The EU-40 award recognises Andrea's many pioneering contributions to the field of carbon-based nanotechnology, in particular the establishment of the standard tools for spectroscopic characterisation of these materials.

Carbon based materials play a major role in today's science and technology. In recent years, there have been continuous important advances in the science of carbon, such as chemical vapour deposition of diamond, the discovery of fullerenes and carbon nanotubes, and the production of isolated single layer graphene. There are also many non-crystalline carbons, known as amorphous, nanostructured and diamond-like carbons. Diamond-like carbons play an important role in numerous everyday applications, in information technology, telecommunications and automotive markets. Nanotubes and graphene have enormous potential in electronics and photonics, and can bring about a paradigm shift in the ever growing field of flexible and plastic electronics.