Since the beginning of his career, he has had a keen interest in the experimental aspects of CERN physics programme of ultra-relativistic collisions of heavy ions. In this field, devoted to the study of the hot and dense medium formed by the coalescence of hundreds of protons and neutrons, he has been active in the NA35, WA97 and NA57 experiments at the SPS and, subsequently, in the conception and development of the ALICE experiment at the LHC.

He is author and co-author of about 300 papers published in peer-reviewed international journals (H-index = 54; sum of times cited without self-citations: 10387, according to Web of Science) and he is reviewer of scientific journals, chief editor of EPJ Plus and member of International Scientific Advisory Committees and Organizing Committee in several Conferences and Workshops on Nuclear Physics instrumentation.