Can you say a few words about yourself?
I come from Brescia, a town located in north-Italy at the foots of the Alps and a few km away from the beautiful Garda Lake.
I grew up in Brescia where I also pursued my undergraduate studies in Environmental and Land Engineering. Moved by the urgent need of taking action against climate change, I continued in the field, choosing the Climate Change specialization for my Master degree at Politecnico di Torino.
During those years I had the chance to study abroad in Edinburgh, Scotland, and in Lausanne, Switzerland at EPFL. Here, I wrote my master thesis and, this first interaction with the research world gave me the enthusiasm to remain for doctoral studies.
Did you choose your profession or did it choose you?
Both. My passion for the environment, sustainability and practical solutions naturally led me to pursue a career in environmental engineering. I’ve never had clear ideas about the future, but I’ve always followed my passion and interests taking advantages of the opportunity I encountered along my path.
What attracted you to join LAPI?
LAPI offers a great environment to develop new skills with cutting-edge instrumentation, inspired by huge challenges and diverse and expert people with many different backgrounds. The variety and breadth of topics that LAPI deals with to understand atmospheric processes and their impact on climate and health aligns perfectly with my research interests. I was particularly attracted by the combination of theoretical approaches with practical works, measurements and modeling techniques.
Can you speak about the projects you are currently working on and other ones in the past?
I’m currently working on a shared project between Switzerland and Japan that is aimed to diagnose air pollution through organic aerosols. This involves field campaigns in Japan, the development of new instruments for organic aerosols analysis and, of course, data analysis.
I’m also collaborating with the Swiss Data Science Center to help advancing the characterization of particulate matter air pollution in cost-effective chemical speciation monitoring networks.
The overall big goal is to provide instrument and reliable data to help undertaking targeted intervention strategies to reduce particulate matter pollution which has been recognized as the greatest environmental risk for death worldwide (GBS study 2019) with huge consequences on the environment, biodiversity and climate.
What have been some of your biggest challenges?
Sometimes finding confidence in my capabilities is the biggest challenge inside challenges.
What have been some of your biggest successes?
Having the opportunity to pursue my doctoral studies at EPFL in Switzerland is one of my greatest achievements.
You split your time between teaching and research. How do you view these two roles?
Teaching is a way to interiorize topics and concepts. It is not only about transferring knowledge but a lot about transferring enthusiasm, curiosity and dig deeper into the field.
What do you enjoy to do, outside of science and research?
I love exploring nature and doing sports. Pets are another big passion. Express my creativity and connect with the nature and environment are always a breath of fresh air.
Where is the most interesting place you’ve been?
Nature, it’s always fascinating and surprising.
A free thought for the end?
“The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.” ― Albert Einstein