I am a marine geologist who graduated from Sapienza University. I worked as a researcher at ICRAM, an Italian institute for scientific and technological research applied to the sea, now included in ISPRA, Institute for Environmental Protection and Research. My research topic is mainly focused on the marine sediments from transitional and coastal environments and the related sedimentological and geochemical aspects connected to the contamination levels for understanding the environmental stress induced by human impacts on the coastal zone. The research was also extended to the potential application of benthic foraminifera as ecological indicators in several marine and coastal environments, including extreme environments, such as Mediterranean marine caves, through the response of benthic foraminifera to natural and anthropogenic environmental stress. I am the author or co-author of several scientific articles in national and international journals and have given several presentations at international conferences and workshops. I am also a co-tutor of a PhD thesis on the use of benthic foraminifera as environmental indicators. In addition, I have been Guest Editor of some special volumes on Marine Pollution Bulletin (Elsevier) and Journal of Soils and Sediments (Springer); of the last one, I'm also a member of the Editorial Board.