I come from Switzerland originally, but I have been working for the past twenty years at the University of Siena (Italy) and the University of Cambridge (UK). I am one of Italy’s most active and inventive mid-career professor in Italy, specializing in landscape archaeology, remote sensing and archaeological methodology for purposes of research, recording and conservation. My work is focused on the understanding of past landscapes from protohistory to the present day. The principal context for my work has been Tuscany but I have also participated in and led research work in the UK, Spain, Turkey, Palestine, Iraq, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tagikistan. Since 2006 I have been a faculty member of the University of Siena (Italy), in the Department of History and Cultural Heritage, where I am engaged in teaching and research as associate professor in Landscape Archaeology. From 2016 I have also been invited from the Department of Social, Political and Cognitive Sciences of the University of Siena to teach “Cultural Diplomacy and Archaeology” within the international master course in Cultural Diplomacy.

I have established a reputation as an international authority in the field of landscape and digital archaeology. I have contributed at national and international level to develop a methodology for the holistic study of archaeological landscapes and have introduced new digital approaches to Mediterranean archaeology, particularly aerial survey and oblique air photography, mobile GIS standards, large-scale continuous geophysics, lidar UAV and a new UAV-based pipeline for 4D documentation of archaeological excavation and historical building.

I have been very active in the international sphere and have established a sound reputation for innovative research and the rapid publication of books and articles in international peer review journals and in the conference proceedings for meetings in which he has been involved as chairman and invited speaker. In 2011 I was proposed and admitted as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA) and in 2012 I was invited to be a member of the General Management Board of HIST, the Governing Board of the International Centre on Space Technologies for Natural and Cultural Heritage, under the auspices of UNESCO and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. I was invited as visiting professor at École Normale Supérieure (Paris), University of Lund (Sweden) and at the Institute of Archaeology of Erbil (Erbil-Iraq).

I currently lead a research team in the Laboratory of Landscape Archaeology and Remote Sensing at the University of Siena and have directed numerous research projects, field surveys, archaeological prospections, and excavations. In 2009 I founded a successful spin-off company at the University of Siena, ATS Ldt, aimed at technology transfer for Cultural Heritage.