Education and Key Qualifications
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PhD in Astronomy (February 25, 2013)
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Bologna, IT
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Master’s Degree in Astrophysics and Cosmology (2009)
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Bologna, IT
Current Position
- Associate Professor (2023 – present)
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Bologna, IT
Previous Positions
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Rita Levi Montalcini Research Fellow (2020 – 2023)
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Bologna, IT
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Senior Scientist, STAREX ERC-2018-ADG (2020)
Geneva Observatory, University of Geneva, CH
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Swiss NSF Ambizione Fellow (2017 – 2020)
Laboratory of Astrophysics, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH
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Postdoctoral Research Associate (2014 – 2017)
Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University, UK
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Postdoctoral Research Associate (2013 – 2014)
Bologna Observatory, National Institute for Astrophysics, IT
Research Achievements and Peer Recognition
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Publications: Published 134 articles (14 as the first author) since 2011 in prestigious journals, including Annual Reviews of Astronomy and Astrophysics. H-index: 49 with over 6,500 citations.
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Selected as a Survey Builder for the Gaia-ESO Spectroscopic Survey, contributing to kinematic and abundance studies of the Milky Way.
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Member of major projects, including the Pristine Survey, the Wide-field Spectroscopic Telescope (WST) project, and the SHARP science team for ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope.
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Active in three ISSI teams since 2016 and contributed to the Blue MUSE and MAORY science cases.
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Student Mentoring: Co-supervised numerous Ph.D. and undergraduate students in astrophysics.
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Secured Observation Time: Awarded over 950 hours on premier facilities (VLT, LBT, TNG, Magellan) as PI or co-I, and 50 HST orbits.
Major Funding and Fellowships
- Italian Ministry of University (2022): €187,350 for adaptive optics data exploitation (PI: L. Schreiber, co-PI: C. Lardo)
- Rita Levi Montalcini Grant (2018): €228,000, ~9% success rate
- Swiss NSF Ambizione Fellowship (2016): ~€292,000, ~17% success rate
Talks and Conference Contributions
Delivered over 25 talks at international conferences, including 10 invited talks, and chaired workshops on Globular Clusters (2016, 2018). Recent invited talks include:
- 2024: "When Stars Meet Planets" (Sexten Center for Astrophysics, IT)
- 2024: "Stellar Populations in the Milky Way and Beyond" (IAUS 395, Brazil)
- 2022: "Star-forming Clumps and Clustered Starbursts Across Cosmic Time" (MIAPP Workshop, Garching, DE)
Reviewing Activities
- Reviewer for the Hubble Time Allocation Committee, ESO Time Allocation Committee, National Science Center (Poland).
- Member-at-large, Time Allocation Committee (LBT-TNG-REM).
- Referee for major journals (Nature, Science, ApJ, MNRAS, A&A) since 2015.
Additional Professional Contributions
- Committee Service: Served on Ph.D. and faculty committees at the University of Bologna; organized academic events, including the LASTRO-UniGE Colloquium and Journal Club at Liverpool John Moores University.
- Visiting Positions: Short-term visits at EPFL (2022), ESO (2019), and the American University of Sharjah (2019).
