I am geologist and a senior scientist with the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR). From 2009 to 2019 I was Director (or deputy Director) of the CNR Research Institute for Geo-Hydrological Protection (IRPI). Since November 2019, I am general Director of the Office for scientific and technical activities of the Italian Department of Civil Protection. I participated in a number of national, international, European and US projects. I coordinated the AVI project, producing a large catalogue of historical landslides and floods in Italy, and principal investigator for the MORFEO project of the Italian Space Agency, and for the DORIS and LAMPRE FP7 projects for the EC. I served as president of the Natural Hazards Division of the European Geosciences Union, I was executive editor for the EGU journal Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences until 2015, and a member of the Italian National committee for predicting and preventing major risks.