Curriculum Vitae

Forester and forest ecologist with a strong background in process-based modelling and silviculture. Postdoctoral researcher at WSL, associate scientist at CNR-ISAFOM and lecturer at ETH Zurich.

Research interests

Assessing the impacts of abiotic disturbances — mainly drought and climate extremes — and biotic disturbances — pests and management — on the dynamics of temperate forests, with a focus on growth and mortality processes at the stand and individual-tree scale. My work combines process-based and empirical forest models with long-term observational datasets and field silviculture, and is aimed at management scenarios and decision support that forest practitioners can actually use.

Positions

2025 — present

Postdoctoral Researcher 100%

Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland

Research Unit Forest Resources and Management — Resource Analysis group, Swiss National Forest Inventory. Scientific lead for the further development of the MASSIMO management simulator in the project ReForMASSIMO: climate-sensitive growth, mortality and regeneration, a new disturbance module, and tests of when silvicultural interventions remain effective under climate change. Supervisors: Dr. Golo Stadelmann, Dr. Esther Thürig.

2026 — present

University Lecturer 33%

ETH Zurich, Department of Environmental Systems Science (D‑USYS), Switzerland

Master course Quantitative Vegetation Dynamics.

2018 — present

Associate Scientist

Forest Modelling Lab, CNR-ISAFOM, National Research Council of Italy

External research associate. Development of the management module and of the drought-mortality representation in the process-based model 3D-CMCC-FEM; applications on forest management, carbon sequestration and resilience. Profile

2022 — 2023

Teaching Assistant & Research Support 20%

ETH Zurich, D‑USYS, Switzerland

Master courses Quantitative Vegetation Dynamics and Gebirgswaldökologie und Management.

2018 — 2020

Research Fellow 100%

University of Naples Federico II, Italy

Horizon 2020 project LANDSUPPORT. Task group leader for the forestry tools in WP3: conception, development and deployment of regional and local forestry decision-support tools for the Campania Region (NUTS-2 and NUTS-3 level), with user training and stakeholder round tables.

Education

2021 — 2025

PhD in Forest Ecology

ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Thesis: Unraveling the death spiral — a process-based assessment of the drivers and ecological responses of temperate forests to drought stress. Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Harald Bugmann, Stand and Landscape Dynamics group. Funded by SNSF grant 188882. doi

Developed and validated new versions of the forest gap model ForClim (v4.1–4.2) integrating predisposing, inciting and contributing stress factors; reproduced drought-induced mortality in Switzerland and Germany; released open-source model code and reproducible workflows.

2015 — 2018

MSc Forest Sciences 110/110 cum laude

University of Padua, Italy

Curriculum Forestry and Silviculture. Thesis: Physico-chemical characterization of woody by-products for energetic purposes.

2014 — 2015

Additional university coursework

University of Naples Federico II, Italy

GIS and Remote Sensing (30/30); Nature Conservation and Management of Protected Areas (30/30 cum laude). 18 ECTS, recognised toward the MSc in Padua.

2011 — 2014

BSc Forest Sciences 110/110 cum laude

University of Naples Federico II, Italy

Thesis: Characterization of forest soils — a multiscale approach.

2007 — 2011

Matura, European Classical Gymnasium 100/100

Convitto Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele II, Naples, Italy

Silviculture & forestry practice

I regard models as instruments that aid silvicultural decisions by extending field experience beyond the range of past conditions: they make the long-term consequences of interventions visible, while expert knowledge tests their plausibility.

Decision support for practitioners

2025 — present

MASSIMO — Swiss National Forest Inventory

WSL · for the Federal Office for the Environment (BAFU)

Climate-sensitive management scenario simulator used for national forest development projections and for evaluating management strategies mandated by federal policy. Improving growth, regeneration and mortality, the bark beetle disturbance module and the management modules.

2025

ForClim-App

ETH Zurich · PI Dr. Ulrike Hiltner

Provided the newest ForClim version with refined drought-induced mortality, integrated into the ForClim web application for projections of stand development.

2023 — 2024

ForClim-Marteloscope

ETH Zurich · teaching and practitioner training

Marteloscope tree-marking exercises linked to ForClim: silvicultural selection decisions are translated into model rules and confronted with projected stand dynamics — growth, mortality, regeneration, timber, carbon and risk.

2023

Schweizerische Gebirgswaldpflegegruppe (GWG)

39th Arbeitstagung, Ilanz

Showed the concrete use of ForClim as decision support for Swiss mountain protection forests, in exchange with the mountain-silviculture practitioner group.

