What is beauty?
Where can we find it?
Most people would highlight a painting
or an object of design.
In my case, it is evident that nature has
a glowing beauty and I have always been
fascinated by the complexity of living organisms
and their diversity of forms, colors, shapes and behaviors.

I still remember when as a kid, while playing in my grandmother’s garden,
I found a batch of Old World swallowtail (Papilio machaon) and how I spent my days
annotating simple observations regarding what the caterpillars were doing.
When the stunning adult butterflies emerged, I was so impressed by the outcome of the metamorphosis
that my interest in breeding insects never disappeared.

During my studies, my inclination towards the observation of nature grew in importance as I decided to cultivate
my curiosity through a complete devotion to biology.

During my bachelor studies in Biological Sciences, I had the opportunity to learn the basis of a wide array of disciplines, from molecular biology to ecology.

Since my first developmental biology course, I faced a fundamental question connected to the fascinating transition from egg to butterfly: how can a complete organism reach its final shape starting from a single cell?
Thus, I deepened my interest in developmental biology, in particular for its potential relevance to understand evolution.