Seminar - Functional Soil Properties in Viticulture: Soil and Geological Controls on Terroir Across Scales

Speaker: Prof. Edoardo A.C. Costantini CNR-IBE - Biology, Agriculture and Food Sciences Department, Sesto Fiorentino | Tuesday 10 March 2026 | 4,30 p.m. - Arduino Classroom

10.03.2026

The presentation examines how soil properties and geology shape terroir and wine quality at different scales. Terroir is defined as the unique combination of environmental and human factors influencing wine quality. Key soil properties—such as texture, stoniness, drainage, color, water and nutrient

Read more

Seminar - How unique is our home planet? Geochemical evidence for an ancient subduction zone on Mars

Speaker: Prof. Frank E. Brenker – Schwiete Cosmochemistry Laboratory, Goethe University, Frankfurt | Thursday 5 March 2026 | 4,30 p.m. - Classroom 1F

05.03.2026

Habitable Earth seems a rather unique place in our Solar System. Comparing processes like plate tectonics at different planetary bodies will help to better understand mechanism on our home planet.Although some moons of Jupiter show evidence for icy plate tectonic processes, recent plate tectonics

Read more

Ceremony at the Department for the Retirement of Professor Cristina Stefani

26.02.2026

The Department of Geosciences marked the retirement of Professor Cristina Stefani with a well-attended ceremony celebrating her long-standing contribution to research, teaching and academic leadership.The event opened with institutional remarks by the Director, Professor Nicola Surian, who

Read more

Seminar - Geomorphic controls on organic carbon storage and flux in river corridors

Speaker: Prof. Katherine B. Lininger – Geography Department, University of Colorado Boulder (USA) | Tuesday 3 March 2026 | 4,30 p.m. - Arduino Classroom

03.03.2026

River corridors (channels and floodplains) are active components of the carbon cycle, transporting, transforming, and storing carbon. However, the details of how carbon is partitioned and stored in river corridors are still relatively unexplored. In this seminar, I provide examples of how geomorphic

Read more

Seminar - The Secret History of Sharks. A story of evolution and survival

Speaker: Prof. John Long - College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Adelaide (South Australia) | Thursday 19 February 2026 | 3,30 p.m. - Classroom 1F

19.02.2026

Chondrichthyans (sharks, rays and holocephalans) originated around 465 million years ago, but their fossil record is very scant for the first few tens of millions of years. They survived all 5 of Earth's mass extinction events, but they haven't always had it easy. Their origin story (Ordovician

Read more