My main interest is understanding how clusters of galaxies and galaxies in clusters evolve from an observational point of view and using
Bayesian methods that I teach (so far at 14 universities spread in 7
countries). My top three most cited papers address the mass dependency and scatter of the stellar and gas fractions, the scaling between
richness and mass, and the evolution of faint galaxies on the red-sequence. I discovered the most distant galaxy cluster for over a decade, JKCS041 at z=1.803 (currently the second most distant). I was one of
the first astronomers using artificial intelligence tools (neural networks, self organizing maps) for photometric redshift and object
detection at the end of the 90's and, starting from 2005, bayesian methods for many astrophysical applications (luminosity and mass function,
velocity dispersion, quenched fraction, galaxy and cluster scaling relations, x-ray and optical analysis of galaxy clusters, etc). I'm lead
author of Bayesian Methods for the
Physical Sciences book.
I'm presently deeply involved with the Euclid mission (awarded Euclid Builder status in 2023 for "extraordinary efforts on activity critical to the
success of Euclid" mission). As a Euclid team member, I was awarded the 2024 Space Achievement
Award. In 2016, I was awarded the status of IAA fellow.
Listed in the Italian Top Scientists and in the 2023 list of Highly Cited Researchers by Elsevier.
