Nicola Pirrone, CNR, Italy
Nicola Pirrone is Research Director of the National Research Council (CNR) of Italy and Adjunct Professor at School of Public Health of the University of Michigan. Most recently he was the Director of the Institute of Atmospheric Pollution Research of the CNR (2008-2018) and Visiting Scholar in the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) (2018-2019). He serves as an expert for major international and national public and private organizations in the field of environmental research and policy development. He is Representative of the EU Presidency in the ad-hoc group for the Effectiveness Evaluation of the Minamata Convention and Italian Representative in the Group on Earth Observation (GEO) and Member of the EU HLWG and Executive Committee of GEO. Since 2007 he serves as co-Chair of the UNEP Fate &Transport Research Area, which provides scientific support to UNEP for the implementation of the Minamata Convention. He was the vice-Head of the Italian delegation at Conference of Parties (COP1 and COP2) of the Minamata Convention, and Head of Italian Delegation for the UNECE-LRTAP-EMEP Executive Board. He is currently the Chair of the GEO Flagship on Mercury (GOS4M). He has published over 300 papers in the peer-reviewed literature, books and international conference proceedings, and coordinated several national and international projects and programmes (i.e., MAMCS, MERCYMS, GMOS, ERA-PLANET) aimed to improve our understanding of the biogeochemical cycle of persistent pollutants and enhance the use of Earth Observations in various domains of the Earth system science. He received the Kathryn R. Mahaffey Lifetime Achievement Award for “his outstanding contribution to mercury research and policy”, the UNEP award for “his commitment and outstanding contribution to the UN Environment Global Mercury Partnership” and the international award from Green Cross Italy for his contribution to environmental research and policy development.