Biography


link to full CV

My profiles: Scopus - Google Scholar - ResearchGate

Background - Professional Experiences

  • 2018-present: Associate Professor, Department of Energy, Information engineering and Mathematical models (DEIM), University of Palermo, Italy
  • 2014-2017 Researcher, Healthcare Research and Innovation Program, Bruno Kessler Foundation, Trento, Italy
  • 2008-2013 Research Assistant, Interdepartmental Center for Biotechnologies (BIOtech), University of Trento, Italy
  • Apr-Jul 2016 Visiting Researcher ("FBK Mobility Program” Research Grant), Dept. of Physics, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
  • Apr 2015 Visiting Researcher (“Science without borders” Research Grant), Dept. of Electronic Engineering, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
  • Mar-Jun 2013 Visiting Researcher (Special Research Grant, Flanders Research Foundation), Dept. of Data Analysis, Faculty of Psychological and Pedagogical Sciences, Gent, Belgium
  • Sep-Dec 2010 Visiting Researcher (US Navy Research Grant N0001409WX20220), Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA, USA
  • May-Jul 2007 Appointed Research Fellow, Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, State University of New York, Stony Brook, NY, USA
  • 2003-2008 Postdoctoral Fellow, Biophysics and Biosignals Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Trento, Italy
  • Feb 2003 PhD degree in Electronic Devices at the University of Trento, Italy, in 2003
  • 1999-2000 Research Fellow on system identification and modeling at the Medical Biophysics Division of ITC-irst (Institute for Scientific and Technologic Research), Trento, Italy
  • Nov 1998 Master degree (Italian Laurea) in Electronic Engineering (cum laude) at the University of Padova, Italy

ACHIEVEMENTS

  • 1999 Qualification to practice the profession of Engineer
  • Feb 2014 Italian National Scientific Qualification to function as associate professor in Italian Universities
  • Sep 2019 Italian National Scientific Qualification to function as associate professor (02/D1 – Applied Physics) and full professor (09/G2 - Bioengineering) in Italian Universities


Scientific Activity


Membership in Societies

  • IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society
  • Italian Society of Chaos and Complexity

Memberhip in Boards and Committees


  • Technical Committee on Biomedical Signal Processing, IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology  Society (IEEE-EMBS)
  • Board, European Study Group on Cardiovascular Oscillations (ESGCO)
  • Editorial Board, Frontiers in Physiology, section: Frontiers in Computational Physiology and Medicine
  • Editorial Board, International Scholarly Research Notices (former ISRN Biomedical Engineering), Hindawi Publishing Corp.
  • Editorial Board, Computational and Mathematical Methods in Medicine, Hindawi Publishing Corp.
  • Program Chair, Scientific Committee, Local Organizing Committee, 8th Conference of the ESGCO (Fai della Paganella, Trento, Italy; May 2014)
  • Associate Editor for the Signal Processing Theme (since 2008), and co-chair of the Track on Connectivity and Causality (since 2011), Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society
  • Program Committee, MEDICON - Mediterranean Conference on Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing (2010, 2016)
  • Program Committee, BIOSIGNALS - International Conference on bio-inspired systems and signal processing (2014, 2015, 2016)
  • Program Committee, ITISE - International Work-Conference on Time Series (2014, 2015, 2016)
  • Program Committee, AMBN - Workshop on Advanced Methodologies for Bayesian Networks (2015)
  • Scientific Committee, ESGCO - European Study Group on Cardiovascular Oscillations (2016)
Organizer of the Conference ESGCO 2014 – 8th Conference of the European Study Group on Cardiovascular Oscillations, Fai della Paganella, May 25-28, Trento (Italy), International Conference with 145 attendees (http://events.unitn.it/en/esgco2014); Program Chair of the Conference and organizer of the revision process of the contributions (125 peer-reviewed papers, indexed as IEEE proceedings)

