Host institutions

  • November 1996: Undergraduate and Master degree in Physics University of Torino, Italy
  • October 2001: PhD in Astrophysics Monash University, Australia
  • Octobert 2001 - December 2001: Visiting post-doctoral research associate University of Notre Dame, USA
  • October 2001 - February 2005: Post-doctoral research associate University of Cambridge, UK
  • October 2005 - September 2008: NWO VENI fellow University of Utrecht, The Netherlands
  • November 2008 - November 2013: Monash Research Fellow Monash University, Australia
  • January 2011 - April 2014: ARC Future Fellow & Senior Lecturer Monash University, Australia
  • May 2014 - present: Adjunct Senior Research Fellow Monash University, Australia
  • November 2014 - present: Momentum project leader Konkoly Observatory of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary

Brief biography

I was born in Torino (Italy) and attended a high school on classical studies, with a focus on Latin, ancient Greek, philosophy, and history, together with science subjects such as maths, physics, and chemistry. My undergraduate and master degrees in Theoretical Physics were completed "cum laude" at the University of Torino, finishing with a project on slow neutron captures under the invaluable supervision of Professor Roberto Gallino. In 1997, I was awarded an Australian International Postgraduate Research Scholarship to study for my PhD at Monash University (Melbourne, Australia). This was completed in 2001, on the topic of nucleosynthesis in asymptotic giant branch stars under the supervision of Professor John Lattanzio. After a visiting post-doctoral position in Notre Dame (USA) within the group of Professor Michael Wiescher, I moved to the UK to take up a post-doctoral position in Cambridge within the group of Dr Chris Tout. My first son, Davide, was born in Cambridge in 2002, and my second son, Luca, was born in Torino in 2005, before I took up a Dutch NWO VENI Fellowship and moved to Utrecht in The Netherlands to work within the group of Dr Onno Pols. After Utrecht, I was awarded a Monash Research Fellowship and returned to Australia in 2008. My twin sons, Alex and Paolo, were born in Melbourne in 2009. In 2011, I started a Future Fellowship position funded by the Australian Research Council, together with a Senior Lecturer position at Monash University. In 2014, I was awarded a Momentum grant from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and moved to Konkoly Observatory in Budapest.


Download a PDF of my full Curriculum Vitae here.