Alessia Polemi was born in Casteldelpiano, Italy, on July 10, 1973. She received the Dr. Ing. degree (cum laude) in Telecommunications Engineering and the Ph.D. degree in Information Engineering-Electromagnetic Fields from the University of Siena, Siena, Italy, in July 1999 and March 2003, respectively. From January 2003 to October 2006, she was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Siena. In November 2006, she was an Assistant Professor of electromagnetic fields at the Department of Information Engineering, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, and was also the Italian Student Adviser for the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). In 2008, she was a Visiting Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, working on plasmonic structures. From 2010 to 2012, she was Research Scientist at the department of Chemistry at Drexel University, Philadelphia, working on the electromagnetic interaction between molecules and nanoparticles, on the optimization of SERS nanosurfaces, and on nanoantennas. She is currently Research Assistant Professor at the department of Materials Science and Engineering at Drexel University, working with Dr. Jonathan Spanier on the infrared plasmonic properties of 2D electron gases at the interface of perovskite materials.

Her scientific background includes high frequency scattering theories, asymptotics electromagnetic methods, numerical electromagnetic methods, periodic structures, bandgap structures, antenna design, RFID systems. Her current research is oriented to plasmonics, optical nanoantennas, thin film photovoltaic, molecule-metal energy transfer.