Born in Bologna (Italy), 31 July 1964

1990: Universita` di Bologna, Laurea in Astronomia with a thesis on "Selection of faint quasars through optical variablity", supervised by Prof. B. Marano (110/110 cum laude).

1991-1994 Universita` di Firenze: PhD in Astronomy with a thesis on "Nuclear Activity and Stellar Populations in High-z Radiogalaxies", supervised by Dr. S. di Serego Alighieri. Such a thesis obtained the "Premio L. Gratton" for the best PhD thesis in Astronomy in Italy in 1994.

1993-1994: student at the European Southern Observatory (ESO), Garching, Germany (during the last PhD year).

1994: "unpaid" associate at the European Southern Observatory (ESO), Garching, Germany

Since 1994: research astronomer at the Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Firenze, Italy.

1995: postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California, USA.

1996,1997: visitor at the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California, USA.

2000,2001: visitor at the European Southern Observatory (ESO), Garching Germany

2003: associate astronomer at INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Firenze, Italy.
 

PARTICIPATION IN INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEES

Italian representative in the Scientific Technical Committee (STC) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO)

Member of the STC Working Group on 2nd generation instruments for the VLT (2000-2001)

Member of the STC Working Group on VISTA (2000)

Member of the STC Working Group on AVES (2001)

Member of the Selection Panel for ASTROVIRTEL proposals (Accessing Astronomical Archives as Virtual Telescopes) (ST-ECF) (2000-2001)

Member of the AVO Science Working Group (Astrophysical Virtual Observatory) (ST-ECF) (2001)

Chairman of the "La Silla 2006+" Committee (2003)

Member of the Opticon/ELT science working group
 

PARTICIPATION IN NATIONAL COMMITTEES

Member of the ``Gruppo Istruttorio TNG" nominated by INAF (2001)

External referee for TNG observing proposals (2001)

Member of the Scientific Council of the "Memorie della Societa' Astronomica Italiana"

Member of the INAF working group on surveys (2003)

Chairman of the national X-SHOOTER working group on High-redshift Universe and AGN