Moreno Di Marco
I am a conservation biologist with a passion for addressing large-scale environmental problems and evaluating how the solutions to these problems interact with other societal challenges (food, energy, climate, health). I obtained a PhD in July 2013 and have worked for Universities, NGOs, and GOs across Europe (6 years) and Australia (4 years). I am now a Rita Levi Montalcini Research Fellow at Sapienza University of Rome.
My research has produced substantial scientific outputs, with 54 articles published in ISI-ranked journals (18 as a first author, 3 as a senior author), including Nature, PNAS, and Nature Communications. Two thirds of my articles are among the top 10% most-cited worldwide (source: Elsevier SciVal). My h-index is 29 in Google Scholar and 23 in Scopus. I have presented the results of my research in over 20 invited talks and seminars worldwide (eg. the Dept. of Zoology at Oxford University, the Ecological Society of Japan in Tokyo, the World Conservation Congress in Honolulu).
My research has attracted >625,000 € in funds (90% as a PI), including highly competitive fellowships such as the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship (European Commission), and the Rita Levi Montalcini Fellowship (Italian Ministry for Education University and Research). I also received important international recognitions, such as the status of Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Queensland (QS rank 14th in Environmental Sciences), the inclusion among Emerging Leaders at the European-Australian Leadership Forum, the role of Handling Editor for Conservation Biology (ISI WoS rank 3rd in Biodiversity Conservation), the inclusion in the “40 under 40” list of most influential young Italian professionals by Fortune Italia.
My research has made significant policy and societal contributions. In 2014-2016 I led a consultancy for the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which contributed to the definition of a new Standard for the identification of Key Biodiversity Areas. This Standard is instrumental to international environmental policy, as it informs the protected area strategy set under UN Convention on Biological Diversity. In 2017-2019 I led the development of future scenarios of plant biodiversity decline which contributed to important international initiatives, such as the Global Assessment Summary for Policymakers of the IPBES initiative and the Living Planet Report of WWF International. In 2019-2020 I led a PNAS article relating unsustainable environmental practices to pandemic risk; this article is receiving high media attention (newspapers, radios, TV) due to the COVID-19 pandemic which followed the paper’s publication.
