I am a microbial community ecologist and my main interest is understanding how the environment shapes the structure of microbial communities. During my PhD at the University of Pisa, I worked under the supervision of Lisandro Benedetti-Cecchi, investigating the impacts of pulse perturbations and the occurrence of regime shifts in microbial biofilms and algal forests of intertidal habitats. After working in the field with natural communities, I decided to learn to perform experiments in the lab and I joined Jeff Gore’s group at MIT as a postdoc. My postdoctoral research focused on dissecting the effects of temperature and nutrient availability on the diversity and structure of microbial communities. I am fascinated by the possibility of harnessing metabolic principles and structures to understand how bacterial communities assemble and function in diverse environmental conditions.

When I am not playing with bugs, I like to spend time on the beach (mainly inside the water), drawing, gardening, and teasing my cat Phoebe (and/or my husband Bartolomeo Stellato).