Laurea (Degree) in Astronomy (University of Bologna 1986), PhD in
Astronomy (Cosmological N-body simulations with non-gaussian
initial conditions, University of Bologna 1989), Postdoc at the
University of Sussex in Brighton (1990-1991), Researcher at the
Astronomy Department of the University of Padova since October
1991. Associate Professor at the Astronomy Department (now DIFA) of
the University of Bologna since november 2002. Full professor since september 2016. Author of more than 210 scientific publications on refereed journals. Numerous (invited
and not) communications in national and international meetings.
Visitor scientist in different international institutions.
Member of the Steering Committee of the ESA project DUNE (then merged in Euclid) and coordinator of the corresponding WG on Simulations. Co-coordinator of the WG on Galaxy Clusters inside the ESA collaboration Euclid.
Referee for the most important astrophysical journals (Astrophysical Journal, Monthly Notices of Royal Astronomical Society, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Astroparticle Physics) and for national and international grant applications. Scientific Secretary of the National School in Astrophysics F. Lucchin and of the National School in Astroparticles (for PhD students). Member of the Organizing Committee of different National and International meetings and Schools. Member of the INAF/CINECA, ISCRA and PRACE TAC for the assignment of supercomputing time. Member of the Editorial Board of Mem. S.A.I.T.. Member of the GEV02 for the National evaluation of Research VQR 2004-2010 and 2011-2014 by the National Agency ANVUR.
The scientific activity has been mainly focused in the theoretical study of the formation of cosmic structures and its implications for the cosmological models.
Main research interests: determination of the cosmological parameters using the properties of galaxy clusters (spatial distribution, topology, velocity field, dipoles); high-resolution hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy clusters (thermal structure, X-ray properties, Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, dynamical models); cosmological modelling (extended study of non-gaussian models and tilted/antitilted models; constraints on quintessence models); theoretical modelling of the clustering evolution of cosmic structures and constraints on the cosmological parameters from the comparison with observational data (high-redshift galaxies, Lyman-break galaxies, galaxy clusters observed in optical, X-ray and millimetric bands, quasars); implementation of N-body and hydrodynamical codes (Particle-Mesh, Piecewise Parabolic Method); models for the perturbation evolution (non-linear approximations, eulerian theory, high-order moments, biasing); gravitational lensing from galaxy clusters (statistics of gravitational arcs, optimal filtering).
