Affiliation: Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, AT
Keywords: Electron-positron collisions, Low mass dark matter, New forces, Violation of symmetry law, Lepton flavor violation, Lepton flavor universality violation
Full profile: I am a Group Leader at the Marietta Blau Institute (MBI) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, where I coordinate the activities of the gravitational waves group. Originally from Palermo, I have studied astronomy at the University of Bologna (Bsc, 2008), experimental nuclear physics at the University of Groningen (MSc, 2011), and particle physics at the Queen Mary University London (PhD, 2014). After a research fellowship at DESY as a postdoc (Hamburg 2014-2017), I finally moved to Vienna in 2017, initially as a postdoc.
My research focuses on two main areas with a common pillar.
First, I coordinate gravitational-wave research at MBI, leading the local Einstein Telescope Research Unit and the Virgo Group, and developing analyses of intermediate-mass black holes and other compact objects using their gravitational-wave signatures. Second, I study the smallest known objects in the universe — quarks and leptons — searching for anomalies in their behaviour that could point to new forces of nature, unknown particles, or other unexplained phenomena, using data from the Belle II experiment.
The common pillar across both areas is the development and use of advanced analysis methodologies based on artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning. I coordinate the Artificial Intelligence Division of the Einstein Telescope, and I am a fellow of the European Coalition for AI in Fundamental Physics (EuCAIF).
Since 2018, I have also been supported by third-party funding (ERC StG 947006, FWF P31361, FWF – PAT1823724).