Laser driven ion acceleration, innovative target geometries for ion acceleration, real-time diagnostics of particles and radiation generated in laser-plasmas, generation of brilliant particle streams from nuclear fusion reactions, production of laser-based secondary sources for multidisciplinary applications, including new compact approaches to hadrontherapy for cancer treatment and enhancement of cancer cell killing efficacy through the proton boron nuclear fusion reaction. Author of around 190 scientific papers on these research topics (h-index 23 from WoS).

He graduated with honours in Physics at Catania University in 2004, received a Marie Curie Fellowship at the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IoP-CAS) in 2006 and his PhD degree in Physics at Messina University in 2008, defending a thesis entitled “Ion Acceleration and Diagnostics in Laser-generated Plasmas” for experimental work carried out at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN-LNS), Catania, Italy. In 2008-2011 he was Post Doc Researcher at IoP-CAS in Prague. In 2012-2019 he was appointed as Senior Researcher at IoP-CAS and Leader of the “Particle Acceleration by Lasers” Research Programme (RP3) of the ELI-Beamlines international user facility, as well as Deputy Head of the Department of Experimental Programmes at ELI-Beamlines and responsible for the ELIMAIA (ELI Multidisciplinary Applications of laser-Ion Acceleration) beamline commissioning and operation. Currently, he is employed as Lecturer in Experimental Plasma Physics at Queen’s University Belfast. He is a member of the Beam Plasma & Inertial Fusion (BP&IF) Committee of the Plasma Physics Division at the European Physical Society (EPS) and of the LaserLab-Europe User Representative Committee. He was awarded by the President of the Italian Republic with the title of “Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy”.