My research mainly focuses on understanding corrosion of light alloys to develop new protection treatments. I have developed a new family of low-energy, environmentally friendly, anodizing cycles for corrosion protection of aerospace alloys, with a graded porous morphology that optimize simultaneously paint adhesion and corrosion resistance. I apply and develops electrochemical techniques to understand in detail the process of corrosion initiation and propagation in relation to the alloy microstructure, the presence of micro and macro-galvanic couples, the characteristics of the aggressive environment and the presence of corrosion inhibitors. I also work on improving the available characterization techniques and am interested in high-resolution scanning electron microscopy and 3-D imaging techniques such as X-ray tomography and sequential sectioning.

I graduated in 2003 from Politecnico di Milano (Italy) and subsequently I obtained a M.Sc. in Materials Science and Engineering from the same university. Iwas awarded a PhD from the University of Manchester with the Thesis "Graded Anodic Film Morphologies for Corrosion Protection of Aerospace Aluminium Alloys" in 2009. Afterwards, I continued my research on corrosion and protection of metals as a Research Associate, Research Fellow (2011), Lecturer (2014) and Senior Lecturer (2016) in Corrosion Protection.

My research focuses on two main aspects related to materials durability, i.e.  surface engineering and corrosion testing. I have extensive experience in the surface treatment of light alloys, including anodizing, conversion coatings and paints. I also research on the use and development of new electrochemical methods, to better understand the fundamentals of corrosion processes in relation to microstructure and to evaluate the long-term protective performance of new surface treatments or the corrosion susceptibility of new alloys.

I have authored over 100 scientific papers on the topics of corrosion protection and corrosion testing.

• Corrosion and Protection