Research Interests
Pietro’s research group focuses on the synergistic use of remote sensing data exploitation and innovative approaches in Earth and Cryosphere Science and Natural/Anthropogenic Hazard Response. He is particularly interested in analyzing how the new generation of remote sensing instruments are leading to a more effective, near real-time disaster monitoring, assessment and response and how these instruments provide greater ability to constrain dynamically changing physical processes, improving our understanding of the Earth’s Environment.
His multidisciplinary research, funded by NASA and international space agencies as the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) has been applied to Earth science, cryosphere and disaster response. He has published over thirty-two research articles in leading international journals in the field, and several of my research projects have been featured in the popular international press, television and radio, including the New York Times, Fox News, NBC News, PBS, The Guardian, The Independent (UK), Vice, Der Spiegel (Germany), La Repubblica (Italy), Il Sole 24 Ore (Italy), RAI (Italy).
Appointments
- Assistant Professor, Geosensing System Engineering
- Guest Scientist, German Aerospace Agency (DLR)
Professional Experience
- 04/2020 – 08/2021: Associate Project Scientist: Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine
- 03/2018 – 03/2020: Scientist, Radar Science & Engineering, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
- 03/2016 – 03/2018: NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) Fellow, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
Education
- 2016 PhD in Environmental Engineering, University of Basilicata, Potenza (Italy)
- 2012 Master Degree in Physics, University of Bari (Italy)
- 2010 Bachelor Degree in Physics, University of Bari (Italy)
Institutional Responsibilities
- 2017 – 2021 USA Coordinator of an international team of stakeholders (Italian and German Space Agencies) in a >€2 MM/year international satellite measurement campaign to deliver high-resolution coverage of Antarctica and Greenland.
- 2020 – 2021 Member of the UC-Irvine Inclusive Excellence Committee promoting UCI collaborative efforts to make the Earth System Science (ESS) department an anti-racist, diverse, and inclusive department.
- 2019– 2020 Member of the NASA Surface Deformation and Change committee in charge of defining an observing system that would meet the recommendations of the 2017 US National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Decadal Survey for developing an affordable synthetic aperture radar-based system.
Classes
Applied Geospatial Computations (CIVE 7397)
Previous Courses
- 2019 Graduate course entitled – “Fundamentals of Remote Sensing: Imaging Radar and Applications”. Visiting Professor University of Bath, United Kingdom.
- 2018 Graduate Course entitled: “Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) interferometry: processing, geophysical and engineering applications”. Visiting Professor University of Cagliari, Italy –
Awards and Honors
- 2021 Italian Professorship Habilitation as Full Professor in Earth Science Physics (02/C1)
- 2020 Geophysical Research Letters: Top Downloaded paper
- 2020 Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth top 10% most cited articles published in 2020 in Geosciences.
- 2020 Remote Sensing Young Investigator Award
- 2019 ISSNAF Anna Maria Molteni young investigator award for Mathematics and Physics
- 2019 Science Advances: top 0.10% most cited articles published in 2019 in Geosciences.
- 2019 Remote Sensing: top 1% most cited articles published in 2019 in Geosciences.
- 2019 Structural Control and Health Monitoring: top 1% most cited, and top downloaded articles published in 2019
- 2019 Invited Talk: International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics Montreal, Canada
- 2019 Italian Professorship Habilitation as Associate Professor in Earth Science Physics (02/C1)
- 2019 Italian Professorship Habilitation as Full Professor in Geosciences (04/A4)
- 2018 Italian Professorship Habilitation as Associate Professor in Geosciences (04/A4)
- 2018 Remote Sensing: top 1% most cited articles published in 2018 in Geosciences.
- 2017 Geophysical Research Letters: top 10% most cited articles published in 2017 in Geosciences.
- 2016 Scientific Reports: top 10% most cited articles published in 2016 in Geosciences.
- 2016 Geophysical Research Letters : top 10% most cited articles published in 2016 in Geosciences.
- 2016 NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) Award.
- 2015 IGARSS Student Travel Grant: “COSMO – SkyMed very short repeat pass SAR interferometry over rural areas: the Val d’Agri and Potenza test cases in Basilicata, Italy “.
- 2015 Geophysical Journal International, top 10% most cited articles published in 2015 in Geosciences.
- 2015 Remote Sensing: top 10% most cited articles published in 2015 in Geosciences.
- 2015 Seismological Research Letters: top 10% most cited articles published in 2015 in Geosciences.
- 2014 NASA Group Achievement Award: Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis (ARIA)Team.
- 2012 European Geosciences Union Outstanding Student Poster Award
Invited Talks
- 2019 Invited Lecture entitled: “The Role of Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry in Science and Applications: From Cryosphere to Infrastructure Monitoring” at the Architecture and Civil Engineering Department of the University of Bath.
- 2018 – Distinguished Lecture in Remote Sensing entitled: “Heterogeneous retreat and ice melt of Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica”, Department of Earth System Science – University of California, Irvine.
- 2017 – Distinguished Lecture On the synergistic use of SAR constellations’ data exploitation for Earth Science, Cryosphere and infrastructure monitoring, the lecture has been held at the University of Texas, Austin – Center for Space Research.
- 2017 – Distinguished Lecture in Earth Sciences, Università di Napoli Federico II, DISTAR (Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, dell’Ambiente e delle Risorse), Naples, Italy.
- 2015 – Distinguished lecture in Earth Science entitled: “On the synergistic use of SAR constellations data exploitation for Earth Science”, GFZ Potsdam – Germany, September 9, 2015
Organization of Scientific Meetings
- 2021 Ka band and broadband communications conference. Technical Committee of the Earth observation session
- 2021 Chairman of the IGARSS 2021 invited session: ‘GIS integration of remote sensing data for damage and risk assessment of the built environment’ ~5k online participants
- 2017 Chairman of the session Atmosphere/Ionosphere at Fringe, Helsinki ~ 1k participants.
- 2017 Chairman of the IGARSS 2017 session SAR and InSAR methods, Austin, Texas, USA ~5k participants
Reviewing and Editorial Activities
- 2018 – present Review panel member for several NASA grants.
- 2020 Judge for the AGU Outstanding Student Poster competition
- 2018 –2020 Editorial Board Special Sessions MDPI Remote Sensing
- 2018 – 2019 Review Board, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation)
- 2016– 2021 Reviewer for Nature Geosciences, Scientific Reports, Geophysical Research Letters, IEEE JSTARS/GRSL/TGRIS, Remote Sensing of the Environment, Cryosphere, Landslides, International Journal of Remote Sensing.