Giacomo Lorenzini

Giacomo LORENZINI
Born on December 3, 1951, in Siena, Italy; 1974: Laurea Degree in Agricultural Sciences, University of Pisa, Italy (cum laude); 1981: Research Assistant, Chair of Plant Pathology, University of Pisa; 1983: visiting scientist, Imperial College of Science and Technology, London; 1987: Associate Professor of Crop Protection, University of Pisa; 2000 to present: full Professor of Plant Pathology at the University of Pisa, Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment; 2001 to 2003: Deputy-Dean, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of Pisa; 2005 to 2009: Head of the Agro-environmental Research Centre of the University of Pisa. 2005-2006: Director, Leonardo - Istituto di Ricerca su Territorio e Ambiente. 2018-2021: Director of CIRSEC, the Centre for Climate Change Impact of the University of Pisa. He has served for nine years as the Secretary-Treasurer of the Italian Phytopathological Society, SIPaV. Honorary Member of the Accademia dei Georgofili, Florence and of IABEP, The International Association for Biomonitoring of Environmental Pollution; member of the Scientific Committee of the Pisa University Press.
Research activities mainly concern the interactions between plants and air pollutants (molecular, metabolic, physiological and productive implications of their presence in agricultural and forest plants and ecosystems and biological monitoring of aerodisperse contaminants). He is author of a patent in the field of biological monitoring of ozone with a miniaturised kit based on tobacco germlings. Current research topics include: ecophysiology of differential responses to ozone and other oxidative stresses; biomonitoring of tropospheric ozone and airborne particulate matter with conventional and innovative methods. In addition he has interests in basic and applied traditional plant pathology. Recently, research interests have broadened to include tree hazard assessment with non-invasive methodologies and environmental education.
Author of around 400 papers, of which more than 150 are issued in Scopus, with 2725 total citations and 25 as H-index (Scopus, Apr 2018), has delivered over 80 presentations at conferences and congresses. He is the author/coauthor of the volumes "Plants and air pollution" (in Italian, “Le piante e l’inquinamento dell’aria”, Springer, Milan, 2005) and “Principles of crop protection” (in Italian, “Princìpi di fitoiatria”, Edagricole, Bologna, 2012), co-editor of the volume "Plant response to air pollution" (Pacini, Pisa, 1995), and co-guest editor of special issues of Environmental & Experimental Botany (2011) and Environmental Science and Pollution Research (2017).
He has acted as the scientific coordinator or principal investigator of several projects on phytotoxicology and has been the chairperson of international conferences. He served as reviewer of many peer-reviewed journals. He is the national coordinator of the MIUR-PRIN Project TreeCity, an international project for a better quality of life in our cities.
His didactical duties include the teaching of courses on Plant pathology, Crop protection, Urban forest pathology, Indicators of environmental quality, Pathology of ornamental plants. He has graduated 10 PhD students and supervised several post-doc fellows. He has served for 10 years as the Dean of the Laurea Degree on “Management of urban vegetation and of landscape”.
In 2015 the University of Pisa has awarded him the Ordine del Cherubino. Elected member of the Academic Senate of the University of Pisa for the 2016-2020 term. Director of the Research Center on Environmental Impact of Climate Change of the University of Pisa (2018-2021). Director of the Master Course on Sustainable Development and Climate Change of the University of Pisa. He is a blood donor.