University of Western Australia
A researcher at The University of Western Australia has been awarded a prestigious fellowship to study groundwater management in Europe.
Research Associate Dr Simone Gelsinari, from UWA’s School of Engineering, is the recipient of the Marie Curie European Postdoctoral Fellowship and will work at the University of Florence in Italy next year.
Dr Gelsinari, who was born in Italy, said he was excited to bring cutting-edge Australian research to his home country.
“Western Australia has a very similar climate to Italy, it’s even called a ‘Mediterranean type’, and is leading the way in active, holistic ecosystem water research,” Dr Gelsinari said.
“It will be very cool to bring knowledge in water research to the original Mediterranean.”
Dr Gelsinari will work with Italy’s National Research Council to develop a program inspired by his leadership of the Recharge Estimation in a Changing Climate initiative, a UWA project supported by the WA Department of Water and Environmental Regulation and the National Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network .
Dr Gelsinari completed his PhD with Monash University and CSIRO before moving to UWA in 2020.
“I love that I have been able to go where the knowledge is, to grow scientifically and personally, and I think that’s something everybody should do, to get out of your comfort zone,” he said.
UWA School of Engineering Associate Professor Sally Thompson congratulated Dr Gelsinari on his achievement.
“The Marie Curie Fellowship is one of the European Union’s most prestigious research awards and it is extraordinarily competitive,” Associate Professor Thompson said.
“I, and everyone who has worked with Simone at UWA, are tremendously proud of him for winning this award and the opportunities it will give him to build his research career.”
The Marie Curie Fellowship supports excellence in research and innovation, accepting less than five per cent of its applicants in the field of environmental sciences each year.