Francesca Funiciello

Dr Francesca Funiciello

Dipartimento di Scienze Geologiche
Universita’ degli Studi “Roma TRE”
Largo S. Leonardo Murialdo 1
Roma 00146
Italy

Francesca Funiciello, aged 36, is a Geodynamic Modeler specialised in the study of the subduction process using laboratory, numerical and analytical models.

She is currently a post doctoral fellow at the Department of Geology of the University “Roma TRE”. She has just chosen this institution as host for this EURYI project because of its expertise in the study of convergent margins and exceptional facilities of its Laboratory of Experimental Tectonics.

Funiciello gained a Ph.D at the ETH-Institut für Geophysik in Zurich in 2002, where she studied the physics of the subduction process, developing a dynamic model to explain the Central Mediterranean’s tectonic history over the last 80 Myr, proceeding to a post doc position at the “Roma TRE” University, where she continued to study the dynamics of subduction and plate motion with specific applications to real cases (Mediterranean, South America, North-East Japan, Arabian plate) until now.

She is involved in several national and international research projects, collaborating with a wide range of scientists and institutions (ETH, Zurich-Switzerland, Univ. Montpellier-France, MIT-USA, Univ. Toulose-France, Tohoku Univ.-Japan, among others).

Alongside her current post doc work, she is involved in outreach programmes, including her role of Italian representative in the Committee of Education of the EGU (Europena Geosciences Union) for the organization of the GIFT (Geophysical Information for Teachers) workshop.

She said: “I am proud to be the first winner of a EURYI Award in Earth Science.

Receiving this award is wonderful for me, all my team and for our project.

It gives us not just the resources but the confidence we need to move closer towards understanding the potential of megathrust earthquakes, quantitatively explaining the causes and effects of the dynamics of convergent plate margins.”