DISAAA-A

Formerly the Faculty of Agriculture of University of Pisa (the most ancient institution for agricultural studies in the world, funded in 1871), the Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment (Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari e Agro-ambientali) hosts 3 bachelor courses and 4 master degree courses, and also one PhD program. The DISAAA-a employs XX scientists (either full/assistant professors or research assistants) and XX technical staff. For the aims of the project, the DISAAA-a will collaborate with the Centre for Agro-environmental Research “Enrico Avanzi” of University of Pisa (http://www.avanzi.unipi.it/), where the field trial will be hosted and carried out.

The DISAAA-a will be in charge of the coordination of the project and will also contribute to:

– realization of innovative operative machines and adjustment/optimization of existing equipment to be tested within the three scenarios (“cross” activity between the research units);

– carrying out of in situ field trials in specialized horticultural crops according with the three proposed technical itinerary (INT, ORG, ORG+);

– harmonization of common methods for the design of the field trials and the assessment of the main parameters (cross activity between the research units);

– evaluation of the effect of the different strategies on soil quality within the tree scenarios (cross activity between the research units);

– evaluation of the effect of different strategies on the quality of the products within the three scenarios (cross activity between the research units).

The DISAAA-a will be represented by the project coordinator, dr. Christian Frasconi, PhD.

Position: Fixed term Assistant Professor

Institution: DISAAA-a, University of Pisa

Address: Via del Borghetto, 80 – 56124 Pisa (Italy)

e-mail address: christian.frasconi@unipi.it

telephone number: +39-050-2218922

CV

2014-today: fixed term assistant professor in Farm mechanization at the Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa

2011-2014: grant researcher at Centro Interdipartimentale di Ricerche Agro-Ambientali “E. Avanzi”, University of Pisa. Title of the grant: “Development of tools and equipment for phyiscal weed control to be implemented on a fleet of autonomous robot with artificial perception systems”.

2010-2011: post-doc researcher at Centro Interdipartimentale di Ricerche Agro-Ambientali “E. Avanzi”, University of Pisa. Title of the grant: “ Physical weed control and harvesting mechazination of woody crop for short rotation forestry”.

2007-2009: PhD in Agro-Forestry Engineering (cycle XXII), specific topic “Farm Mechanization in organic and integrated farming systems” at Sezione MAMA del DAGA University of Pisa (associated institution) and Dipartimento di Ingegneria Agro-Forestale (DIAF) University of Florence (administrative institution). Supervisor Prof. Andrea Peruzzi. Title of the PhD thesis “Thermal weed control in urban areas”. PhD defended successfully on 21/04/2010.

July 2006: Master degree in Agricultural Sciences (full marks) at the la Faculty of Agriculture (UP), thesis entitled “Biological control of some formae speciales of Fusarium oxysporum” (Supervisor Prof. Giovanni Vannacci University of Pisa).

Research topics and activities:

• Physical weed (non-chemical) weed control in vegetable and arable crops, in urban and suburban areas and on ornamental/nursery crops;
• Low environmental impact soil disinfection;
• Conservation tillage;
• Low environmental impact poultry grow-out facilities;
• Physical sucker and weed control in vineyards;
• Mechanization of nursery, planting and post-planting management of warm-season turf-grasses;
• Prototype of an autonomous ground mobile unit for “precision” physical weed control in maize.

 

Other staff of DISAAA-a involved in the project:

• Daniele Antichi, PhD: fixed term assistant professor in agronomy and crop science, expertise on conservation tillage, cover crops and intercropping (daniele.antichi@unipi.it);
• Marco Fontanelli, PhD: assistant professor in farm mechanization, expertise on non-chemical weed control and farm mechanization (marco.fontanelli@unipi.it);
• Luisa Martelloni, PhD: post-doc researcher, expertise on non-chemical weed control (luisa.martelloni@agr.unipi.it);
• Andrea Peruzzi: full professor in farm mechanization, expertise on non chemical weed control, soil tillage (andrea.peruzzi@unipi.it);
• Michele Raffaelli: associate professor in farm mechanization, expertise on non-chemical weed control and farm mechanization (marco.fontanelli@unipi.it);
• Alessandro Saviozzi: associate professor in soil chemistry, expertise on soil chemistry (alessandro.saviozzi@unipi.it);
• Lucia Guidi: associate professor in plant biochemistry, expertise on organoleptic and nutraceutical quality of plant products (lucia.guidi@unipi.it);
• Marco Landi, PhD: post-doc researcher, expertise on organoleptic and nutraceutical quality of plant products (marco.landi@for.unipi.it).