Dr. Daniele Contini got his M.Sc. in Physics in 1994 and his Ph.D. in Energy Engineering in 1999 from the University of Florence. He became Researcher at the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate of the National Research Council (ISAC-CNR in Lecce) in 2001 and he is now (from 2019) Research Director at ISAC-CNR. He is coordinator of the macroarea of ISAC-CNR research in Atmospheric composition, climate forcing and air quality.

His research activity is mainly experimental and focused on atmospheric sciences. Currently, research interests could be summarized in four main lines: (i) Identification and characterization of atmospheric particulate matter sources, using both high-resolution temporal measurements and receptor models based on the chemical composition of the particulate, and their spatial and temporal trends; (ii) health and toxicological effects of atmospheric particulate matter due to both natural and anthropogenic sources; (iii) study of atmospheric particulate dynamics in the surface boundary layer with particular attention to nucleation, emission, and deposition processes. (iv) analysis and parameterization of the dispersion of atmospheric pollutants also using physical modelling on a reduced scale in a wind tunnel and/or in a hydraulic vein. Throughout his career he has established numerous and successful research collaborations with leading international groups in the field of atmospheric and climate sciences. He had coordination responsibility in a number of research projects at regional, national, and international level. Dr. Daniele Contini is the President (since 2018) of the Italian Aerosol Society (IAS) and he is the Chair of the working group "Atmospheric Aerosol Studies" of the European Aerosol Assembly (since 2022). He is PI of the Environmental-Climate Observatory (ECO) of Lecce, regional station of the GAW/WMO-Global Atmosphere Watch network and national facility of the ACTRIS network.