He studied Chemistry at the University of Bologna – Alma Mater Studiorum (Italy), where he graduated in 1999. He received his PhD in Chemistry in 2003 at Bologna University working in the area of asymmetric catalysis, under the direction of Professor Achille Umani-Ronchi and the supervision of Professor Pier Giorgio Cozzi.
In 2002, he spent 10 months in Denmark working with Professor Karl Anker Jørgensen at the “Center for Catalysis”, Århus University, where his studies centered on asymmetric organocatalysis.
In 2003, Paolo worked as a postdoctoral associate with Professor Giuseppe Bartoli, at the Industrial Chemistry Faculty of the Bologna University.
In October 2007 he took a permanent position as an Assistant Professor at Bologna University.
In September 2009 Paolo joined the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ) in Tarragona as an ICREA (Catalan Institution of Research and Advanced Studies) Professor and ICIQ Group Leader.
Paolo has received the “G. Ciamician” Medal, awarded by the Italian Chemical Society (2007), and the Thieme Journal Prize (2009). He was also nominated Liebig Lecturer 2008 by the Organic Division of the German Chemical Society.
He was featured in the “Author Profile section” of Angewandte Chemie (ACIE 2009, 48, 3389), dedicated to chemists who have recently published their tenth paper since the year 2000.
Paolo has been recently awarded an ERC Starting Grant to carry out the 5-year project “ORGA-NAUT: Exploring Chemical Reactivity with Organocatalysis", which will be funded by the European Research Council.
He has authored more than 65 publications in international scientific journals.* His papers have received more than 2750 citations (h-factor: 32).