After receiving the Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale (National Scientific Habilitation) as Full Professor in Astrophysics in October, I’ve now officially received it, again as Full Professor, in the competition sector 02/A2 - Theoretical Physics of Fundamental Interactions! This is actually the sector within which I was hired, and therefore this Abilitazione is of more direct relevance to me than the 02/C1 one. The list of candidates who received the Abilitazione in the 02/A2 sector in the same round as me can be found here.
Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale as Full Professor in the 02/C1 sector (Astrophysics)
I’ve received the Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale (National Scientific Habilitation) as Full Professor in the competition sector 02/C1 - Astronomy, Astrophysics, Earth and Planetary Physics! The Abilitazione is a requirement to be able to be considered for positions as Associate or Full Professor (depending on the level of the Abilitazione itself), and the procedure to obtain it can be quite time-consumming. The list of candidates who received the Abilitazione in the 02/C1 sector in the same round as me can be found here.
Holidays
I’m officially off for summer holidays as of today - looking forward to a bit of rest after a heavy semester, and to a week or so visiting Central Italy (especially Umbria - the picture below was posthumously added, and taken in the beautiful Spello)! See you again when I’m back in the second half of August!
SIGRAV Prize!
I am honored to announce that I have been awarded the 2023 SIGRAV Prize (yes, given the day, I did initially think this was an April’s Fool)! This is one of the most prestigious Italian early-career awards in my field, and is awarded by the Italian Society for General Relativity and Gravitation (SIGRAV) to under-40 promising Italian researchers who have made important contributions to the fields of gravitation, astrophysics, and cosmology. It is a true honor to receive this Prize, which boasts a prestigious list of previous winners, back then young but now all tremendously successful researchers and most of them leaders in their fields, among whom (just to name a few): Augusto Sagnotti, Massimo Bianchi, Massimo Giovannini, Paolo Pani, Alessandra Buonanno, Alberto Vecchio, Rosalba Perna, Mariafelicia De Laurentis, Enrico Barausse, Marica Branchesi, and Davide Gerosa. I will be receiving the Prize (a silver medal) and delivering a plenary talk about my work at the XXV SIGRAV conference in Trieste this September, where the other winners will also be awarded (the other SIGRAV Prize has been awarded to Giulia Gubitosi, whereas the Amaldi medals have been awarded to my colleague and collaborator Joe Silk and Gabriele Veneziano). It is always great to be recognized in one’s home country, and I would like to sincerely thank my mentors and collaborators, without whom this would not have been possible!
UniVersum IV
Really excited to be attending UniVersum IV, the fourth edition of the UniVersum series of cosmology meetings, roughly the Italian equivalent of UKCosmo for the UK, or IberiCos for Spain-Portugal. This year’s edition is held, excitingly, in Trento! It also happens to be my first in-person conference after the pandemic. I will be giving a keynote talk on “Cosmic acceleration: now, then, and back then”, whose slides you can find here. Looking forward to lots of interesting discussions!
Physics of the Dark Universe
It’s a great honor to announce that today I start a new role as Editor of Physics of the Dark Universe, one of the leading journals in cosmology and astroparticle physics. The Editor-in-Chief is Stefano Profumo, and other fellow Editors are Hong-Jian He and Ryan Foley. The journal has undergone a significant editorial reshuffle, with only Stefano left from the previous generation, whereas I basically replace Alessandra Silvestri and Luca Amendola (whom I thank for indicating me as their heir!). Interestingly, the journal has always been very “Italian”, with previous editors besides Alessandra and Luca including Licia Verde, Gianfranco Bertone, and Filippo Vernizzi, but I will actually be the first Italy-based Italian editor. Looking forward to this new adventure!
First day (of school)
Today is officially my first day as Assistant Professor at the University of Trento! In practice I’ll actually be physically starting in a month or so, during which I will be on leave of absence to take care of a number of scattered things (mostly bureaucracy related to the move). In the meantime, below is the view I will get from my new office - nothing short of breathtaking, right? 😎
Moving (back) to the University of Trento!
I’m extremely happy to announce that I’m moving back to the University of Trento, where I will soon start a new position as tenure-track Assistant Professor (RTDb in the Italian system)! I’m very excited not only about returning to my home country, Italy, but specifically to the University of Trento, which is where I got my Bachelor’s degree back in 2012. Those who know me know that this was by far my dream job: returning to my alma mater, where my journey in physics began, really feels like the closing of a huge circle, not to mention that Trento itself is a fantastic place to live in. Incidentally, the official offer arrived precisely on my last day as a Newton-Kavli Fellow at the University of Cambridge - which I started exactly on October 7, 2019 - which, besides the perfect timing, confirms the non-written rule that virtually all Cambridge Kavli Fellowship holders move on to a permanent or tenure-track position immediately afterwards 😉 I really can’t wait to get started!
