People

Katinka Bellomo (she/her)
Dr. Katinka Bellomo graduated from Università degli studi in Torino in with B.S. and M.S. degrees in Physics. In 2015 she obtained a Ph.D. in Meteorology and Physical Oceanography from the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Sciences. Her Ph.D. dissertation is titled ‘The influence of Cloud Feedbacks on Climate Variability and Change’. Between 2015-2017 she was funded by the Lamont fellowship at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University. At Lamont, she worked on investigating mechanisms of the Atlantic Multidecadal Variability. In 2018-2019 she worked as a data scientist in industry, while since 2020 she’s back in academia first at CNR-ISAC and then at Politecnico di Torino. Between 2021-2023 she was PI of MSCA-IF CliMOC.

Ph.D. candidates:

Oliver Mehling (he/him)
Ph.D. student (co-supervised), 10/2021 – present
Oliver received his M.Sc. in Physics from Heidelberg University in Germany in 2021, where he also got his first hands-on experience in climate modeling and model development. Currently, he is a Ph.D. student at Politecnico di Torino within the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network “CriticalEarth”, working with Jost von Hardenberg and Katinka Bellomo. Oliver’s research focuses on internal variability of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) on centennial timescales. To investigate its underlying mechanisms and how they relate to a weakening or potential shutdown of the AMOC, he employs a hierarchy of climate models – from analytical box models and models of intermediate complexity to state-of-the-art Earth System Models. Outside of academia, he enjoys cycling and traveling.

Andrea Vito Vacca (he/him)
Ph.D. student, 12/2022 – present
Andrea holds a master’s degree in environmental engineering from Politecnico di Torino with a specialization in climate change, where he was introduced to the world of climate data analysis. After an experience in a consulting firm, he is currently a Ph.D. candidate within the Sustainable Development and Climate Change national Ph.D. program. Andrea’s research focuses on the impact of the weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) on weather patterns and extreme phenomena as predicted by state-of-art global climate models. He is an advocate of an interdisciplinary and multicultural approach to address complex problems.

Giada Cerato (she/her)
Ph.D. student (co-supervised), 02/2023 – present
Giada received her B.Sc. in Energy Engineering in 2020, and her M.Sc. in Environmental Engineering in 2022 from Politecnico di Torino. During the master degree she specialized in Climate Change, and had to opportunity to conduct a research about the impacts of the AMOC decline on the Tropical Atlantic precipitation. Currently, Giada is a Ph.D. student involved in the PNRR RETURN project. Specifically, her research project aims at investigating the links between large-scale atmospheric anomalies and extreme drought events over the Mediterranean basin.

Master’s theses:

Esmaeil Pourjavad (co-supervised), Politecnico di Torino – ongoing
Matteo Migone (co-supervised), M.S. Environmental Engineering and Climate Change, Politecnico di Torino – 2022
Giada Cerato (co-supervised), M.S. Environmental Engineering and Climate Change, Politecnico di Torino – 2022