Lara Maritan received a degree (B.S. and M.S.) in Geological Sciences and a Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from the University of Padova (Italy). She was a post-doc research assistant at the University of Padova and she visited the University of Glasgow (UK) and the University of Cardiff (UK). She is assistant professor in Geo-resources and minero-petrographic applications for the environment and cultural heritage at the Department of Geosciences, University of Padova. Her research activity is mainly focused on the application of petrography to the study of materials of cultural heritage and on experimental petrology aimed to model firing processes of traditional ceramics.