Born in Rome, Italy, in 1962, studied physics at the University of Rome, where he graduated in 1986. Since then he has worked in the field of atmospheric physics. He has been at the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Environment of Italy (ENEA) since 1988. In the period 1996-2002 has been responsible for the measurement activities related to the climate at ENEA, and is the PI of the Station for Climate Observations at Lampedusa since 2002. He has worked on development of remote sensing instruments, on the measurement of ozone, solar radiation, atmospheric greenhouse gases, on the characterization of atmospheric aerosols, their radiative effects, and on problems related to the radiative transfer of the atmosphere. He has organizied and participated in several measurement campaigns in the Arctic and in the Mediterranean. In 2002 he won the "Felice Ippolito" Research Prize, that is assigned by the Italian Antarctic program to research scientists under 40 years of age. He is author of more than 40 papers in international journals, and is member of the Commission on Climate of the IAMAS