Science Communication and Education

From the 2003 edition, the year of its founding, to that of 2014, he was a member of the Scientific Council of the Genoa Science Festival (from 2003 to 2011 serving as Secretary General); he was particularly involved, for eight editions, in the planning and coordination of national and international conferences and research seminars.

  • Since 2013 he has been a member of the Scientific Committee of BergamoScienza.
  • From 2008 to 2012 he was co-director of the Rome Science Festival at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome.
  • From 2004 to 2009 he was scientific coordinator, together with Ilaria Vinassa de Regny and Carla Castellacci, of six editions of the Darwin Day in Milan, an annual international event dedicated to evolution and promoted by the Museum of Natural History in Milan.
  • Since September 2014, he has been a member of the International Scientific Council of the Science Museum - MUSE of Trento.
  • He is the Scientific Curator, together with Prof. Luigi Luca Cavalli Sforza, of the International Exhibition “Homo sapiens. The Great History of Human Diversity,” hosted at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome from November 2011 to April 2012 (and subsequently: Science Museum of Trento, September 2012-January 2013; Museo Civico of Novara, 2014; MUDEC, Milan 2016).
  • He was the Scientific Curator, together with Professors Niles Eldredge and Ian Tattersall, of the international exhibition “Darwin 1809-2009,” held for the bicentennial of Charles Darwin’s birth (Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, February-May 2009; Rotonda della Besana, Milan, June-October 2009; Castello Svevo, Bari, November 2009-February 2010).
  • He was the Scientific Curator, together with Professors B. Fantini, F. Rufo and S. Pimpinelli, of the international exhibition “DNA. The Big Book of Life from Mendel to Genomics” (Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, February-June 2017).
  • Since 2005 he is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Pikaia - Il portale dell’evoluzione, the first Italian web magazine entirely dedicated to evolutionary studies (www.pikaia.eu).
  • In 2014 he was for the University of Padua scientific coordinator of the museum layout of the Garden of Biodiversity at the Botanical Garden of Padua, as well as curator of the “Plants and Humans” section.
  • From October 2021 to February 2023 coordinated the Working Group for the 800th Anniversary Celebrations of the University of Padua.
  • From 2017 to 2023, he coordinated the realization of the Museum of Nature and Humankind at the University of Padua.
  • Since 2017 he collaborates in the communication activities of Natura Viva Park in Bussolengo (VR), for which he conceived and curated the project of the “Greenhouse of Giants” in 2019.
  • Since February 2008 he has been Scientific Director, together with Prof. Niles Eldredge, of the six-volume multimedia encyclopedic work “Ecosphera - The Future of the Planet,” at UTET Grandi Opere-De Agostini.
  • He is Secretary of the Scientific Committee of the encyclopedic work, in ten volumes, entitled “History of Italian Culture,” edited by Prof. Luigi Luca Cavalli Sforza (Stanford University), at Utet Grandi Opere; he is also scientific editor of the eighth volume: “History of Science and Technology.”
  • In 2006 he served on the Scientific Committee of the international exhibition “The Naked Ape” (Tridentine Museum of Natural Sciences).
  • He is a member of the Program Committee of the World Conferences on the Future of Science-promoted by the Umberto Veronesi Foundation, the Cini Foundation and the Tronchetti Provera Foundation, held every year in September in Venice since 2005.
  • Since 2009 he has been a member of the Program Committee of the World Conference “Science for Peace,” promoted by Fondazione Umberto Veronesi, Milan
  • On July 10, 2008, the Class of Physical, Mathematical and Natural Sciences of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei called him to be a member of the Ordering Committee of the conference “The World after Darwin” (Rome, February 11-12, 2009).