2018 — 2022

LANDSUPPORT S-DSS

University of Naples Federico II · H2020, GA 774234

Task group leader for the forestry tools: regional and local forestry tools and a machine-learning forest simulator supporting silvicultural planning in Italy and Slovenia. Tool factsheets

2014 — 2016

SoilConsWeb

LIFE+ · CRISP, University of Naples Federico II

Forest plot surveys for a web-based spatial decision-support system for soil and landscape conservation, forerunner of LANDSUPPORT (Camposauro Regional Park).

Field training & professional forestry

2019 — 2020

Forest-management planning support

Forestry Directorate, Campania Region, Italy · supervisor Alberto Mattia

2019

Forestry intern — forest-management planning

Matese Regional Park, Campania · supervisor Pio Ciliberti

2015

Forestry intern — tree marking and silvicultural planning

Campania · supervisor Alessandro Simeone

Field surveys, cartography, tree marking and planning of interventions in high-forest and coppice stands of Castanea sativa and Corylus avellana.

2013 — 2014

Forestry intern — site and stand assessment

Camposauro Regional Park, Telesina Valley · supervisor Simone Valentini

Dominant-height measurements and soil surveys in high-forest and coppice stands.

Forest operations

Chainsaw operations and safety, with final exam (CESFAM Paluzza, 2017); cable crane (2017), forest road network planning (2016) and forest operations (2016) courses, BFW Forstliche Ausbildungsstätte Ossiach, Austria.

Ungulates & browsing

Monitoring and biometric censuses of fallow deer, wild boar and red deer (Castelporziano, 2018), of the endemic Mesola red deer (2015–2017) and of red deer on the Cansiglio and Asiago plateaus (2017), University of Padua.

Large carnivores

Marsican brown bear monitoring in its potential expansion area (Salviamo l'Orso, 2013–2014); wolf-damage recognition and mitigation course (Cilento National Park, 2014).

Science–practice transfer

Public forest walks (Waldumgänge) communicating silviculture and forest change, with the district forester of Benken ZH (2021 — present).
Bridge between operational forestry and research in Benken ZH: forest planning course with the ETH Forest Resources Management group, silvicultural field testing of ForestStudio, and selection of managed stands for a dendroecological study of drought in mixed stands.
Contribution to the proposal of the COST Action on forest decision support (2020), later funded as CA22141 DSS4ES.
Articles for practitioners in German and Italian professional journals (Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Forstwesen, Sherwood, Tecniko & Pratiko, SISEF).

Grants & projects

2026 — present

Swiss–New Zealand forest collaboration

Auckland University of Technology · seed funding NZD 5,000 · Role: co-developer

Exchange of forest data, models and adaptation approaches, testing which silvicultural principles from Central Europe are transferable and which remain context-dependent. Host: Prof. Sebastian Leuzinger.

2025 — 2027

ReForMASSIMO

WSL · Federal Office for the Environment (BAFU) · CHF 500,000 · Role: postdoc, scientific lead for MASSIMO development

Climate-sensitive metamodel for growth, mortality and regeneration in all NFI plots, a new disturbance module, and the plausibility of management strategies under climate change.

2021 — 2025

FORMULATE-DROUGHT — Embracing structural uncertainty in models of forest dynamics

ETH Zurich · Swiss National Science Foundation · CHF 959,036 · Role: doctoral researcher and subproject contact

SNSF grant 188882 (PI Prof. Harald Bugmann).

2018 — 2022

LANDSUPPORT

University of Naples Federico II · European Union (H2020, 774234) · € 6,999,771 total, € 1,351,583 institutional · Role: research fellow

Integrated web-based land decision support system linking silvicultural options with land-use objectives, stakeholder needs and multi-scale public decision-making.

2016 — 2017

PRO.PRO.FOR. — Promozione della Professione Forestale

University of Padua, Dept. TESAF · € 5,850 award · Role: project lead and funding recipient

Designed and organised an open seminar series and a field summer school on silvicultural planning, forest operations, environmental assessment, monitoring and precision forestry.

Teaching & supervision

2026 — present

Quantitative Vegetation Dynamics — MSc

ETH Zurich, D‑USYS · Lecturer

2022 — 2023

Forest gap modelling laboratory, Quantitative Vegetation Dynamics — MSc

ETH Zurich, D‑USYS · Teaching assistant

2022 — 2023

Gebirgswaldökologie und Management — MSc

ETH Zurich, D‑USYS · Laboratory and teaching material, with Prof. Harald Bugmann

2018 — 2019

Best practices in forest operations to minimise erosion and soil compaction

Guest lecture, BSc Forest Pedology, University of Naples Federico II

Also a crash course in R for geospatial analyses for the MSc Geography and Soil Evaluation.

Teaching approach and supervised theses →

Editorial & review service

Editorial roles

Associate Editor, Journal of Ecology (British Ecological Society).
Editorial board member, Current Climate Change Reports (Springer).
Guest Assistant Editor, Forests — Special Issue Modeling Forest Response to Climate Change.

