MARCHESAN AND VACCHIANO, TWO OF THE BEST YOUNG RESEARCHERS IN THE WORLD

Silvia Marchesan, of the University of Trieste, and Giorgio Vacchiano, of the University of Milan, were selected by Nature magazine among the 11 leading up-and-coming researchers making their mark in science across disciplines in the natural sciences. They were chosen among 500 researchers from around the world who have published at least one article in the 82 journals of the Nature Index (which tracks the affiliations of high-quality scientific articles) in 2017 and whose first scientific paper appeared less than 20 Years ago.silvia Marchesan, the ‘mini-molecule manipulator’, is associate professor of the Department of Organic Chemistry, and she developed cost-effective and effective hydrogels made of self-assembling proteins that can be used for repairing body tissues and releasing drugs.graduated in Trieste in 2004, Marchesan completed a PH.D. in Chemistry in Edinburgh and continued her research career in London, Finland, and Australia. In 2013, she returned in Italy and two years later she obtained the public research funds that allowed her to open her own laboratory at the University of Tries te. va cc hi a no, the ‘forest modeler‘, is a researcher at the Department of Agricultural Sciences in Milan’s Statale University. The focuses of his work are: forest management, for which he has paved the way for the use of mathematical models; the resistance and resilience of forests to climate change; and the consequences of forest fires and other “natural disturbances” on European temperate forests. Vacchiano spent 15 months working on forest modeling for the European Commission before joining the Statale University in February 2018.