Educational and Academic Career

2016-present, INTERREG V-A 2014 – 2020 Cooperation Programme, Delegate of the Lombardia Rector Conference in the Supervisory Committee  

November 2014 to present, Sinop Nuclear Power Plant Feasibility Study, TRACTEBEL Engineering S.A., SSHAC level 3, Evaluator Expert

2012-present, Member of the Academic Senate, Università degli Studi dell’Insubria

2011-present, President, INQUA Commission on Terrestrial Processes, Deposits and History – TERPRO http://www.inqua.org/aboutCommissions.html

June 2012, Evaluation of the surface faulting hazards for the Bagnolo Mella Gas Storage Project, Comune di Capriano del Colle.

2011-2012, Vice President, Environmental Science Degree Committee, Università dell’Insubria;

2008 - 2011, Vice Director, Department of Chemical and Environmental Sciences, Università dell'Insubria;

July 2009, Geological, geotechnical and surface faulting hazards for the Rivara Gas Storage Project, Erg Rivara Storage S.r.l.

2000 – 2017, Tutor of 12 PhD Projects in Environmental Sciences;

2007-2011: INQUA Focus Group on Paleoseismology and Active Tectonics, Chairman;

October 1st, 2000 - present: Associate Professor of Geology, Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche e Ambientali (Chemistry and Environmental Sciences, now Dipartimento di Scienza e Alta Tecnologia – Dept. of Science and High Technology), University of Insubria at Como;

June 2003 to present, IAEA missions as Expert in Geology, Paleoseismology and Seismotectonics, and Hydrogeology, for NPP siting at Cernavoda (Romania), El Dabaa (Egypt), Visaginas (Lithuania), Sinop and Akkuyu (Turkey), Abuja (Nigeria), Minsk (Belarus), Kashiwazaki-Kariwa (Japan), Montevideo (Uruguay), Hanoi (Vietnam), Ust-Kamenogorsk (Kazakhstan) , Jakarta (Indonesia).

1992 NATO Fellowship in Active Tectonics and Paleoseismology, Center for Neotectonic Studies, University of Nevada, Reno, USA;

1989 to 1999 Research Geologist in Natural Hazard Assessment and Paleoseismology, CNR - GNDT (National Group for Protection Against Earthquakes) at ANPA (National Agency for Environmental Protection, Roma);

1986 Doctor in Geology, University "La Sapienza" of Roma, Department of Earth Sciences.

Research and recent projects

Professor in Geology at University of Insubria, Dept. of Science and High Technology, since the year 2000. Author of over 90 publications, of which 69 indexed Scopus (Scopus Author ID: 7003739295, 1517 citations), according to Google Scholar cited 2890 times; h index Scopus = 23, Google Scholar = 29; I published mainly in JCR magazines such as Sci. Rep., Earth Plan. Sci. Lett., JGR Solid Earth, Tectonophysics, J. of Struct. Geol., BSSA, Journal of Geodynamics, Natural Hazards, Sedimentary Geology. Orcid ID: 0002-1775-1340.

Most of my  research is focused on the reconstruction of the recent landscape evolution in order to define geological criteria for assessing natural hazards, in particular related to strong earthquakes. This includes analysis of airphoto coverages, other remote sensing and topographic imagery, field mapping of recent landforms and deposits, geomorphic reconstruction of slip rates and paleoearthquake histories of capable faults, also through detailed studies of trench exposures showing evidence for Holocene earthquake surface faulting.

Of particular interest for my projects is the study of coseismic environmental effects and their use as diagnostic indicators of the degree of macroseismic intensity. This made possible to introduce a novel intensity scale based only on earthquake ground effects, the Environmental Seismic Intensity Scale - ESI-2007, presently adopted in over 20 countries on all continents.

This is also the basis for applications in the nuclear industry, in particular for the definition of seismic hazard and the risks associated with surface faulting according to the guidelines defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA SSG-9) . In the last 15 years I have been called as an IAEA Expert for the missions organized for the seismic and hydrogeological safety assessment of more than 15 nuclear sites. I was involved in the IAEA-ISSC (International Seismic Safety Center) projects for the development of a global database on environmental effects (Global Catalog of Earthquake Environmental Effects), on the application of the ESI 2007 scale, and for the preparation of the new document Agency Technician (IAEA TECDOC on Paleoseismology, 2014) on the use of Paleoseismology in studies for the location and for the site evaluation of nuclear plants.

Among other international scientific activities, I am President of the INQUA Commission on Terrestrial Processes (2011-2019) and Member of the Advisory Working Group for Active Fault Survey, Ministry of the Interior and Safety, South Korea (2017-2021).