Guest Editor of Journal Special Issues


  • Lead Guest Editor, Special Issue “Methodological Advances in Brain Connectivity” Computational and Mathematical Methods in Medicine (vol. 2012)
  • Guest Editor, Special Issue “Assessing Causality in Brain Dynamics and Cardiovascular Control”, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A (vol. 271, 2013)
  • Guest Editor, Special Issue “8th Conference of the European Study Group on Cardiovascular Oscillations, ESGCO 2014”, Physiological Measurement (2015)
  • Lead Guest Editor, Entropy, Special Issue “Information Dynamics in Brain and Physiological Networks” http://www.mdpi.com/journal/entropy/special_issues/Physio_Networks (2018)
  • Guest Editor, Entropy, Special Issue “Assessing Complexity in Physiological Systems through Biomedical Signals Analysis” (2019)
  • Guest Editor, Entropy, Topical Collection "Feature Papers in Information Theory" (2020)

Organization of Scientific Sessions at Conferences


  • Invited Session ‘Causality in brain dynamics and cardiovascular control’, 33rd International Conference of the IEEE-EMBS (EMBC ’11), Boston, MA, USA, Sep 3, 2011
  • Invited Session ‘Model-Free and Non-Linear Interdependence Measures for Neurophysiological and Cardiovascular Time Series Analysis’, 34th International Conference of the IEEE-EMBS (EMBC ’12), San Diego, CA, USA, Aug 30, 2012
  • Invited Session ‘Entropy-Based Analysis of Physiological Time Series’, 35th International Conference of the IEEE-EMBS (EMBC ’13), Osaka, Japan, Jul 5, 2013
  • Session ‘Multivariate Analysis of Cardiovascular Variability’, 8th Conference of the European Study Group on Cardiovascular Oscillations (ESGCO 2014), Trento, Italy, May 27, 2014
  • Invited Session ‘Advances in Multivariate Physiological Variability Analysis’, 36th International Conference of the IEEE-EMBS (EMBC ’14), Chicago, IL, USA, Aug 29, 2014
  • Invited Sessions at the 37th International Conference of the IEEE-EMBS (EMBC ’15), Milano, Italy, Aug 25-29, 2015: ‘Information Dynamics in Networks of Biomedical Signals’; ‘Dissecting out patho-physiological mechanisms via multivariate signal processing approaches from spontaneous cardiovascular variability series’; ‘Solving the Brain Connectivity Puzzle: Methodological Advancements and Future Challenges’
  • Invited Session ‘Entropy Measures to Evaluate Dynamics’, International Conference on Biological Oscillations (9th ESGCO meeting 2016), Lancaster, UK, Apr 10-14, 2016

Grant Reviewer Activity

  • Research Program University-Region 2010-2012, Regione Emilia-Romagna, Italy (2011)
  • Postdoctoral Fellow grant applications, The Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO), Belgium (2014)

Degree examination board

  • External member, Examination Committee – PhD candidate: Devy Widjaja, KU Leuven, Belgium (2015)

Reviewer for Scientific Journals

  • Advances in Adaptive Data Analysis
  • Autonomic Neuroscience: Basic and Clinical
  • BioMedical Engineering OnLine
  • Biomedical Signal processing and Control
  • Brain Connectivity
  • Brain Topography
  • Cardiovascular Engineering and Technology
  • Chaos, Solitons and Fractals
  • Cognitive Neurodynamics
  • Computational and Mathematical Methods in Medicine
  • Computers in Biology and Medicine
  • Entropy
  • European Journal of Applied Physiology
  • IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering
  • IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing
  • IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems & Rehabilitation Engineering
  • International Journal of Statistical Mechanics
  • Journal of Neural Engineering
  • Journal of Neuroscience Methods
  • Methods of Information in Medicine
  • Microcirculation
  • Neuroimage
  • Philosophical Transactions A
  • Physical Review Letters
  • Physical Review E
  • Physiological Research
  • Proceedings of the IEEE
  • PLOS One
  • Physiological Measurement

