Pentanol. Proceedings of the Combustion Institute 39 (2023) 265-274.

Cheng, S., Saggese, C., Goldsborough, S.S., Wagnon, S.W. and Pitz, W.J., 2022. Chemical kinetic interactions of NO with a multi-component gasoline surrogate: Experiments and modeling. Proceedings of the Combustion Institute 39 (2023) 531-540.

Koga, N., Vyazovkin, S., Burnham, A.K., Favergeon, L., Muravyev, N.V., Perez-Maqueda, L.A., Saggese, C. and Sánchez-Jiménez, P.E., 2022. ICTAC Kinetics Committee recommendations for analysis of thermal decomposition kinetics. Thermochimica Acta, p.179384.

B. Koroglu, M. Finko, C. Saggese, S. Wagnon, S. Foster, D. McGuffin, D. Lucas, T.P. Rose, J.C. Crowhurst, D.G. Weisz, H.B. Radousky, D. Curreli, K.B. Knight, 2022. The influence of cooling rate on condensation of iron, aluminum, and uranium oxide nanoparticles. Journal of Aerosol Science 162 (2022), p.105959.

R. Fang, C. Saggese, S. W. Wagnon, A. B. Sahu, H. J. Curran, W. J. Pitz, C-J. Sung, Effect of nitric oxide and exhaust gases on gasoline surrogate autoignition: iso-octane experiments and modeling, Combust. Flame 236 (2022) 111807.

C. Saggese, C. M. Thomas, S. W. Wagnon, G. Kukkadapu, S. Cheng, D. Kang, S.S. Goldsborough, W.J. Pitz, An improved detailed chemical kinetic model for C3-C4 linear and iso-alcohols and their blends with gasoline at engine-relevant conditions, Proc. Combust. Inst. 38 (2021), 415-423.

C. Saggese, K. Wan, R. Xu, Y. Tao, C.T. Bowman, J.W. Park, T. Lu, H. Wang, A physics-based approach to modeling real-fuel combustion chemistry–V. NOx formation from a typical Jet A, Combustion and Flame 212 (2020) 270-278.

C. Liu, A.V. Singh, C. Saggese, Q. Tang, D. Chen, K. Wan, M. Vinciguerra, M. Commodo, G. De Falco, P. Minutolo, A. D’Anna, H. Wang, Flame-formed carbon nanoparticles exhibit quantum dot behaviors, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116(26) (2019) 12692-12697.

C. Saggese, A.V. Singh, X. Xue, C. Chu, M.R. Kholghy, T. Zhang, J. Camacho, J. Giaccai, J.H. Miller, M.J. Thomson, C-J. Sung, H. Wang, The Distillation Curve and Sooting Propensity of a Typical Jet Fuel, Fuel 235 (2019) 350-362.

C. Saggese, A. Cuoci, A. Frassoldati, S. Ferrario, J. Camacho, H. Wang, T. Faravelli, Probe Effects in Soot Sampling from a Burner-Stabilized Stagnation Flame, Combustion and Flame, 167 (2016) 184-197.

C. Saggese, S. Ferrario, J. Camacho, A. Cuoci, A. Frassoldati, E. Ranzi, H. Wang, T. Faravelli, Kinetic Modeling of Particle Size Distribution of Soot in a Premixed Burner-Stabilized Stagnation Ethylene Flame, Combustion and Flame 162 (2015) 3356-3369.

• 2021 Global Security award from E Program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
• 2017, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Seal of Excellence by the European Commission for the research project proposal “CarboNanoMat” (Synthesis and Analysis of Carbon NanoDots Via Cross-Disciplinary Experiments and Modelling), within the call H2020-MSCA-IF-2017.
• 2015, Swiss Government Excellence Postdoctoral Scholarship for postdoctoral research in EPFL.
• 2015, PhD award 2015 given by the scientific committee of the PhD in Industrial Chemistry and Chemical Engineering XXVII cycle at Politecnico di Milano.

Program leader for the subcommittee on 'pyrolysis of solid and liquid fuels' at the International Workshop on the Measurement and Computation of Reacting Flows with Carbon Nanoparticles (formerly known as the International Sooting Flame Workshop) - https://www.adelaide.edu.au/cet/isfworkshop/about-isf#program-leaders