Lidia Pittarello studied at the University of Padova, Italy, earning a Laurea (MSc equivalent) with honors in Geological Sciences in 2004 and a doctorate in Earth Science in early 2009, working on microstructural analysis of rocks deformed under viscous-plastic and seismic conditions. After a one year post-doc, she moved to the Department of Lithospheric Research at the University of Vienna to investigate shock effects in an impact crater that had formed in volcanic rocks; she stayed in Vienna from 2010 to 2013.
After that, she moved to Brussels (Belgium), where she held a position as scientist and curator of the Belgian Antarctic meteorite collection from 2013 to 2016, working at the local universities and the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. A FWF Elise-Richter project grant (V505-N29 "Shock metamorphism in plagioclase”) brought her back to the Department of Lithospheric Research in Vienna.
Scientist and Curator at NHM Vienna
Since 2019, she is a scientist and the curator of the rock collection at the Natural History Museum Vienna, but continues her collaboration with the University of Vienna as Senior Research Fellow and guest lecturer.
After the Italian Habilitation (2018), she has recently (in 2023) obtained the "venia legendi" in Petrography at the University of Vienna, with a thesis on "Silicate deformation under extreme conditions: effects of shock metamorphism and atmospheric entry on selected terrestrial and extraterrestrial material", in which she summarized her research on shock effects and meteorites carried on after leaving her hometown. She also holds a music degree in Organ (2007) and spends most of her free time playing the organ and singing in choirs.
