Tell me about yourself
I was born and grew up in Bologna, Italy. After graduating in my birthtown, I moved several times animated by the wish to study math and become a professor. In college I was not exactly a model student, but after making it to grad school I started focusing in math and research. In Spring 2017, towards the end of my graduate studies, I spent a semester in Rutgers as a visiting student. That was also my first time in the US. Before joining Rutgers I was working at UIC in Chicago, where I got married and started a family. My wife Dima also joined the math department at Rutgers.
How did you become interested in math?
Math has been my favorite subject since I started grade school. As may other kids I loved playing games. Answering math problems was like a game to me. My best friend and I were always challenging each other to find the answer first.
As a student, did you do undergraduate research?
As a student I developed an interests for several subjects that were not covered in the standard math curricula. I started reading some books and some material found online by my own. The advisor of my master thesis appreciated my creativity and let me write mostly about my favorite subject: mathematical logic.
What are you researching? (in layman’s)
Loosely speaking, my research is about classification. Mathematical objects are too many to be listed and studied one by one. So mathematicians identify their common features and group them according to some rule. This common practice is called classification and is widespread throughout mathematics. My research establishes whether a classification is efficient or not, and finds evidence against satisfactory classification theorems.
What are you excited about in joining Rutgers University?
Rutgers University has a long standing and famous tradition in mathematical logic. Also I am excited to be back where it all started. When I was at Rutgers as a graduate student, I was renting a room in Brooklyn and I used to have a long commute: two MTA trains, NJ transit, and finally the Rutgers shuttle. Five years later, my first day of class as a Professor I wanted to get the same Bus, so I took the LX from College Avenue. That brought back many memories.
