Former lab members

Postdoctoral researchers

Dr Marco G. Balducci, 2024

Marco worked on how orchids adapt to mycorrhizas and understanding their impact on orchid population genomic structure. Marco is now a Research Fellow in Prof. Vincent Savolainen's lab at Imperial College London, UK, where he working on understanding the role mycorrhizal fungi play on speciation in palm trees.

ResearchGate  Google Scholar

Dr Viviana Maresca, 2023 - 2024

Viviana worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the lab on how orchids interact with mycorrhizal fungi. She tested how germination rates of orchids and establishment of new orchid individuals within populations are influenced by interactions among mycorrhizal fungal strains and orchid seed quality. 

Dr Jacopo Calevo, 2020 - 2022

Jacopo investigated the geographical distributions of orchid mycorrhizas associated with the butterfly orchid Anacamptis papilionacea, and how orchid mycorrhizas interact to influence early orchid development. He also investigated the geographical variation in orchid mycorrhizal communities associated with both Orchis italica and Anacamptis morio. Jacopo is now a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Global Fellow working at Curtain University in Perth, Australia and the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, UK, where he is testing how climate change influences orchid mycorrhizal fungi and orchid distributions.

ResearchGate Google Scholar

PhD students

Marco G. Balducci, PhD in Biology, University of Naples Federico II, 2020 - 2023.

Marco worked on understanding the biogeography of orchid fecundity, the geographical distributions of orchid mycorrhizal fungi, the specificity of orchids on orchid mycorrhizal fungi, and how the population genomic structure of the Mediterraean orchid Orchis italica, may be affected by both abiotic and biotic variables. 

MSc students

Martina D'agostino. Marine Ecology (M74), University of Naples Federico II, 2022 - 2023: Martina graduated con lode for her MSc thesis that investigated how microalgae act as cloud condensation nuclei and may accelerate ice and cloud formation in Scandinavia.

Giuseppe De Simone. Marine Ecology (M74), University of Naples Federico II, 2022 - 2023: Giuseppe investigated vertical migrations of diatoms in sediments under constant light conditions and physiological responses of the microphytobenthos.

Vincenzo Vedi. MSc in Marine Ecology (M74), University of Naples Federico II, 2022 - 2023: Vincenzo investigated vertical migrations of diatoms and the microphytobenthos in sediments under variable light conditions.

Clelia Crocetto. MSc in Biological Sciences (N88), University of Naples Federico II, 2021 - 2022: Clelia graduated con lode for her MSc thesis investigating the ecology and evolution of orchid mycorrhizal interactions. 

Manuel Moscariello. MSc in Natural Sciences (M05) , University of Naples Federico II, 2019 - 2021: Manuel graduated con lode for his MSc thesis investigating the use of hierarchical community models in explaining orchid mycorrhizal distributions.

Nona Mellaerts. MSc in Biology. 2018 - 2019. Nona graudated from KU Leuven, Belgium, in collaboration with our lab, for her MSc thesis investigating pollination ecology and distributions of species from the orchid genera Gymnadenia and Dactylorhiza.

BSc students

Roberta Scarpa, BSc in Biology, University of Naples Federico II, 2025. Roberta worked on the potential beneficial and toxic effects of various plant groups.

Francesco Pio Caolo: BSc in Biology, University of Naples Federico II, 2024. Francesco worked on the complex interactions between bacteria, fungi, and higher plants.

Tina Di Lorenzo. BSc in Biology, 2018-2019, University of Naples Federico II, 2018. Tina investigated the use of photographic software to estimate how floral traits vary within species in the taxonomically complex orchid genus, Ophrys.

Lab visitors

Ines Harzli. Lab visitor, October - December 2022: Ines visited our lab from Yasemin Kompe's lab in Ondokuz-Mayis University, Turkey to investigate orchid mycorrhizal interactions and develop techniques in fungal isolation.

Miriam Bazzicalupo. Lab visitor, January - February 2021: Miriam worked in our lab in collaboration with Jacopo Calevo on fungal isolation, symbiotic germination of orchid seeds.