Experience

Research, teaching, and scientific leadership.

A career focused on understanding exoplanets and building the methods and teams that make that work possible.

01

Academic positions

22 Dec 2023 — present

Fixed-term Researcher / Assistant Professor

University of Padua · Department of Physics and Astronomy

Modelling exoplanet atmospheres and planetary systems; developing machine-learning and multidimensional Bayesian methods; and investigating quantum algorithms for spectroscopic and photometric data.

2021 — 2023

Astrophysics Postdoctoral Researcher

University of Padua

CHEOPS light-curve analysis and modelling; AI algorithms for exoplanet properties and HST, JWST, and Ariel data.

2018 — 2021

Astrophysics Postdoctoral Researcher

CNRS · Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux

Exoplanet-atmosphere modelling, machine-learning algorithms, and multidimensional Bayesian retrieval models.

02

Selected scientific contributions

ExoGAN

Deep generative models for rapid retrieval of exoplanet-atmosphere properties.

Multidimensional retrievals

Methods for modelling two- and three-dimensional effects in transmission spectra.

Exoformer

Transformer neural networks that accelerate Bayesian atmospheric retrievals.

Quantum atmospheric inference

Quantum extreme learning methods for exoplanet-atmosphere retrieval.

03

Education

2015 — 2018

PhD in Physics and Astronomy

University College London

Thesis: Characterisation of exoplanetary atmospheres: from target selection to feature recognition using deep learning.

2013 — 2015

Master's Degree in Physics · Astrophysics

University of Palermo · 110/110 cum laude with honours

Thesis on orbital evolution of extrasolar giant planets.

2009 — 2013

Bachelor's Degree in Physics

University of Palermo

Teaching

Courses & mentoring

Computational AstrophysicsLecturer · 2024 — present
Computational PhysicsLecturer · 2024 — present
Astrophysics Laboratory II2021 — 2022
Python for Economics and FinanceLondon Business School · 2018

Supervision

Growing the field

I currently supervise PhD projects in atmospheric characterisation, space- and ground-based surveys, and direct imaging with machine learning.

3current PhD researchers
13Master's students since 2023
1Bachelor's project

Expertise

Methods & tools

A toolkit designed for end-to-end computational astrophysics.

Atmospheric retrievalsBayesian inferenceNested samplingDeep learningGANsTransformersGaussian processesPhotometrySpectroscopyRadial velocitiesPythonParallel computingQuantum computingReproducible workflows

Recognition & funding

Supporting ambitious science

2019

NVIDIA GPU Grant

Titan V GPU for exoplanet-atmosphere research.