ERC meets MSCA: Fabrizio Nestola and Martha Pamato

From zero… to hero!

ERC meets MSCA: Fabrizio Nestola and Martha Pamato

Fabrizio Nestola is Full Professor of Mineralogy at the Department of Geosciences at the University of Padua and Martha Pamato is a mineral phycisist working as a post doc in Fabrizio’s lab. 

He received many important acknowledgements throughout his scientific career, among which the Alexandre Von Humboldt Award in 2019. He recently completed an ERC project on the study of diamonds in the depths of the Earth. 

“If you want to have a competitive laboratory around the world you need a lot of research funds. I perfecty remember the day I asked a report of my research money and my secretary told me I only had 16 Euros left. That day I decided that I clearly had to try something bigger”. 

When Fabrizio got the Grant (approximately 1.5 million Euros) he set up a new laboratory with special X-Ray diffraction instrumentation. “It was the first of its kind in the world. We convinced two companies to assemble very innovative instrumentation. The University of Padua strongly supported me and gave me a Full Professorship position”. 

Since 2018, Fabrizio Nestola is head of the Department of Geology and luckily, in 2019, Martha, with whom he has been collaborating since her bachelor years, came back to the University of Padua. After 11 years abroad, she applied for a MSCA Fellowship in 2017 with Fabrizio as supervisor. She joined the lab after winning the grant, and is now helping him to conduct his research.

“It was really nice to come back after all these years, even though a bit strange, because those who used to be my professors when I was a bachelor student became my colleagues”. 

Watch the whole interview with Fabrizio and Martha.