Senior Scientist Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Naples, Italy
Research Associate University of Vienna, Department of Paleontology, Austria
I started collecting shells at the age of 8 and developed a profound love for the sea and its inhabitants since. I am now committed to deliver rigorous science and contribute to halting biodiversity loss in the oceans.
I got my PhD at the University of Bologna and focused my early research on the taxonomy of marine molluscs and benthic ecology. I was then awarded a Marie Curie Post-doctoral fellowship and moved to the University of Vienna where I learnt skills in analytical paleobiology, geochronology and taphonomy guided by my mentors Martin Zuschin, Adam Tomasovych and Michael Stachowitsch. I thus developed an expertise in conservation paleobiology, that is, the use of paleontological concepts and techniques to address questions about the conservation of biodiversity. I later put to work this multidisciplinary skill set as PI of the project "Historical ecology of Lessepsian migration" that enabled me long stays in Israel. My dives along its coasts revealed the massive loss of native diversity that is ongoing in the easternmost Mediterranean Sea. Since that project, I have been focusing my work on the understanding of the causes of biodiversity loss in temperate and tropical oceans with the aim to contribute to the development of conservation and mitigation actions.