Paola ManzottiAssociate Professor of Geochronology and tectonics
About me
I graduated from the University of Milano (Italy) in 2007 and I completed my PhD in 2012 at the University of Bern (Switzerland) under the supervision of Prof. M. Engi. I was a Swiss NSF postdoctoral fellow at the University of Rennes (France) from 2012 to 2015 and I was awarded a Swiss NSF Ambizione Fellowship at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland) from 2016 to 2018. I was appointed as Assistant Professor of Geochronology and Tectonics at the Department of Geological Sciences, Stockholm University in 2019. I was promoted to Associate Professor in August 2022.
Research
My research focuses on the mechanisms of mountain building and, especially, on the rock record of burial and exhumation cycles. Metamorphic rocks are our best window on the Interior of the Earth. They provide us with a unique record of their journey towards the center of the Earth and their surprising return. My main research interests include (i) the deformational and petrological history of the Alpine belt, (ii) the timing of burial and exhumation of tectonic units with respect to the mountain-building cycle, (iii) the geometry and kinematics of major crustal-scale shear zones and their evolution, and (iv) the role of inherited structures on the building of a new mountain belt. My current and future research is focused on temporal variation(s) in the rates of exhumation across the mountain belts, with particular focus on the Alps and the Swedish Caledonides. My research approach combines geological mapping, structural analysis, metamorphic petrology, and geochronology.