Senior Scientist, Head of the FLIDAR Laboratory at Istituto di Fisica Applicata Nello Carrara, Italy; Professor, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Italy
Country of birth: Italy
Educational background: MS Physics, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Italy
A typical work day
My typical day starts quite early in the morning; there is always a lot to do and manage! I usually spend most of my day coordinating research projects, planning experiments and measurements campaigns, in meetings (too many!), preparing my lectures at the university, and tutoring my students. No matter how much time I spend at my institute, I'm always
back home late in the evening thinking there is still something left to do. So, often I continue working at home. I'm so lucky, though, to be surrounded by wonderful people, both within my family and my research group: all of them support me a lot and contribute to make my life a happy one.
What I enjoy most
What I enjoy very much is pursuing my ideas and discussing them with my research group. This stimulates me a lot. To see a simple idea becoming a design and developing into a prototype, for instance, is fascinating. Even more fascinating is when we have the opportunity to apply our prototype in the real world. It's hard work, but it's also a sort of dream come true!
Words of wisdom
Look for simplicity: understand and appreciate it. Nature is made of simple things.