I was born in Milan, Italy. I took my bachelor and master in Physics at the University of Milan “Degli Studi,” and I took my PhD in Physics in the University of Rome “Sapienza.” I have always wanted to be a scientist; I remember that I chose to become a physicist in high school when I was studying optic waves and in particular the redshift effect. What really impressed me was how the description of that phenomenon was easy and straightforward after putting it in a mathematical form.

The thing I like the most about being a scientist is the possibility to devote my time to study and understand reality. What I really dislike is the rush to publish. This attitude causes the problems that afflict modern science and deprives the work of any pleasure and of its real goal, namely the effort to deepen our understanding of nature.

What is your field of research and/or what project are you involved in at the OKC?
My research field is the study of hot neutron stars. My project here is to implement a code that describes the neutrino diffusion in a rotating neutron star, fully accounting for general relativity effects. We will use this code to study super-massive neutron stars that originate from a binary neutron star merger.

Which of your skills are you most proud of? What new skills would you like to learn in the next year?
I think that my strength as a scientist is my multidisciplinarity (I have worked on different topics in my career) and my intuition. In the next year I would like to have more time to study and improve my mathematical skills.

If you had unlimited funding, to be spent on something scientifically relevant, what would you use it for?
If I had unlimited funding, that in my case specifically means unlimited time, I would work on the problem of determining the oscillation modes of a rotating neutron star. These permit us to study the stability of neutron stars and their gravitational wave emission.

What’s your favorite food? Why?
My favorite food is beef liver with onions. I don’t know why.

How do you relax after a hard day of work?
After work I enjoy the company of friends, and alternatively reading or drawing.

What do you hope to see accomplished scientifically in the next 50 years?
Realistically, in the next 50 years I would like to see consensus on the origin of dark matter. Moreover, it would be great to have a quality evaluation paradigm for scientists that wouldn’t actually harm science.

Giovanni is a postdoc in the SU Astronomy Department who joined the OKC in the fall of 2017.
Thanks Giovanni!