I joined UCL in July 2014, and looking back, I could never have imagined that in just seven years, I would be promoted to Professor (in 2021) and take on multiple leadership roles within my department and faculty.

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This journey has been shaped by several factors. I come from Barra, one of the most economically disadvantaged and marginalised districts of Naples, in Southern Italy, where access to higher education was far from guaranteed. Like other eastern districts of the city, Barra faces significant social challenges, including economic hardship, organised crime, and urban neglect. As a first-generation university graduate and academic in my broader family, navigating the academic world has been both an opportunity and a challenge.

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After earning my MSc and PhD degrees in Italy, I moved to the USA, first for a postdoctoral position at the University of California, Irvine, in beautiful Orange County, and then to industry in the Bay Area, where I spent two years in catastrophe risk modelling. Industry showed me how theoretical frameworks must align with business and societal needs, and how much can be achieved when actuaries, geophysicists, engineers, policy experts and data scientists work together to reduce disaster impacts. It also convinced me that academia and industry need each other if research is to remain impactful and relevant. Still, I always felt a strong pull towards academia, where I could advance knowledge and tackle broader and even more complex societal challenges. Moving from industry to academia is rarely straightforward, but I took the leap, driven by the belief that academic research and education could make a lasting impact.
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The reason I stand where I am today is because of the inclusive, supportive, and collaborative environment I found at UCL and beyond. The opportunities I have been given and the incredible colleagues who have mentored and encouraged me throughout my career have been invaluable. I feel both privileged and deeply grateful for the professional path I have followed, and I am committed to giving back—to the UCL community that has invested in my growth and to the broader research network that I am fortunate to be part of.

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In pursuit of this commitment, I strongly embrace the following values, which also guide how we work as a group:

Developing research that delivers solutions for marginalised communities. Disasters disproportionately affect the most socially vulnerable, including those with limited financial resources, unsafe housing, or restricted access to essential services. These communities often lack the ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters, leading to cycles of devastation that deepen existing inequalities. My research seeks to address these disparities by developing frameworks that promote resilience and equitable recovery, ensuring that disaster risk reduction strategies are accessible to those who need them most.

Championing diversity in academia. I believe fostering diversity is not just about representation—it is a fundamental commitment to ensuring equitable opportunities for all. True diversity thrives when inclusion is rooted in empowerment, enabling individuals of all genders, sexual orientations, races, nationalities, and religions to contribute meaningfully and grow within academic spaces. My own lived experience of navigating conservative environments and the barriers they can create has made me acutely aware of the challenges faced by many underrepresented groups. This perspective drives my commitment to fostering academic spaces where everyone feels supported, valued, and able to thrive.

Advancing open science and knowledge accessibility. Access to scientific research remains highly restricted and often elitist, limiting the ability of marginalised communities to benefit from innovation. I firmly believe that knowledge should be open and accessible to all, not confined within paywalls or institutions with exclusive access. Open science promotes collaboration, accelerates discoveries, and ensures that research and education can be used to drive meaningful change across society. In practice, we publish open access wherever we can: nearly 90% of our journal papers since 2024 are freely available. I was also one of the founders of Seismica, a community-driven, diamond open access journal for seismology and earthquake science, served on its Editorial Board Management Committee as Executive Editor – Operations (2021–2024), and continue to serve as a Handling Editor. Seismica is free to read and free to publish in, with no subscriptions or article processing charges, and is run by a volunteer team of researchers. Members of our group also share the data and code from their research openly through their GitHub repositories and personal websites (see our Team page). I am committed to supporting initiatives that expand access to academic research and education, making scientific advancements more inclusive and impactful.

Building equitable, long-term global partnerships. Much of our work takes place in low- and middle-income countries, where the strongest disaster-risk collaborations are built over many years, not through short-term, extractive projects. We aim for partnerships in which colleagues in the Global South help set research agendas rather than simply provide data, and which leave behind lasting local capacity, skills and infrastructure. We are committed to long-term, equitable collaborations whose benefits stay with the communities our research is meant to serve.

Fostering a supportive and positive research culture. Research is a team effort, and people do their best work when they feel supported. We aim to be a group where everyone, from undergraduate and MSc students to PhD students, postdocs and research-enabling staff, is mentored, listened to and fairly credited for their contributions, and where we celebrate each other’s successes. As Vice-Dean (Research) of UCL’s Faculty of Engineering Sciences, I also work to embed these principles across the Faculty: for example, I championed our pilot of a fair and transparent promotions process for early-career researchers, which saw 41 successful promotions in 2025/26, up from nine the year before, and is now being rolled out across UCL. We are committed to helping early-career researchers build the skills, networks and confidence they need to thrive, wherever their careers take them.
 

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