L.O. graduated with the highest score and cum laude and obtained her PhD in Chemistry (1997-2001) at the University of Padova, in the Theoretical Chemistry group unders the supervision of the late Prof. P.L Nordio and Prof. G. J. Moro. In 1997, she also obtained the Habilitation as Chemist. 

Since 2006, L.O. was employed as Researcher and Aggregate Professor of Physical Chemistry at the Dep. of Chemical Sciences (DiSC) in Padova, and in 2016 she was appointed Associate Professor of Physical Chemistry at DiSC. More recently, L.O. obtained the National Scientific Habilitation as Full Professor in the disciplinary area 03-A2 / Models and methodologies for chemical sciences (5/4/2018), in the disciplinary area 03/B1 Fundamentals of Chemical Sciences and Inorganic Systems (6/11/2024) and in the disciplinary area 03/C1 Organic chemistry (8/11/2025).

At the early stages of her carreer, L.O. had several post doc contracts and worked as reseacrher at Universidade Nova de Lisboa Dep. Materials Science (Portugal) in the group of Prof. A. F. Martins (2001), at the Katholieke Universiteit of Leuven Dep. of Applied Rheology (Belgium) in the group of Prof. P. Moldenaers (2002) and at the University of Padova Dep. of Physical Chemistry (currently DiSC since 2004) in the group of Prof. A. Ceccon. 

Since 2006, L.O. has been visiting scientist (with almost yearly frequency) of the Theoretical Chemistry Group of Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam (The Netherlands) and has strong collaboration with Prof. F.M. Bickephaupt and Prof. C. Fonseca Guerra. In addition, in 2019, she has been visiting scientist in the group of Prof. Dr. J. B. T. Rocha (Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Brazil) and in the group of Prof. dr. A. L. Braga (Universidade Federal de Santa Caterina, Brazil) in 2024 and 2026.

 

As reported in an interview by the Royal Society of Chemistry (2020), '... Her research interest aims at elucidating central physical phenomena in chemistry rooted in the properties of atoms, molecules, and materials. A deep rationalization and interpretation of experimental evidence is pursued through improvement of the fundamental description of chemical systems (chemical theory), and the applications of new and existing techniques to chemical, physical and biological problems (chemical computation), with particular attention to health and sustainability. The ultimate goal of her research is to predict the chemical properties of a chemical system in advance of the experiment, for a rational design of functional molecules and materials assisted by computer...'

L.O. has (co)authored more than 160 scientific peer reviewed papers published in international indexed journals. L.O. is referee for numerous journals of theoretical-computational papers of important international editorial groups, such as ACS, Elsevier, MDPI, RSC and Wiley. L.O. was invited at conferences and institutions to give lectures, among which Lisbon (2000), Amsterdam (2007), Bologna (2008), Amsterdam (2012), FemEx conference at Putten (The Netherlands,2017), HBOND2019 conference (Amsterdam, 2019), ICCST15 (Florianopolis, 2022), CBOND2024 (Amsterdam, 2024). L.O. has been member of international scientific research panels, including ERC Starting grant, Swedish Research Council and FCT.

L.O. has been P.I of Progetto Giovani (2004) and two Progetti di Ateneo (2012 and 2018) funded by University of Padova and P.I. of five projects funded in the framework of the European programs of High Performance Computing (HPC, HPC2 and HPC3) developed at Vrjie Universiteit of Amsterdam and the national Dutch supercomputing centre SurfSARA (2006-2019). 

 

Since almost 20 years, L.O. has been active in educational projects mainly involving secondary schools and their teachers. In 2019, L. O. began a training pathway in active and innovative teaching that led her to become a change agent and an active member of the T4L learning community in Padua. Deeply committed to and passionate about teaching, she devotes significant effort and care to course design, where she experiments with ever-new approaches to teaching and learning physical chemistry. In particular, she is interested in the role of computers, technologies, and artificial intelligence in school and university education, topics she has addressed in a series of publications.

In 2023, she was appointed as the University’s representative in the Education Innovation group of the Coimbra Group. Since 2024, she has also been active in faculty development, with a particular focus on peer observation and microteaching activities within the T4L project.Since 2015, she has served as Coordinator of the Piano Lauree Scientifiche (PLS) in Chemistry in Padua, building—together with secondary school teachers across the region—a network that currently includes over 250 registered teachers. Among the most significant initiatives she has developed with them to promote the dissemination of good teaching practices is the annual conference for chemistry teachers, “Insegnare chimica con passione!” (“Teaching Chemistry with Passion!”), which has reached its 14th edition and, in 2023, featured Professor Eric Scerri as a guest speaker.

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A curriculum vitae dedicated exclusively to the teaching and faculty development activities of L.O. is available here.