Eleonora Del Federico

Associate Professor of Chemistry
Department of Mathematics and Science, Pratt Institute

Ph.D. Biophysical Chemistry, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 2000

MS/BS in Analytical Chemistry, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1991

Office: ARC G49, Lab: ARC D4A

Phone: 718-636-3764 (office x2761), lab (X 2763)

I am an Associate Professor of Chemistry in the Department of Mathematics and Science at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. At Pratt, I am involved in the development and teaching of Chemistry courses at the interface of Chemistry/Fine Arts and Art History.

Science and Art Symposium 2009

Research Interests

I perform research in the field of Chemistry at the interface with Conservation Science, and NMR spectroscopy applied to Art Conservation and I am particularly interested in characterizing degradation processes of mural paintings, mosaics, archeological objects and traditional oil paintings by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy. During the Spring 2007 I was on sabbatical leave studying how Mobile NMR can help assess the degradation state of artist's materials on site at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Department of Scientific Research and in collaboration with Alexej Jerschow’s group at NYU with our newly acquired Profiler NMR MOUSE. Funds to purchase the instrument were recently provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

More recently we received a grant by the Camille and Henry Dreyfus foundation to purchase portable instrumentation (handheld XRF, FTIR and Raman) to expand Pratt’s Mobile Laboratory for the studies of artists’ materials and artifacts.

Teaching

I teach Chemistry courses focused on introducing the chemical principles behind the artist’s techniques and materials. Presently I am reviewing the Chemistry for the Arts Curriculum at Pratt, further developing the courses below.

Chemistry of Paintings

Chemistry for Art Historians

Advanced Chemistry for the Arts (I and II)

Art Forensics

Chemistry of Wall Paintings Lab

Chemistry of Medieval Illuminations Lab

Chemistry of Ancient Mosaics Lab

Selected Publications

M. Bacci, C. Cucci, E. Del Federico, A. Ienco, A. Jerschow, J. M. Newman, M. Picollo, An integrated spectroscopic approach for the identification o what distinguishes Afghan lapis lazuli from others. Vibrational Spectroscopy, Volume 49, Issue 1, 22 January 2009, Pages 80-83.

Del Federico, E.; Newman, J.; O'Hern, C.; Tyne, L.; Isolani, L.; Jerschow, A. "Solid-state NMR studies of ultramarine pigment discoloration." Magnetic Resonance in Materials, Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings, Vol 987, 2007.

Del Federico, E.; Shoefberger, W.; Schelvis, J.; Kapetanaki, S.; Tyne, L.; Jerschow, A. "Insight into Framework Destruction in Ultramarine Pigments." Inorg. Chem. 2006, 45, 1270-1276.

Del Federico, E.; Schoefberger, W.; Kumar, R.; Ling, W.; Kapetanaki, S. M.; Schelvis, J.; Jerschow, A. In Solid-state NMR and resonance Raman studies of ultramarine pigments, Materials Issues in Art and Archaeology VII, 2005; Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings: 2005; pp 247-254.

Del Federico, E. Diver, S, Konanklieva, M., Ludescher, R. "As light meets matter, art under scrutiny" Journal of College Science Teaching, 23-1, 12-19, 2002.