Can you introduce yourself?
Hi! My name is Riccardo. I studied Mathematics at the university in Italy. I also got my PhD in SISSA, one of the Italian excellence schools. I first was a Postdoc in the United States for three years, and then in the United Kingdom for another couple of years before coming to Radboud in 2020. I teach both at the Bachelor's Mathematics (analysis courses) and the Master's Mathematics (Calculus of Variations).
Why did you choose to study/work in this field? What makes this field so interesting?
The type of mathematics that I do allows me to interact with researchers from several fields (physics, chemistry, engineering) and carry out investigations both from a theoretical and from a more applied point of view. This gives me the unique opportunity to be involved in many fascinating challenging problems of modern research.
What are you currently doing your own research on?
My current lines of research are in the Mathematics of Materials Science and of Imaging Science. For the former, I developed rigorous innovative analytical methods to understand how microstructures of materials affect their macroscopic properties. This is fundamental to designing materials with desired behaviours. For the latter, I rigorously investigate the properties of algorithms used to perform deblurring and denoising of images. The goal is to provide a sort of 'guide' of what are the features of each method, so that practitioners can choose that that fits best their needs.
What advice do you have for students making their study choice?
I suggest students to be curious and use their time at the university to master mathematical techniques, without having to worry about their relevance for a future job. Indeed, the ability to understand complex abstract notions and the problem-solving mindset acquired in this process will allow them to quickly master any skills required in their future jobs.