Academic Background
Since 2023
Senior Lecturer (non-tenured) /RTDa
Biological and Ecological Sciences, University of Tuscia, Italy
2020 – 2023
Senior Lecturer (non-tenured)
Animal Ecology, University of Potsdam, Germany
2018 – 2020
Postdoctoral researcher
Animal Ecology, University of Potsdam, Germany
11 – 12/2017
Research assistant
Animal Ecology, University of Potsdam, Germany
2014 – 2017
Doctoral degree (PhD) in Biology
Curriculum “Animal Ethology and Ecology”
Department of Biology, University of Florence, Italy
Supervisors: Prof. Laura Beani, Dr. Marco Zaccaroni, Prof. Jana A. Eccard
2007 – 2009
Master degree (MSc) in Biology (110/110 e lode)
Department of Animal Biology
University of Turin, Italy
2004 – 2007
Bachelor degree (BSc) in Biology (110/110)
Department of Animal Biology
University of Turin, Italy
Honours and Scholarships
2018
Menzione speciale for excellent doctoral work awarded by the Committee evaluating the doctoral dissertation
2014
Scholarship to conduct doctoral research at the Department of Biology of the University of Florence
2009
Honours and recommendation for publication of the master thesis “Animal-assisted therapy and Alzheimer patients” (University of Turin)
Research grants
2022
Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour (ASAB) Title: Variation in behaviour and mating choices in Savi’s pine voles (Microtus savii).
2021
German Research Foundation (DFG, ref. MA 9757/1-1) – Germany. Co-applicant: Dr. Anja Guenther, MPI for Evolutionary Biology, Germany. Title: Animal innovation: from diffusion to fitness consequences.
Invited talks (selected)
upcoming in 2025
Small mammals along a gradient of human presence and disturbance: behavioural and cognitive perspectives from the wild – 9th European Congress of Mammalogy, Patras, Greece. Invited talk for the session Urban Ecology.
Small mammals in a human-dense world: behavioural and cognitive perspectives from the wild – University of Bielefeld, Germany
2024
Mousy minds: intra-specific variation in innovative behaviour in small mammals – University of Bielefeld, Germany
2023
Mousy minds: intra-specific variation in behaviour and cognition in small mammals – 13th European Vertebrate Pest Management Conference, Florence, Italy. Plenary talk.
Personality and innovation of small mammals in a big city – Freie Univerität Berlin, Germany
Urban Ecology in action: studying innovation along the rural-urban gradient (pre-recoded talk) – University of Bielefeld, Germany.
2022
Smarts in the city: innovation in rural and urban small mammals – University of South Bohemia, Czech Republic
2021
City mice and country mice: behaviour and innovation in rural and urban non-commensal rodents – Institute for Research and Innovation in Health i3S, University of Porto, Portugal
2019
Behavioural adjustments to anthropogenic environments – Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Plön, Germany
2017
Foraging strategies, personality and cognitive styles in bank voles – Julius Kühn Institute, Münster, Germany
Scientific Societies
