About me

I am a computational neuroscientist specializing in biophysically grounded models of cortical circuit function. My research asks how neurons and networks implement the computations underlying perception and memory, with a focus on dendritic integration, synaptic plasticity, and the cell-type specificity of cortical circuits. I build models constrained by experimental data and designed to generate testable predictions for electrophysiology and optogenetics.

Since September 2026, I have been a Maître de conférences (associate professor) at Sorbonne Université and a P.I. in Alberto Bacci's lab at the Paris Brain Institute (ICM). In the lab, I work on biophysical models of the visual cortex. I also teach mathematics, informatics, and statistics in the Licence Sciences de la Vie at Sorbonne Université.

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I was born in Rome and grew up in a medieval village in the campagna romana. I studied Physics at Sapienza University, where courses with G. Parisi, P. Del Giudice, and V. Loreto drew me toward complexity, statistics, and neuroscience. My BSc thesis, with V. Servedio and V. Loreto, analyzed the information entropy of literary texts using compression algorithms.

For my master's thesis, I moved to Paris (Diderot University) and worked with S. Bottani and P. Del Giudice on models of spatial neurite growth, co-developing a neuronal growth simulator with T. Fardet. The intersection of language and neuroscience then led me to Nijmegen, where I did my PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics with Karl Magnus Petersson, Hartmut Fitz, and Peter Hagoort. There I developed the Tripod neuron, a three-compartment model that captures the dendritic nonlinearities relevant to sequence recognition and memory. I then returned to Paris as a postdoc at the Institut de l'Audition (Brice Bathellier's lab), where I investigated auditory working memory and spectrotemporal processing in the auditory cortex.

Alongside research, I have been involved in science communication throughout my career: co-editing the Het Talige Brein blog at the MPI, organizing public events that blend arts and science, and writing for general audiences on neuroscience, technology, and environmental justice. During my studies, I was also active in The Science Zone (experimental science education in schools) and in AvANa / Le Dita Nella Presa, a hacklab that advocates for digital freedom and technological justice.

In my free time I hike, swim in lakes, visit exhibitions, and explore video projection and live performance.