Profile

Senior Researcher, National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Institute for Mediterranean Studies, Naples.

He holds a degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Calabria and a PhD in Anthropological Sciences from the University of Florence. 

From 2006 to 2012, he served as Adjunct Professor of Anthropology, Human Population Biology, and Demo-Ethno-Anthropological Studies at the University of Messina. From 2006 to 2008, he also taught Anthropology at Mater Boni Consilii University in Tirana, Albania. 

His background in Natural Sciences and Anthropology has guided his research toward human ecology, approached through a consistently inter-, multi-, and transdisciplinary lens. Over the past decade, his main research interests have focused on:

• the historical Italian rural landscape, as a repository of tangible and intangible heritage reflecting the evolving man-environment relationship;
• ethnopharmacology, understood as the study of plant- and animal-based remedies used in Italian traditional medicine;
• biodemography, an anthropological discipline examining the mechanisms and processes regulating human population structure and evolution through a multidisciplinary approach integrating biological, genetic, ecological, demographic, historical, and social perspectives. 

He has acted as a reviewer for Projects of National Interest (PRIN) commissioned by the Italian Ministry of University and Research, and for research projects by the University of Insubria, the University of Eastern Piedmont, and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. He is also an international reviewer for the Narodowe Centrum Nauki (National Science Centre of Poland) and the FWF-Austrian Science Fund. 

He has served as principal investigator and/or team member in several nationally and internationally funded research projects. Among the most recent is the project “Terre di Bonifica”, for which he served as Principal Investigator. 

He is the author of over 100 scientific publications, including articles in national, international peer-reviewed journals, and edited volumes. 

He has served as a Member of the Board of Directors and of the Executive Committee of the Pollino National Park.

Within the framework of public engagement, he acted as Scientific Coordinator for educational, cultural, and outreach initiatives promoted by the CNR in support of the Locride area’s candidacy as “Capitale Italiana della Cultura 2025”, coordinating activities to foster dialogue and collaboration between the research community and civil society. 

A significant portion of his academic activity is devoted to disseminating research findings to broader audiences, particularly to raise awareness among citizens and youth on landscape issues and the broader man-environment relationship. 

Recent initiatives include:

• In 2017, he organized the conference “Il Paesaggio, memoria del territorio”, involving professional associations of Engineers and Agronomists/Foresters, and secondary school students who curated a bibliographic exhibition as part of a school–work alternation program;
• In 2019, he served as organizer, member of the Scientific Committee, and editor of the Proceedings of the 11th National Congress of the Italian Society of Tourism Sciences (SISTUR), which brought together researchers, scholars, tourism professionals, and representatives of economic and cultural stakeholders;
• In 2023, he was organizer and member of the Scientific Committee of the conference “The Role of Research in the Development of Agriculture and Forestry in Calabria”.

Curriculum Vitae