I am an astrophysicist and professor at the Physics Department of the University of Calabria (Arcavacata di Rende, Italy), and guest visitor at the European Southern Observatory (Garching, Germany). I am Vice-President  of the Scientific Council for the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF). I am part of the Technical-Scientific Council of the Italian Space Agency. I’m a member  of the Astronomy Archives User Group (AAUG) for the European Space Agency (ESA).

My research focuses on the investigation of the young universe: cosmic chemical evolution, distant galaxies, intergalactic and interstellar medium, galaxies hosting the most energetic events in the universe: gamma-ray bursts, gravitational-waves sources, super luminous supernovae.

In the past, I worked for a few years at the European Southern Observatory, Space Telescope Science Institute, Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, USA) and Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (Garching, Germany).

Between February 2020 and October 2021, I was Councilor of the Calabria Region for Research, University and Education.

My book on popular science “Tutto l’universo per chi ha poco spazio-tempo“, dedicated to astrophysics, is now available on Amazon (in Italian, Mondadori, 300 pages). To know more (in Italian only), read a review written by Marco Malaspina for Media INAF , Francesca Ferraro for SoloLibri, Kuiper van Oort for Il club del libro or Massimiliano Parenti for Il Giornale.