· Airbursts and their residues in the geologic record.
· The parent bodies of micrometeorites.
· Link between micrometeorites and meteorites.
· The flux of cosmic dust to Earth.
· Impact cratering (i.e. tektites and micrometeorites).
07/2019 – Present
04/2016 – 07/2019
Post-doctorate researcher at Université Libre de Bruxelles, Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Belgium.
BELSPO (Belgian Science Policy) financed project AMUNDSEN Project aiming at improving curation and research on meteorites and micrometeorites collected during BELAM expeditions.
01/2013 – 03/2016
Post-doctoral researcher, Imperial College, London, United Kingdom.
STFC (Science and Technoloy Facilities Council) financed project on the petrology and geochemistry of micrometeorites and microtektites from the Larkman Nunatak collection, Antarctica.
08/2011– 12/2012
Post-doctoral researcher at the Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon, Republic of Korea.
Conducted and reported on petrology and geochemistry of meteorites from the KOREAMET collection.
2007 – 2010
PhD in Planetary Sciences at Siena University, Italy. European commission financed Marie Curie Actions’ Research Training Networks (RTN) ORIGINS project (ID: 35519).
2005 – 2006
MSci Planetary Sciences at University Paris XI/Orsay, France.
- Petrography: Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM)
- Major and minor element chemistry: Electron Probe Micro-Analysis (EPMA)
- Trace element chemistry: Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS)
- Mineralogy: Synchrotron and Micro-X-ray diffractometer (XRD)
- Oxygen isotopes: Laser Fluorination coupled with Isotope-Ratio Mass Spectrometry (LF-IRMS)
- Internal structure: Micro Computed-Tomography (µCT)
- Magnetic properties: Magnetic Susceptibility and Anisotropy of Magnetic Susceptibility
2021
2018
Seal of Excellence awarded by the European Commission for the MICROMET2017 project submitted as a H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships.
2016
Belgian Science Policy (BELSPO) post-doctoral three-years research grant Belgian Research Action through Interdisciplinary Networks (BRAIN-be).
2013
Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) three-years research grant.
2012
Jang Bogo grant awarded by the Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI).
2011
34th National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR) symposium on Antarctic meteorites attendance grant and session chairing.
2008
Les Houches School on Physics and Astrophysics of Planetary Systems attendance grant.
2007
Marie Curie Actions’ RTN doctoral fellowship (project ID: 35519)
Member of the Meteoritical Society since 2008
Member of the European Geosciences Union since 2016
Member of Europlanet since 2021
02/2018
BELAM (Belgian Antarctic Meteorites) expedition in the Sør Rondane Mountains, Antarctica. The main objective of the mission was the sampling of micrometeorites in the area surrounding the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Station.
09/2014
Sampling of meteorites and micrometeorites in the Saharan desert, Erfoud, Morocco
03/2010
First geophysical expedition at the Kamil Crater, Egypt, to characterize this well-preserved impact crater.
07/2022
2019-2022
Supervision of MPhys project (module #PH700) by Lucas Lokyer titled “Nature and flux of urban micrometeorites” at the School of Physical Sciences of the Univerity of Kent
Co-supervision of MPhys project (module #PH700) by Aleeya Gibbs at the School of Physical Sciences of the Univerity of Kent
2019-2022
2017-2019
Co-supervision of MSc of F. Van Maldeghem at Vrije Universiteit Brussel on micrometeorites from the Sør Rondane Mountains, Antarctica.
2014-2016
Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) at Imperial College London in charge of organizing teaching activities of post-doctorates and fellows in the Department of Earth Science and Engineering.
2014-2016
Co-supervision of PhD of M. Suttle at Imperial College London on micrometeorites from Antarctica.
2013-2014
Co-supervision of two Imperial College London MSci students (M. Suttle and E. Rosenthal Mena). Research projects titled Characterizing the collection of micrometeorites from the Larkman nunatak.
May 2015
Demonstration to third year Undergraduate students of Imperial College London on methods of Geophysics during a fieldtrip in Erfoud, Morroco
March 2014
Demonstration of practical on impact cratering to Undergraduate students of Imperial College London.
2013 – 2016
Demonstration to Undergraduate students of Imperial College London on structural geology of Scotland and of methods of Geophysics during a fieldtrip in Erfoud, Morroco.
2013 – 2016
Outreach activities at the Natural History Museum of London, including three Nature Live and two Science Uncovered events.
2007-2010
Outreach activities in several Italian primary schools.
10/2022
10/2022
09/2021
01/2021
03/2015
Departmental seminar at the Open University (U.K) titled “Micrometeorites from the Transantarctic Mountains”
02/2015
Departmental seminar at the Vrije Universiteit Brussels (Belgium) titles “Weathering of micrometeorites from the Transantartic Mountains”.
01/2015
Departmental seminar at the CEREGE (France) titled “Micrometeorites from the Transantarctic Mountains”
11/2011
Lecture during the 34th National Institute in Polar Research (NIPR) symposium on Antarctic meteorites titled “The parent body of the ca. 480 Kyr-old Tunguska-like impact over Antarctica”
Europlanet Science Congress 2022