A brief resumee

I was born in Udine (Italy) in 1966. I hold a master (1992) and a PhD (1996) in astronomy from the University of Padua, where I worked under the supervision of Enrico Cappellaro, Massimo Turatto and Roberto Barbon. In 1994, during my PhD, I moved to the ESO headquarters in Garching bei München (Germany), for a studentship under the supervision of John Danziger. I was then awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at ESO in Chile, where I worked at the 3.6m telescope as the EFOSC2 instrument scientist in La Silla from 1997 to 1999.
In 2000 I moved back to ESO headquarters in Germany, where I joined the international staff initially as associate and then as full astronomer in the Users Support Department for the 8m Very Large Telescope (VLT). I was supporting FORS, UVES and X-Shooter.
Since 2011 I am responsible of the Observing Programmes Office, which is in charge of the selection and allocation of the scientific projects for all ESO telescopes.
I have collaborated with most of the experts in the field of Supernovae in Europe, Russia, Japan, USA and Australia, where I have given lectures and seminars. For my research activities I made use of the largest astronomical facilities. A list of my publications in refereed journals can be found here, while my non-refereed publications are listed here.
My research focuses mainly on  Supernovae, the geometrical properties of their explosions and the nature of the stars from which they originate. I have performed photometry, low and high resolution spectro-photometry, polarimetry and spectro-polarimetry in the optical and near-infrared. I have also conducted studies on the physical properties of the upper atmosphere in connection with ground-based astronomical observations. I supervised a dozen of PhD students.
In my free time I give public talks and lectures in schools.