About me

I am a Creative Scientist with a PhD in Physics from INAF – Italian National Institute for Astrophysics. I currently dedicate myself entirely to innovative science education and outreach, combining Science Art and STEAM education through creative methods such as Game-Based Learning (GBL). I design and deliver educational experiences that promote scientific citizenship in children and teens, with a strong focus on Universal Design for Learning and EDI principles.

As an Italian NAEC (National Astronomy Education Coordinator) for the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education and an Ordinary Member of the GAME Science Research Center, I create and promote board games as tools for science communication and learning. Among these are PIXEL – Picture (of) the Universe, the first INAF board game on astronomical observations, and COSMO HUNTERS, both developed to teach astronomy through play.

I also develop Science Art installations exploring astrophysical phenomena, such as INTO THE (UN)KNOWN, exhibited at the 2020 Genoa Science Festival and the 2021 Venice Biennale Cinema. In collaboration with CTAO – one of the world’s leading observatories for high-energy astrophysics – I develop virtual reality experiences and immersive shows for planetariums.

I earned my PhD at Instituto Superior Técnico (Lisbon), studying kinetic-scale effects in collisionless accretion disks, and was a visiting researcher in 2018 at the Plasma Science and Fusion Center at MIT. I hold an MSc in Plasma Physics from the University of Pisa, focused on kinetic effects in ICF hydrodynamic simulations.