Bachelor in Geology at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) and Master in Geochemistry from the same University. Since 2022 is developing his PhD thesis at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice in the program of Polar Sciences studying organic molecules in an Andean ice core to unveil the paleofire history in the Amazon region.

Since 1990 he is full professor of Ecology at the Faculty of Science of the University of Messina (Italy). General Secretary in the following NATO courses coordinated by Dr Trevor Platt, Halifax, Canada: (a) Lipari Island, Italy (12-24 October 1980) on Physiological ecology of Phytoplankton, (b) Bombannes (Bordeaux, France 12-20 May 1982) on Flows of energy and materials in marine ecosyistems: theory and practice, (c) S. Miniato, Italy (1-7 October 1985) on Physiological Ecology of photosynthetic Picopl9ankton in the Ocean. From 1990 to 2002, Italian Delegate to the Scientific Commission of the CCAMLR (Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, Hobart (Tasmania, Australia). Over 60 months accumulated research experience at sea, including the following PNRA Italian Antarctic Expeditions as Principal Investigator: III Exp. (Terra Nova Bay Ecosystem,1987-88), V (South Pacific Sector,1989-90), X ROSSMIZE (Ross Sea Marginal Ice Zone Ecology,1994-95), XIII PIPEX (Pack Ice Plankton Expedition,1997-98), XV PIED (Pack Ice Ecosystem Dynamics 1999-2000), XX SEAROWS (Sea ice Ecology in the Antarctic: ROss and Weddell Seas) on the Polar Queen, Cariboo, Italica (1987-2002), Peri-Antarctic Oceanographic Expeditions in the Strait of Magellan I (1991) and II (1995), and one Arctic canadian cruise by N/R Hudson (1980). He has been Scientific Responsible of the Operative Unit Zooplankton and Micronekton in the following European projects: VECTOR, RITMARE, COCONET, MARINE STRATEGY. From 1968 to now, his research activity has been continuously addressed to issues on the zooplankton and micronekton ecology and biodiversity. Its main fields of study concern: (a) spatio-temporal distribution and daily vertical migrations (DVM) of marine zooplankton and micronekton communities in the Mediterranean and Polar ecosystems, in relation to the physical, chemical and biological water mass structure) (b) brackish environments functioning and biological response to stressor variables, (c) functioning of the coastal and pelagic food chain, with particular regard to the role of euphausiid and mesopelagic fish in the Deep Scattering Layer (DSL) (d) zooplankton role in the carbon cycle, (e) particles size spectrum (OPC) in the study of aquatic ecosystems (f) effects of climate change on the biology and ecology of Antarctic sea-ice and free water zooplankton communities. During 18 PNRA Antarctic expeditions (1987-2018) in Terra Nova Bay, Ross Sea and South Pacific Sector in free water and pack-fast-ice he collected about 6000 samples which are part of the zooplankton and micronekton collection laboratory of the University of Messina. In addition to the classic mesozooplankton and micronekton such as WP2, Indian Ocean Standard Net (IOSN), Bongo 40, IKMT, PHN, advanced electronic multinet are part of its field instrumentation such as BIONESS (1 m2) with 12 nets, MININESS (0.25 m2) with 10 nets 200, 500 and 1000 um, MICRONESS with 4 100 um nets, equipped with a multiparametric probe seabird 11 plus, fluorescence sensor and Optical Plankton Counter (OPC).
Research results are documented in more than 240 papers on national and international peer journals. Editor of these books: Atlas of Marine Zooplankton Strait of Magellan I Copepods (1995) and II Amphipods, Mysids, Euphausiids, Ostracods, Chaetognaths, Springer Verlag (1996); Ross Sea Ecology, Springer Verlag 2000; Mediterranean Ecosystems Structure and Processes, Springer Verlag (2001). Editor of the Research Topic "Ecology of Marine Zooplankton and Micronekton in Polar and Sub-Polar Areas” in Frontiers in Marine Biology (2023-2024).

Marine biologist and oceanographer, Serena got three degrees from different universities: the undergraduate in Biological Sciences at the University of Genova, the master in marine biology at the University Politecnica delle Marche in Ancona, another master in 'Applied Physical Oceanography' at the University of Malta. She studied in detail the algae reproduction as well as the anchovies reproduction, while her specialisation as a marine biologist was about the study of the Sperm whales' acoustic. She wanted to protect the oceans and who lives in them, therefore in Malta she specialised into the study of the plastic pollution, with the use of a drone, deriving from an oceanic input as well as from humans, as a definition of a non education about the environment. Furthermore, her desire to know more in detail about other cetaceans species brought her for different summer seasons to Husavik, Iceland, working as a whale watching guide. From the humpback whales and the blue whales to the curiosity of knowing more about the ice, while looking at the glaciers in Iceland. Since then, she became a PhD student at the University of Ca' Foscari of Venice, in collaboration with the University of Milan-Bicocca, where she is studying the RICE ice core, in particular the fossils that she is finding into the core and the reason why they are there.

She attained the master’s degree with honours in Applied and Environmental Geology at the University of Turin in 2010, with a thesis entitled Distribution, origin and consequences of fluoride content in groundwater in an area of the central sector of the Ethiopian Rift. She specialized in the collection, analysis and dissemination of data in developing countries and in geological and hydrogeological mapping and modelling through GIS data management. The working experience in the Alpine environment allowed the deepening into pedological and geochemical subjects. She worked as study grant holder on the Nunataryuk EU-funded Horizon 2020 project, coordinated by the Alfred Wegener Institute, that aims to assess arctic permafrost thaw and study how it contributes to climate change.
Present position: PhD Student at University Ca' Foscari Venezia, PhD in Polar Sciences; title of proposal: Modelling the fate of POPs distribution in permafrost: combine large scale to local perspective.