Associate professor at University of Bologna from October 2021, I work in the area of climate science. My research interests focus on the development of methods to assimilate data and combine observational data with numerical and conceptual models of the climate, with the ultimate goal to improve climate predictions (from short to long time horizon) as well as on understanding and quantifying the anthropogenic impact on climate change. My research is naturally inter-disciplinary and involves expertises and knowledge from applied mathematics, dynamical systems and chaos as well as statistics and artificial intelligence.
Academic Education
- 2005 PhD, Physics, University of Ferrara, Italy; Title: Geophysical Data Analysis: A Dynamically Based Assimilation Method; grade “Ottimo”.
- 2001 MCs, Physics, University of Ferrara, Italy; Title: Local Lyapunov vectors and dimension of the Lorenz attractor; grade 110/110.
Employment history
- 2021-Present Associate Professor, Dept of Physics and Astronomy, University of Bologna, IT.
- 2019–2022 Full Professor, Dept of Meteorology, University of Reading, UK.
- 2019–2021 Full Professor, Mathematical Institute, Utrecht University, NL (20% appointed).
- 2014–2019 Senior Researcher, Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center, NO.
- 2018–2019 Associate Professor, Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen, NO (20% appointed).
- 2012–2014 Researcher (Marie Curie Fellow), Barcelona Supercomputing Centre, SP.
- 2011 1 year career break for world travelling.
- 2007–2011 Postdoc, Royal Meteorological Institute, BE.
- 2006 Postdoc, Laboratoire de Meteorologie Dynamique, Paris, FR.
- 2005-2006 Postdoc, Istituto di Fisica dell’Atmosfera e del Clima, IT.
Institutional responsibilities
- 2019–2021 Divisional Director for Data Assimilation at National Centre for Earth Observations, UK.
- 2019–2021 Director of the Data Assimilation Research Centre (DARC), UK.
- 2016–2019 Co-leader of the Data Assimilation group at the Nansen Centre, NO.
Commissions of trust
- Steering committee of the interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematics of Planet Earth of the University of Reading (UK)
- External advisory board for the ERC Synergy Stochastic transport in upper ocean dynamics (STUOD)
- 2021– Co-Lead editor for Combined machine learning and data assimilation for the atmosphere and ocean sciences, a special collection of the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.
- 2019– Associate Editor, Monthly Weather Review.
- 2018– Topical Editor, Frontiers in Applied Mathematics and Statistics.
- 2017– Editor, Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics.
Selected Honours
- 2016 Iktpluss Excellence Research Grant for Big-Data Science, Norwegian Research Council for the project REDDA
- 2015 Trophée Big Data Paris.
- 2011 Awarded with the IEF Marie Curie grant.
Selected competitive Funding (Role/Funding Agency/Title/Budget)
- 2021 – 2027 PI (one of 5) / VESRI-Schmit foundation / SASIP / 10,5MUS$ of which 1,3MUS$ to my group
- 2019 – 2022 Member / Belgian Scientific Council / EODAHR / 250K€
- 2018 – 2020 PI / Norwegian Research Council / GeoML / 280K€
- 2018 – 2021 PI / US Office of Naval Research / DASIM II / 520KUS$
- 2020 PI / CIMPA research school / Mathematics of Climate / 25K€
- 2016 – 2020 PI / Norwegian Research Council Excellence Individual Grant / REDDA / 1,1M€.
- 2016 – 2018 PI / Nordic Countries Research Council / EmblAUS / 200K€.
- 2015 – 2018 PI (one of 3) / French National Research Agency / DADA / 155K€.
- 2016 – 2017 PI / US Office of Naval Research / DASIM I / 120KUS$
- 2012 – 2014 PI / Individual Marie Curie Grant / INCLIDA / 160K€.