Funding Information


  • 2001: Participant, IV Programma Quadro - Progetto EPIMEDICS 2001 - "Enhanced, Personal, Intelligent and Mobile system for Early Detection and Interpretation of Cardiological Syndromes" (36 months).
  • 2005: Co-Investigator, Provincia Autonoma di Trento - Commissione Ricerca Scientifica 2005 - "The combined role of visual attention and stochastic resonance on human perception" (12 months)
  • 2005: Co-Investigator, Progetti di Ricerca Tecnologica Applicata 2005, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Trento e Rovereto - "Integrazioni di immagini multimodali in cardiologia interventistica per il trattamento con ablazione della fibrillazione atriale permanente" (30 months)
  • 2007: Co-Investigator, Progetto Industriale SIMM_PAC 2007 - "Sistema di monitoraggio multiparametrico per la gestione integrata di pazienti e soggetti ad alto rischio di malattia cardiovascolare" (24 months)
  • 2008: Co-Investigator, Bando FIRB “Futuro in Ricerca” 2008 – “Cardiorespiratory dysregulation in hypertensive cardiomyopathy and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a nonlinear signal processing approach to diagnostics, optimizing mechanical ventilation and reducing peri- and postoperative morbidity” (36 months)
  • 2014-2015: Coordinator, Unit "Physiological and clinical data analysis", Healthcare Research Implementation Program (IRCS) - special Project of the Autonomous Province of Trento activated for the development of healthcare research, innovation and training with aim of fostering technological transferring of research findings from bench to bedside and facilitate innovation in healthcare delivery.
  • 2015: UNCAP - Participant with Bruno Kessler Foundation (FBK, Trento Italy), H2020-PHC-2014 “Advancing active and healthy ageing with ICT: ICT solutions for independent living with cognitive impairment partner institution”, project: "Ubiquitous iNteroperable Care for Ageing People" (24 months)
  • 2015: Task Leader, Co-Investigator, Bando Progetti di Ricerca 2014 of the University of Trento – “Of bees and men: Development of an optogenetic animal model to study oscillatory neural networks”, project involving the Center of Mind/Brain sciences (CIMeC), Center of Integrative Biology (CIBIO), Department of Physics and Dept. of Industrial Engineering of the University of Trento (18 months)
  • 2018: Task leader, Co-Investigator, Strategic projects of the University of Trento – “Brain Network Dynamics - BRANDY” (36 months), coordinator of the external partner unit – University of Palermo
  • 2019: Co-Investigator, Progetti di ricerca di rilevante interesse nazionale – PRIN 2017, project no. 2017WZFTZP, “Stochastic forecasting in complex systems”, participant in the Unit “Universitą di Palermo”
  • 2020: Co-Investigator, Progetti Obiettivo di Piano Sanitario Nazionale, “VALUTAZIONE NON INVASIVA DELLO STRESS LAVORO-CORRELATO PER LA PREVENZIONE DEGLI INFORTUNI NELLE STRUTTURE SANITARIE DELLA REGIONE SICILIANA”




Academic Activity

1999-2005: teaching assistant of General Physics II at the Engineering Faculty of the University of Trento, Italy (academic years: from 1999/2000 to 2004/2005)

2002-2007: teaching assistant of Signal and Image Processing for Clinical Diagnosis at the graduation course in Physics and Biomedical technologies of the University of Trento, Italy (academic years: from 2002/2003 to 2006/2007)

2015: Faculty of Electronic Engineering, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, short course (10 hours) on Information theory and time series analysis, April 2015

2016: Lesson with title “Network Physiology” inside the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) ‘A Primer oh Health Technology Development for Smart City’ of the IEEE

Supervisor of eight master degree theses in Physics and Biomedical Engineering

Supervisor of the PhD thesis of Silvia Erla, “Computational methods for the assessment of brain connectivity”, awarded with the prize of best PhD thesis of 2012 in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Trento, Italy

PhD students hosted for stages:
  • Ulrike Richter, University of Lund, Sweden (3 months, 2010)
  • Alejandro Alcaine Otin, University of Zaragoza, Spain (4 months, 2014)
  • Dorota Wejer, University of Gdansk, Poland (1 month, 2015)
Co-supervisor of the PhD student Alessandro Montalto, University of Gent, Belgium (2013-2016)

Co-supervisor of the Master student Josč Melo, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil (2015-2016)