Maria Cristina Facchini

After graduating from the University of Bologna in 1985 with a thesis in analytical chemistry, she earned her PhD from the Department of Chemistry at the same university, where she became a postdoctoral fellow . In 1987, she was a research fellow at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the CNR in Bologna, a position she held until 1992, when she became head of the laboratory of the Regional Agency for Environmental Protection. In 1996, she joined the Institute of Physics and Chemistry of the Lower and Upper Atmosphere of the CNR in Bologna. From 2001 to 2006, she was a Senior Scientist at the Institute of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences of the CNR. Since 2007, she has been a research director at the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate of the CNR, Bologna section.

Maria Cristina Facchini's primary research interests are physical and chemical processes in the atmospheric system, such as aerosols and clouds, and their effects on changes in atmospheric composition and climate. Early in her scientific career, she investigated the chemical properties of fog and clouds, resulting in her first major scientific achievement regarding the organic partitioning of aerosols between fog droplets and interstitial air. Building on this research, she contributed to the development of a new technique for studying aerosols based on the principles of nuclear magnetic resonance. In 2001, she contributed to a joint paper in Science, where leading global experts in the field discussed the need to rethink cloud formation theory based on new discoveries regarding the solubility of aerosols and their surface tension, as well as the effects of soluble gases. Her most recent research focuses on the interaction between climate and biota (in ecology, the set of all living organisms, animals and plants, that inhabit a given region), including marine, atmospheric, and aerosol biota.