Here is a short description of my current and past activities; you can download a full CV by clicking the button below.

Short Bio

I was born and raised in Firenze (Florence), Tuscany, Italy. I studied in parallel at the grammar school ‘Galileo Galilei’ and at the Music Conservatory ‘Cherubini’ in Firenze. In 1986 I obtained a MA in Pianoforte but then I decided to switch to Biology. I graduated with a MSc at the University of Florence in 1992 with Francesco Dessi’-Fulgheri and in 1993 I moved to the University of Cambridge, UK to continue my studies there. After completing a Master of Philosophy (1995) I continued towards a PhD (2000), working both at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge with John Hutchison and at the Max Planck Institute for Behavioural Physiology in Seewiesen, Germany, with Manfred Gahr. In 1999 I started my first postdoc at the Max Planck Research Centre for Ornithology in Andechs, Germany, with Eberhard Gwinner, and in 2001 I moved to the University of California, Los Angeles, to work with Barney A. Schlinger. I obtained my first faculty position in 2003 at the University of Siena, Italy, and became Associate Professor at the University of Ferrara, Italy, in 2007. In 2014 I was appointed Professor with a double appointment at the University of Vienna (Univie) and University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna (Vetmeduni).

Current academic and scientific appointments

I am the Director of the Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology (Vetmeduni), the Deputy Head of the Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Biology (Univie), and the Speaker of the Department of Interdisciplinary Life Sciences (Vetmeduni). I am also a member of the Senate of the Vetmeduni.

I am Associate Editor of Ethology, and Subject Editor of the Journal of Ornithology.

I am a member of several societies where I have served as council member, secretary, treasurer: the Societa’ Italiana di Etologia (SIE), the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour (ASAB), the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology (SBN), the International Ornithologists’ Union (IOU), and the European Ornithologists’ Union (EOU).