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The State University of Milan - Università degli Studi di Milano La Statale - giovanni.muttoni1@unimi.it
Giovanni Muttoni https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7908-1664 is Full Professor of Stratigraphic Geology (GEOS-02/B) at the Department of Earth Sciences “Ardito Desio” of the University of Milan.
He graduated with honors in 1990 from the University of Milan with a thesis on the Triassic of the island of Hydra (Greece), and obtained his PhD in 1994 at the same university in collaboration with the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University (USA), developing a dissertation on the magnetostratigraphy of the Tethyan Triassic. He subsequently held postdoctoral positions at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (1994–1995), at the Institute of Marine Geology of the Italian National Research Council (CNR) in Bologna (1995–1997; with U-Milan grant), and served as Wissenschaftlicher Assistent at ETH Zurich (1997–2000). In parallel, he maintained appointments as Adjunct Assistant Research Scientist at both the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (1996–2000) and CNR Bologna (1998–2000).
In 2000 he returned to Italy as a researcher at the University of Milan, where he continued his academic career: he was appointed Associate Professor in 2006 and became Full Professor in 2019.
His research focuses on magnetostratigraphy, paleogeography, geodynamics, and the geological evolution of the Mediterranean. He has made contributions to the definition of the Triassic and Jurassic geomagnetic polarity timescales, to the study of Pangea paleogeography, to the evolution of the India–Asia collision, as well as to understanding Earth system responses to plate movement through zonal climate belts and the greenhouse–icehouse transition in the Cenozoic. He has also investigated true polar wander events during the Jurassic and developed research on the chronostratigraphic and paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the earliest human occupations in Europe and North Africa.
Key publications include:
Early Permian Pangea ‘B’ to Late Permian Pangea ‘A (Muttoni et al., 2003, EPSL);
Magnetostratigraphy (Encyclopedia of Geology, 2021);
Pangea B and the Late Paleozoic Ice Age (Kent & Muttoni, 2020, PPP);
APTS for the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic (Kent et al., 2017, ESR);
Adria and Permo-Triassic paleogeography (Channell et al., 2022, ESR);
European arid anomaly and Jurassic polar shift (Muttoni et al., 2025, G3);
Equatorial convergence of India (Kent & Muttoni, 2008, PNAS);
Climate modulation by basaltic weathering (Kent & Muttoni, 2013, Clim. Past);
Pleistocene glaciations in the Alps (Muttoni et al., 2003, Geology);
Human migration into Europe (Muttoni et al., 2010, PPP);
North African Acheulean chronology (Gallotti et al., 2021, Sci. Rep.).
EDUCATION:
1990. Laurea cum laude, University of Milan
1994. PhD, University of Milan in colaboration with Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, USA
1994-1995. Post-doctoral fellow at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, USA.
1995-1997. Post-doctoral fellow at the Institute of Marine Geology, National Research Council, Bologna, Italy.
1997-2000. Wissenschaft Assistant at the Institute of Geophysics, ETH Zurich, Switzerland.
1996-2000. Adjunct Assistant Research Scientist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, USA.
1998-2000. Adjunct Assistant Research Scientist at the Institute of Marine Geology, C.N.R. Bologna, Italy.
2000-2005. Researcher at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Milan, Italy.
2006-2019. Associate Professor at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Milan, Italy.
2019-Present. Full Professor at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Milan, Italy.
Libro di Testo
TERRA PIANETA ABITABILE
A Geologist’s Journey
The Opportunity
The Opportunity
As a young graduate, I had the opportunity to work with Maurizio Gaetani in the High Chitral region of northern Pakistan. Together we explored the valleys of Mastuj, Tirich Gol, and Morich Gol, mapping a complex sequence of rocks ranging from Paleozoic slates and volcanics to Permian carbonates and Mesozoic sediments. Gaetani had deep knowledge of this terrain and guided our work through formations like the Shogram-Kuragh Unit and the Attak Sedimentary Belt, where thick carbonate successions told the story of an ancient passive margin. It was my first real encounter with large-scale tectonic synthesis in the field—and it left a lasting mark.
The Challenge
The Challenge
My Master’s thesis was dedicated to the geology of Hydra Island in the Saronic Gulf, a formative and demanding experience that shaped my early scientific path. The results were first presented at the Symposium on Triassic Stratigraphy in Lausanne (Angiolini et al., 1991) and later published in the Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia (Angiolini et al., 1992). Hydra was both my training ground and my first scientific challenge.
The Apprenticeship
The Apprenticeship
During the early 1990s, I carried out much of my PhD research and a postdoctoral period at the Lamont-Doherty Geological (now Earth) Observatory of Columbia University, where I began a long-standing collaboration with Dennis Kent. I remained affiliated for several years as an Adjunct Research Scientist, regularly collaborating on projects in magnetostratigraphy and paleogeography. Early contributions include a preliminary study on the Middle Triassic Prezzo Limestone presented in Toronto (Muttoni, 1991), and a joint magneto-biostratigraphic analysis of the Spathian–Anisian Kçira section in Albania, presented at the AGU Spring Meeting in Baltimore (Muttoni et al., 1995). Those were also the years of frequent collaborations and enduring field friendships—many of them formed in the front seat of Jim Channell’s blue Volvo, driving across Europe in search of stratigraphic sections. Around the late 1990s I had the valuable opportunity to work as postdoc at ETH Zurich with William Lowrie, which further deepened my understanding of paleomagnetic methods.
The Independence
The Independence
From the early 2000s, after returning to Milan, I helped develop the paleomagnetic laboratory—first in Peveragno, then in Milan—while continuing to stay active through numerous research collaborations. Over the years, I’ve come to see that total scientific independence is an illusion. What defines my approach is perhaps the tendency to generate ideas that can only take shape through meaningful dialogue and collaboration with people I’ve learned to work well with.
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