Luigi de Simone

Luigi De Simone is a biologist with a strong background in microbial ecology. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in General and Applied Biology and a Master’s in Biology of Extreme Environments from the University of Naples “Federico II”. During his MSc thesis, Luigi studied the effects of trace elements on hot-spring microbial communities, developing skills in molecular biology, geochemistry, and bioinformatic analysis.

During his academic training, he participated in the ICDP-DIVE sampling campaign, where he collected Earth-crust cores in Northern Italy at the foothills of the Alps. Following his Master’s degree, he completed an Erasmus postgraduate traineeship at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, where he studied the diversity and ecology of unique electrogenic cable bacteria, ranging from temperate mudflats to Antarctic sediments.

As Doctoral Candidate 8 in the NEUTEN project, Luigi will investigate innovative strategies to improve the efficiency of psychrophilic anaerobic digesters (PAD). Developing an augmentation strategy to promote the microbial community development and methane production at low temperatures.