Gloria Mozzi's RIBES story

Hi, my name is Gloria, I come originally from Italy, and I am a mechanical engineer and a hydrogeologist. As my background already suggests, I am a constantly-curious person, who always feel inspired and intrigued when confronting something new.

I obtained my Bachelor and Master degree in Mechanical engineering at the University of Pisa. In 2016, I went to Germany for my Master thesis research, and I worked in the Research & Development department of a multinational company in the automotive sector. After this experience, I decided to steer my career towards the environmental sector, where I could apply my technical skills to fight against the climatic and ecological crisis we are currently facing. In 2017, I then joined the Erasmus Mundus Master in Groundwater and Global Change. This Programme brought me to study at Instituto Superior Técnico Lisbon (Portugal), at IHE – Delft Institute for Water Education (the Netherlands), and at TU Dresden (Germany), and to meet amazing people from all over the world.

Gloria Mozzi and her colleagues after their graduation at IHE-Delft Institute for Water Education

For my Master Thesis Research, I joined the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) to study the use of Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) in tackling water scarcity in semi-arid India. In spring 2019, I went to India, where I assessed existing MAR infrastructures and performed surveys on their functioning among local farmers in semi-arid Gujarat. With the information collected, I developed a digital tool to assess MAR recharge performance and support MAR design criteria in areas where little data is available. After obtaining my degree, I joined IWMI as a consultant to continue my research for one year, which resulted in my first publication.

Gloria Mozzi and a fellow researcher measuring and assessing check dam status in Gujarat, India.

Gloria conducting surveys with local farmers for qualitative data collection. In November 2020, I moved back to Italy to join the RIBES project at Politecnico di Torino. Me and Usama Ashraf (ESR08) are working together under the supervision of Claudio Comoglio, Costantino Manes, Paolo Vezza, and Daniel Nyqvist. Our research focuses on better understanding fish behviour in relation to hydrodynamics to help improve the performance of fish passage solutions at hydropower plants. My research will focus on collective behaviour, particularly on the school's structure and group swimming performances in different hydrodynamic environments. Currently, we are working in the hydraulic laboratory of Politecnico and finalizing the experimental equipment that will be used during our field campaigns to investigate the swimming performances of wild fish on site. 

Gloria Mozzi with the portable flume in the Hydraulic Laboratory at Politecnico di Torino

I joined the RIBES project because I felt it would be the perfect opportunity to consolidate and expand my expertise in the environmental sector, integrating the biology component into my engineering skills. I am genuinely excited to combine ecological principles with my technical skills in such a multidisciplinary project. As we the ESRs come from different backgrounds (and in many cases countries), I believe we have the perfect opportunity to learn and acquire new skills that will allow us to face and tackle the challenges of fish migration in a comprehensive and holistic approach.