I received a Ph.D. in Groundwater Ecology from the University of L'Aquila in 2007 and I am currently working in the Subterranean Ecology Subgroup of CE3C. I am a senior researcher of Aquatic ecology at the CNR-IRET (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Istituto di Ricerca sugli Ecosistemi Terrestri). My research focuses on quatic ecology, groundwater ecology, functional ecology, meiofauna, ecological risk assessment, ecotoxicology.
For many years I have been involved in aquatic research using model systems mainly based on alluvial aquifers but also involving hyporheic zones, springs, caves as well as laboratory mesocosms.
I am an Associate Researcher at the "Emil Racovita" Institute of Speleology Romanian Academy Clinicilor 5, Cluj Napoca 400006, Romania. I have been involved in 6 national & EU-funded projects as Principal Investigator or member. Member of the Council of the International Society of Subterranean Biology since 2018. Keynote speaker at the Conference “Copepoda and the Global Environment”, Hanyang University (Seoul, Korea). Supervisor of several master and PhD thesis concerning groundwater ecology and freshwater meiofauna. Adjunct Professor at the University of L’Aquila, class degree in Environmental Biology: “Biodiversity analysis and statistical inference SSD-BIO05” (2012). Editor for two journals (Subterranean Biology and Tropical Zoology), 49 ISI papers, h-index of 17.
My current research is driven by three overarching objectives: - microplastics; - environmental risk assessment; - functional ecology.