Entrepreneur: Co-founder and Managing Partner of Fly High Engineering AG, a company offering business and engineering services in regulated industries.
General and strategic management: Management and growth of a small company (10-15 people) providing software engineering services in B2B for challenging projects in scientific facilities and highly regulated industries (medical, space)
Project and portfolio management, system engineering, and risk and quality management: Leading large international groups working on space instrumentation, medical devices, software and control systems, and particle and radiation detectors
Research: Particle and astro-particle physics; Astrophysics and cosmology; Instrumentation and measurement methods; Indirect imaging techniques; Thermodynamics
Statistics: Objective Bayesian inference; Experiment design; Data analysis
Computing: From real-time to high-performance computing and parallel programming; Simulations
Entrepreneurship • Problem solving • Leadership • Interpersonal Communication • Strategic Management • Operation Management • Business Development • Customer Relationship Management • Change Management • Project Management • System Engineering • Risk Management • Analytic Skills • Software Engineering • Research • Physics • Statistics • Data Analytics • Data Visualisation • Particle & Radiation Detectors • Space Systems • Medical Devices
Jul 2023: Co-founder of Fly High Engineering AG - Entrepreneur and manager
May 2019 — Mar 2022: General Manager, Cosylab Switzerland GmbH – General management
Mar 2018 — Apr 2019: Head of Space R&D, Cosylab Switzerland GmbH – Business development
Aug 2012 — Feb 2018: Senior Research Fellow, FHNW, Switzerland – ESA space mission Solar Orbiter
Feb 2007 — Aug 2012: Assistant Research Scientist, New York University, USA – ATLAS at CERN
Oct 2003 — Feb 2007: Post-doc, INFN Bologna, Italy – AMS-02 space detector
Dec 2017 — Dec 2019: Research associate, University of Johannesburg, South Africa – ATLAS
Dec 2015 — Dec 2017: Honorary research fellow, University of Birmingham, UK – ATLAS
Mar 2013 — Sep 2015: Visiting scientist, University College London, UK – ATLAS
2015 — 2016: Associate Editor of the American Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences
2014 — 2020: European Commission, Research Executive Agency: Vice Chair of the H2020 FETOPEN-2015-RIA-2 and FETOPEN-2018-2020 calls, evaluator for the H2020-FET-OPEN-2014 call
2012: Topic Convener "Astrophysics and Space Instrumentation" 2012 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium
2011, 2014: External reviewer of a Physics Department in Milano (Italy)
2006: Organisation of Seminars on Cosmic Antimatter and Dark Matter, Physics Department, Bologna University
2001: Organisation of the 1st INAF/INFN School of Astroparticle Physics and Cosmology, Bertinoro, Italy
Dec 2022: International Executive MBA + Master in Management at the IEDC School of Business, Bled, Slovenia
Jul 2017: Project Management Professional (PMP)® certification by the Project Management Institute
Jun 2003: PhD in Physics, Bologna University
R&D of the cosmic ray detector AMS-02, installed in 2011 on the International Space Station and operating successfully since then
April 1998: Master in Physics (Laurea cum laude), Bologna University, Italy
Development of the Time-Of-Flight (TOF) system of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-01), flown in June 1998 on board the NASA shuttle Discovery
July 1991: Master-equivalent music degree in clarinet, Lugo, Italy
Jun 2017: Project Management Course by the Knowledge Academy, Rome, Italy
2017: Integrated project, program and portfolio management according to PMI, Agile and PRINCE2 approaches. Business analysis and requirements engineering according to IIBA
2008-2011: Statistical inference and objective Bayesian statistics
Aug-Sep 2004: 42nd Course of the Ettore Majorana International School on Subnuclear Physics. How and where to go beyond the Standard Model, Erice, Italy
Jun 2002: International School on Astroparticle and Neutrino Physics, Villa Cipressi, Varenna, Italy
Mar 2002: 1st advanced course on C programming under UNIX/Linux, Bologna, Italy
Oct 2001: 1st INAF/INFN school of astroparticle physics and cosmology, Bertinoro, Italy
Mar 2001: 9th advanced course on object oriented analysis, design and C++ programming, Bologna, Italy
Nov 2000: International School of Cosmic Ray Astrophysics: Astrophysical Sources of High-Energy Particles and Radiation, Erice, Italy
Nov 2000: 1st INFN school of computing, LNGS, Assergi, Italy
Sep 2000: 9th school of parallel computing and supercomputers, CINECA, Bologna, Italy
Jun 1998 – Sep 1999: Military service as Cavalry Lieutenant
Mar 1998: Particle detectors, 9th series, Villa Gualino, Torino, Italy
2014-2018: Micro Solar-Flare Apparatus (MiSolFA), as Principal Investigator and Project Lead
Creation of international collaboration with teams in CH, CZ, FR, IT, PL. Contact point for Italian Space Agency and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Funding acquisition. Project management. System design and project documentation. Supervision of PhD student. Study of directionality in X-ray emissions from electrons accelerated in solar flares.
2012-2018: Spectrometer/Telescope for Imaging X-rays (STIX), ESA Solar Orbiter mission, as Technical Coordinator
Coordination of the MAIV (Manufacturing, Assembly, Integration and Verification) activities for the flight model. Characterisation of the Imager module. Project documentation for the European Space Agency. Supervision of PhD student.
2007-2012: ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, as MET trigger group coordinator
Design and implementation of triggers for undetectable particles (missing transverse-momentum triggers, actually called missing transverse-energy or MET triggers). Coordination of the MET trigger group from 2008 to 2011. Member of the ATLAS Trigger Coordination Group and of the ATLAS Statistics Forum. Search, discovery and first spin/parity studies of the Higgs boson. Search for exotic, non-detectable supersymmetric particles. Development of new statistical data analysis methods for objective Bayesian inference. Supervision of PhD students.
2000-2007: AMS-02 cosmic-ray detector on board of the International Space Station
R&D of TOF and RICH detectors. Coordinator of front-end and powering electronics for TOF and ACC subsystems. Trigger logics and data acquisition protocols for TOF and ACC. Coordination of two ion beam tests with TOF counters at the CERN SPS in 2002 and 2003. Coordination of the Italian AMS Monte Carlo Production Facility at CNAF Bologna from 2003 to 2006. Supervision of PhD and master students. Astrophysics of galactic cosmic rays. Search for primordial antimatter and cosmic dark-matter.
1996-1998: Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-01), on board of the NASA shuttle Discovery (1998)
R&D and space qualification of TOF detectors. Development of the AMS online monitoring program at NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC). Member of the Payload Operation Control Center at the JSC control room, during the STS-01 NASA mission (June 1998). Performance and trigger efficiency studies. Cosmic-ray propagation. Search for cosmic antimatter and dark matter.
In 2014 I got the habilitation as full professor in experimental physics in Italy (02/A1).
2004/2005 — 2006/2007: Joint professor in experimental physics (data analysis in C++, algorithms, data structures, object oriented design), Physics Dep., University of Bologna
2003/2004 — 2005/2006: Assistant professor in general physics (classical mechanics, thermodynamics, electromagnetism), Engineering Dep., University of Bologna
Advisor of 2 PhD students in space instrumentation for solar physics, a dozen PhD students on the ATLAS experiment, and 6 master and 2 PhD students on the AMS experiment