Team Leader

Research Activities: The Spano Group develops theoretical frameworks to understand the photophysics of molecular aggregates, conjugated polymers, and hybrid light–matter systems. Their research focuses on the emergence of collective quasiparticles including excitons, polarons, excimers, charge-transfer excitons, and exciton-polaritons that arise from the interplay of electronic, vibrational, and photonic degrees of freedom. A central theme of the group’s work is the development and application of vibronic Hamiltonians, such as the Holstein, Peierls, Frenkel–Holstein, Frenkel–Holstein–Peierls, and Holstein–Tavis–Cummings models, to establish quantitative relationships between molecular-scale interactions and experimentally observable optical properties.