Draft:Alessandro Montanari

Alessandro Montanari (born 1954) is an Italian geologist. He is the director of the Coldigioco Geological Observatory. He is most notable for his collaboration with Walter Alvarez.

Biography
Alessandro Montanari was born in Ancona, on July 25, 1954. In 1968, at the age of 14, he joined the Marche Speleological Group of Ancona and participated in expeditions at the Frasassi Caves and in other karst localities of the Umbria-Marche Apennines, where he conducted research in the fields of stratigraphic geology, paleoclimate, and neotectonics.

He obtained his Laurea degree in geology at the University of Urbino in 1979. Shortly afterwards he moved to the United States where, in 1986, he received his Ph.D. at the University of California in Berkeley.

In 1992, he returned to Italy with his family, near the town of Apiro, inland of his birthplace of Ancona, in the Marche region of central Italy, in a semi-abandoned hilltop hamlet called Coldigioco.

Osservatorio Geologico di Coldigioco
Montanari is the director of the Geological Observatory of Coldigioco, near Ancona, in the Marche region of Italy. It is in the Apennine mountains of central Italy. The Osservatorio Geologico di Coldigioco (OGC) is an independent center for research and education in geology, art, music and cuisine. Sandro Montanari and Paula Metallo run OGC with assistance from friends and colleagues from the U.S.A. and Europe since its foundation in 1992.

Academic achievements
By 2023 Montanari had published over 150 peer-reviewed scientific papers, written, edited, or co-edited several books, and has received several distinctions, including the European Geosciences Union Jan Baptiste Lamarck Medal, 2007; Fellow of the Geological Society of America, 2010; Marie Curie Fellowship 2010 from the European Commission. In 2010 he was elected a Corresponding Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.