Peer review

Nature Communications, New Phytologist (Tansley Review), Global Change Biology, Journal of Ecology, Geoscientific Model Development, Biogeosciences, Ecological Modelling, Scientific Reports, European Journal of Soil Science, Discover Sustainability, Discover Forests.

Institutional review

Reviewer for the National Science Centre, Poland.

Professional affiliations

2026 — present

British Ecological Society, Forest Ecology Group — Scientific Advisor. Committee

2026 — present

International Tree Mortality Network — Core team member, contributing expertise on dynamic vegetation forest models. People

2020 — present

SISEF, Italian Society of Silviculture and Forest Ecology — Communication Officer of the Modelling Working Group.

Member

Schweizerischer Forstverein · SwissForestLab · Gesellschaft für Ökologie (GfÖ) · Ecological Society of America

Student years

President, Forestry Student Association (AUSF / IFSA local committee), University of Padua (2017–2018); Vice-President, University of Naples Federico II (2012–2014); student representative in the academic councils of both forestry programmes.

Prizes & awards

2023

Best Oral Presentation Award, SwissForestLab Science Day

2020

Best Poster Award — Umberto Bagnaresi Prize, SISEF Congress of Silviculture

2011

Scholarship and selection as Best Student — Alfieri del Lavoro, President of the Italian Republic

Forest models I contribute to

Model	Role & contribution	Language
MASSIMO	Empirical, stochastic, individual-tree management simulator of the Swiss NFI. Enhancing the climate sensitivity of regeneration, growth and mortality through a climate meta-model; hybridisation with process-based approaches (ForClim).	Java
ForClim v4.1–4.2	Gap model of stand dynamics. Main developer of versions 4.1 and 4.2, with enhanced sensitivity to climate extremes and drought-induced mortality. Ongoing development and applications with ETH Zurich, University of Auckland and Universidad de Santiago de Chile.	C#, Python
3D-CMCC-FEM	Process-based forest ecosystem model. Developer of the management module; applied in publications on management, carbon sequestration and resilience; transferring the drought-mortality framework.	C
ForestStudio	Forest management model. Scientific support to development at the ETH Zurich Forest Resources Management professorship, including its silvicultural application with practitioners.	Rust

Selected talks

2025

Modellierung zukünftiger Baumarteneignung: Herausforderungen und stetige Weiterentwicklungen Invited

Montagskolloquium für die Praxis, ETH Zurich, 24 November 2025

2024

Predisposing and inciting stress factors leading to drought-induced mortality

IUFRO World Congress, session T5.22, Stockholm, June 2024

2023

Predisposing and inciting stress factors leading to drought-induced tree mortality Best talk

SwissForestLab Science Day, ETH Zurich, October 2023

2023

From dynamic forest models to decision support for forest transformation — how can synergies be achieved? Session chair

European Conference of Ecological Modelling, Leipzig, September 2023

Also presented Predisposing and inciting stress factors leading to beech mortality in Switzerland and a poster on dynamic forest models as decision support in Swiss mountain protection forests.

2022

Effects of drought on Swiss forest dynamics — what is the influence of soil water storage capacity?

Forest Disturbances and Ecosystem Dynamics in a Changing World, Berchtesgaden National Park, Germany, September 2022

2022

Analyzing the drought–growth relationship at six low-elevation beech sites in Switzerland

XIII Congresso Nazionale SISEF, Orvieto, Italy, May–June 2022

2021

How to integrate dynamic forest models in geospatial decision support systems

LANDSUPPORT H2020 Round Table on Forestry, 25 October 2021 · video

Technical skills

Programming

C# (advanced); C, Python, Java, JavaScript, Rust (basic)

Scripting & stats

R; SAS, SPSS, Statgraphics Centurion, MATLAB

Modelling environments

RStudio, NetLogo, Jupyter Notebook, Google Colab

Stand visualisation

SVS — Stand Visualization System

Geospatial & CAD

QGIS, ArcGIS, Google Earth Engine; forest road network design

Development

Microsoft Visual Studio, Eclipse; Git (GitHub, GitLab)

HPC & cloud

ETH Euler cluster (SLURM, MPI/OpenMP)

Databases

PostgreSQL, Microsoft Access

Authoring

LaTeX, Quarto, Markdown, Shiny

Certificates

GIS, specialised level (AICA, 2015); ITsec4RI cybersecurity (ETH domain, 2026); data protection (British Ecological Society, 2026)

Languages & personal

Languages

Italian (native), English (C1), German (B2), Spanish (B2), French (A2), Norwegian (A1)

Based in

Canton of Zurich, Switzerland · Italian nationality

Office

WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland · Bi HP D 58

Outside work

Wood constructions with my husband at Elvetiholz; painting, making music, and the woodland adventures of our dog Lars.