How did I develop my research profile?
1I was born in 1981 in Liguria (Italy), less than 100 meters from the Mediterranean Sea. Since a young age, I picked up any watersport I could. Surfing and scuba diving stuck with me, and so did the love for saltwater. I was a lifeguard for several years before I started my doctoral studies.
I studied marine environmental sciences at the University of Genoa. In the same period, I became a scientific diver. My BSc (2004) and MSc (2006) theses were developed around the institution of a Marine Protected Area. My main task was to draw up the geomorphological cartography and geomorphic descriptions of the Marine Protected Area. At the end of my 3-years work on this, I had more than 300 scientific dives logged. I remained at the University of Genoa for my Ph.D. I kept working on geological mapping of the coasts where I had been scuba diving and surfing for years. My early scientific papers are based on the expertise I developed in this area, and address topics such as geoheritage, ecological-geological links in coastal marine environments and past changes in sea levels. After my Ph.D (2011), I built with some colleagues and friends a University Spin-off company, that I led as director for several years. Our work consisted mostly on coastal and marine surveys, Geographic Information Systems and support to environmental impact assessment studies. In 2012, I started a postdoc at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University. I stayed at Lamont two wonderful years, where I worked on geologic imprints of Pliocene sea levels. Currently, I hold an adjunct position at Lamont and I continue my collaboration with colleagues there. In 2014, I took a position as a junior research group leader at the University of Bremen. The appointment was shared between MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences and ZMT – Leibniz center for tropical marine ecology. In 2019, I received a tenured position as Research Scientist at the same institute, and I was awarded an ERC Starting Grant. Since 2020, I am a Professor at the University of Bremen. My research group is called ‘Sea Level and Coastal Changes’, and focuses on the study of coastal environments and their evolution at a different time and spatial scales. The group is active mostly in the study of paleo sea levels from different periods, from Holocene to Pliocene, and in the research on the dynamics of modern coastal environments. The group also collaborates with ecologists to investigate the link between ecological processes and geomorphology at different time scales. As of 2021, I have been researching many areas globally, both temperate and tropical. My specific interests are on paleo sea level changes, but I have a keen interest and curiosity on anything that has to do with coastal science. |