Francesca Fontana was born in Bologna (Italy) in 1959, graduated with a chemistry degree at the University of Milano in 1984, and obtained a Ph.D. in industrial chemistry at the Politecnico di Milano in 1990. She then spent one year (1990-1991) as a post-doctoral fellow at NRC Canada. She was a researcher at the Politecnico di Milano (1990-1998) in the research group of Professor Minisci, working on polar effects in free-radical chemistry, and then an associate professor at the University of Bergamo from 1998 (full professor since 2006). Present interests concern the synthesis and characterization of azahelicenes. Member of the Italian Chemical Society.