ERC: Fabrizio Nestola

Prof. Fabrizio Nestola is Full Professor of Mineralogy at the Department of Geosciences of the University of Padua, where he currently serves as President of the University’s Museum Center. He held the roles of Department Director and Academic Senator until 2022. He was born in 1972 in Turin, where he earned a degree in Geological Sciences in 1999. He obtained a PhD in Mineralogy from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in 2003. He then held a postdoctoral position at the Bayerisches Geoinstitut in Germany and a second postdoctoral position at Virginia Tech in the United States. In 2006, he got a researcher position at the University of Padua, later becoming Associate Professor in 2010 and Full Professor in 2015. Prof. Nestola teaches mineralogy and is an expert researcher in high-pressure and high-temperature mineralogy, with a focus on the mineralogy of natural diamonds. At the same time, he conducts research on extraterrestrial materials and on new mineral species. His research over the past ten years has led to important discoveries, which have been published in leading scientific journals such as Nature and Science. He is the author of over 370 international scientific publications and obtained major research funding both at the European level (€1.4 million in 2013 through an ERC Starting Grant) and at the national level (€2 million in 2024 through the FIS-2 program). He has received numerous national awards (Nardelli Prize from the AIC; Messori Roncaglia Prize from the Accademia dei Lincei) and international honors, including the EMU Medal in 2010, the German Humboldt Award in 2019, the Geochemistry Fellow honour (awarded by the Geochemical Society and the European Association of Geochemistry) in 2024, and the prestigious Dana Medal awarded by the Mineralogical Society of America again in 2024.