BSc, MSc and PhD in Theoretical Physics, University of Turin. 2001, Research Fellow, NASA Astrobiology Institute, Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech, Pasadena; 2005, ESA Fellowship, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, worked on exoplanet transit spectroscopy; since 2007, Royal Society University Research Fellow and Reader, University College London, leading a team on exoplanets; concurrently, Principal Investigator of UK-led payload consortium for the space mission EChO (Exoplanet Characterisation Observatory). Co-Editor, Icarus, the scientific journal of the American Astronomical Society-Division of Planetary Science. Author of more than 80 refereed publications. Recipient: Institute of Physics Moseley Medal (2011), for having pioneered the use of infrared, transit spectroscopy to detect the molecular composition of exoplanets.