I was born in 1970 in Montevideo, Uruguay, the country that my grandparents made home after leaving Italy and Spain. I attended the Faculty of Chemistry at the University of the Republic where I received my BSc in 1991, and an MSc in 1996 in the group of Prof. Oscar Ventura. That year I moved to the USA, where I pursued a PhD in chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh, under the supervision of Prof. Kenneth Jordan.

My research sits at the intersection between, physics, chemistry, and materials science. It encompasses the interaction between matter and radiation from the infrared to X-rays, the atomistic aspects of catalysis, and the dynamics of electrons and nuclei at the nanoscale. I collaborate closely with both experimentalists and theoreticians to apply a variety of theoretical methods to a broad range of problems of fundamental and technological interest. These include design and characterization of materials for energy harvesting and storage, and nanocatalysis. My work has been featured in the cover of The Journal of Physical Chemistry and The Journal of Chemical Physics.