CV & Publications

PhD in Physics

Doctoral research on exoplanet atmospheric characterization, combining high- and low-resolution spectroscopy within the GUIBRUSHR pipeline and tying the retrieved compositions back to planet formation and evolution.

• Leading two papers in preparation: one presenting the GUIBRUSHR pipeline, and one on a joint high- and low-resolution analysis of the atmosphere of WASP-77Ab.
• Elected PhD student representative for the first year of the doctoral programme.

MSc in Astrophysics and Cosmology

Thesis: Multi-instrument atmospheric characterization of the warm super-Neptune WASP-107b using GUIBRUSHR®.

BSc in Astronomy

Thesis: Pipeline for the characterization of exoplanetary atmospheres with high-resolution spectroscopy: from spectra acquisition to retrieval of atmospheric parameters.

BSc in Computer Science and Engineering

Thesis: Analysis, design and development of PLC software for industrial automation.

Software & Scientific Analyst: Exoplanet Atmospheres

Two phases at the INAF–OATo exoplanet group: a close collaboration (Oct 2021 – Apr 2024), followed by a research fellowship (May 2024 – Jun 2025) on the graphical interface and the optimization of a reduction-and-analysis pipeline for high-resolution spectra, under the ESPLORA project (Exoplanet Spectroscopy at high resolution to Probe their Lost Origins by Revealing their Atmospheric compositions; PRIN 2022).

• Lead developer of GUIBRUSHR®, the tool I use to measure exoplanet atmospheric compositions from high- and low-resolution spectra: rewrote the original IDL codebase in Python and added CPU and GPU parallelization of the radiative-transfer step, with differential-evolution MCMC retrievals built on petitRADTRANS & PyratBay.
• Built the core modules (Data Reduction, Cross-Correlation, and Telluric Removal with adaptive PCA) and the database backend, migrated from PostgreSQL to SQLite3.
• Enabled simultaneous analysis of low-resolution data (James Webb Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope) and high-resolution spectra (GIANO-B at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo, IGRINS, and the future ANDES at the Extremely Large Telescope) within a single workflow.
• Developed pyExoRaMa, a Python tool for the radius–mass diagram of exoplanets.

Software & Scientific Analyst: Solar Physics

A sequence of INAF fellowships and collaborations (2020–2024) spanning solar-coronagraph instrumentation and space-weather forecasting.

• PROBA-3 / ASPIICS: end-to-end MATLAB simulator for the Shadow Position Sensor (SPS) and the OPSE occulter sensors, later managing the in-flight SPS software.
• Metis / Solar Orbiter: Python GUI converting PDOR/IOR command sequences into TCL files for ground testing.
• CorMag (HEMERA balloon): pointing, thermal and communication software for the stratospheric coronagraph.
• Space weather (SWESNET fellowship): automatic detection of coronal mass ejections from SOHO, STEREO and Solar Orbiter imagery, with drag-based prediction of their arrival time at Earth.

Analyst & Developer of Industrial Machines (PLC)

UML modelling and PLC software for industrial automation (AWL); C# and SQL for data analysis.

Software Developer (Internship)

LabVIEW control strategies for a Formula SAE vehicle; MATLAB-to-LabVIEW algorithm conversion and data logging.

Primary Observer: GAPS programme

HARPS-N and GIANO-B runs (12–15 Aug 2024; 13–19 Mar 2025; 4–11 Mar 2026; 28–30 Sep 2026). Secondary observer 17–26 Dec 2022.

Observations at the Asiago Astrophysical Observatory

Optical observations with Prof. Stefano Ciroi (University of Padua), together with colleagues from my master's degree.

Collaboration with Patricio Cubillos (IWF)

Integrated the PyratBay radiative-transfer software into GUIBRUSHR.

Meetings between ESA and INAF

Took part in meetings between ESA, the Centre Spatial de Liège (CSL) and INAF for the PROBA-3 and Solar Orbiter missions, helping prepare discussion material and presentations.

CorMag pointing & tracking software manager

On site for the HEMERA stratospheric-balloon launches carrying the coronagraph.

ASPIICS calibration campaign

Radiometric and stability calibration and validation of the SPS algorithms (PROBA-3).