Claudio obtained his degree in Earth Sciences at the University of Padua in 1987, became lecturer at the same University in 1990 and has been working as an Associate Professor in Petrology and Petrography since December 2002. Currently, he teaches courses in Applied Petrography, Optical Microscopy and Field Geology for Bachelor, and Master degrees in Earth Sciences. Claudio’s research interests are in the field of applied petrography, which include studies in characterising pottery, mortar, plaster and stone materials from different sites in Syria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, Spain, Italy; archaeometric studies in provenance and productive technology assessment; analysing stone decay; designing new building materials using waste products from industrial activities; petrography and geochemistry of carbonates for palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironmental studies in the Mediterranean Sea, Atlantic and Southern Oceans, and Antarctica; and microprobe proton beam analysis to geochemically date minerals; and metamorphic petrology of crystalline basement rocks.

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