People

Stefano grew up in Northern Italy, where he completed an undergraduate degree in Biology. His special topic was in the field of behavioural ecology, where he studied the common cuckoo’s role as a brood parasite and their role as a proxy indicator of biodiversity for the local avian community. Despite geographic distance from the ocean, he has always been fascinated in the immense complexity of marine ecosystems. He moved to Australia and completed a Master of Science majoring in Marine Biology at James Cook University. His minor project was in the field of coral reef ecology, and he focused on temporal changes of soft coral assemblages in response to moderate and severe bleaching events in the Palm Island group under the supervision of Dr. Mia Hoogenboom. He recently commenced his PhD on coral phylogenomics, specializing in Stoloniferan soft corals, under the supervision of Dr. Peter Cowman.