Understanding Volcanic Processes

Nanoscale and Disequilibrium Processes in Silicate Melts

I am an Earth scientist by education, an experimental volcanologist, and a materials scientist by profession.

Senior Scientist at the Institute of Science, Technology and Sustainability for Ceramics (ISSMC), National Research Council of Italy (CNR).

Honorary Staff member at Bavarian Research Institute of Experimental Geochemistry and Geophysics (BGI), University of Bayreuth (Germany) and School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol (UK).

Principal Investigator of the ERC Consolidator Grant (2021) NANOVOLC “Nanoscale dynamics of volcanic processes: Experimental insights and numerical simulations of explosive eruptions”.

Collaborator of the NERC/NSF Large Grant “Quantifying Disequilibrium Processes in Basaltic Volcanism”.

I explore physicochemical processes in silicate glasses, melts and magmas. My research focuses on the role played by the physicochemical processes in controlling the structure and physical properties of volcanic melts. I use a combination of high-temperature and high-pressure experiments, in situ synchrotron X-ray facilities as well as analytical, thermodynamic and spectroscopic measurements to address the dynamics of volcanic processes and the style of volcanic eruptions.