About
I study matter at extreme temperatures and densities: the conditions inside planets and stars, and in inertial fusion. My group makes these states in the laboratory using x-ray free-electron lasers and high-power lasers, probes them with x-rays, and develops the theory and computational tools needed to understand them.
My research has four strands: dense plasmas made with x-rays, matter at planetary conditions, theory and simulation of dense matter, and machine learning and differentiable physics. See the Research page for more.
Biography
I studied physics at the University of Rome Tor Vergata and came to Oxford for my DPhil, completed in 2011. I held a Royal Society University Research Fellowship from 2014 to 2023, became Associate Professor in 2020 and Professor of Physics in 2025, and I am a Tutorial Fellow of Trinity College. I shared the 2015 APS John Dawson Award for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research, received the 2016 IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Plasma Physics, and am a Fellow of the Institute of Physics. I contributed to the UK XFEL science case, and I currently chair the proposal review panel for High Energy Density Science at the European XFEL.
Group and opportunities
My group works across experiment, theory, simulation, and machine learning, and I supervise DPhil students in all these areas. If you are interested in joining the group as a DPhil student or postdoc, please get in touch by email.