Dr Silly completed his doctorate in physics with the investigation of photon emission induced by scanning tunneling microscopy on nanosctucured surfaces at the Pierre and Marie Curie University, Paris, in 2001. After his experimental study of adatom self-organization mediated by two-dimensional electron gas on metal surfaces in Lausanne University, Switzerland, as a junior lecturer, he joined the Department of Materials at the University of Oxford, UK, in 2003, where he investigated the growth of supported nanocrystals using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). He received the Young Scientist Award from the British Association of Crystal Growth and the Award of Merit from Department of Materials, University of Oxford for his work in 2005. He then joined in 2005 the Linkping University, Sweden, to characterize semiconducting surfaces using light-assisted STM. In 2006, Dr. Silly returned to the Department of Materials at the University of Oxford, UK, to investigate multicomponent supramolecular self-assemblies on surfaces. In 2007 he was appointed Assistant Professor at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands and in 2008 he joined the CEA Saclay, France, to develop his research activity in the area of nanoscience. In 2010, Dr Silly was awarded the prestigious Starting Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). He now runs a research group investigating the atomic scale structure and properties of supported hybrid magnetic nanoarchitectures.