Graduated in Biological Sciences at the University of Siena (1992) where in 1996 he obtained the title of PhD in Animal Biology and subsequently also that of research fellow (2005). In 2006 he became a Researcher and then, since 2016, he is Associate Professor in Zoology (sector BIO/05 at the Department of Life Sciences of the University of Siena).

He spent training periods abroad at the Center for Biosystematics and Mediterranean Ecology in Marseille (Fr) and at the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology of the University of Connecticut (USA). He participated to 4 PNRA expeditions to Antarctica of which one in the Antarctic Peninsula (Rothera scientific station, in collaboration with BAS-British Antarctic Survey) and three at the Mario Zucchelli Station (IT).

Since 2019 he is President of the Teaching Committee for the Master’s Degree in Biology at the University of Siena.

Main scientific interests:
Evolution of Basal Hexapods;
Molecular phylogeny and biogeography of springtails;
Evolution of terrestrial arthropods of Antarctica;
Pest insects;
Systematics of the Gregarines;
Genomics and Mitogenomics;
Edible insects;
Metagenomics.

Awards and acknowledgments: “Marco Osella” Award conferred by the Italian Academy of Entomology (1999).

Carapelli, A., Greenslade, P., Nardi, F., Leo, C., Convey, P., Frati, F., Fanciulli, P.P. (2020). Evidence for Cryptic Diversity in the “Pan-Antarctic” Springtail Friesea antarctica and the Description of Two New Species. INSECTS, 11, 1-29.

Carapelli, A., Lio’, P., Nardi, F., VAN DER WATH, E., & Frati, F. (2007). Phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial protein coding genes confirms the reciprocal paraphyly of Hexapoda and Crustacea. BMC EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY, 7(Suppl 2), S8-S8.

Carapelli, A., Soto Adames, F.N., Simon, C., Frati, F., Nardi, F., & Dallai, R. (2004). Secondary structure, high variability and conserved motifs for domain III of 12S rRNA in the Arthropleona (Hexapoda; Collembola). INSECT MOLECULAR BIOLOGY, 13(6), 659-670.

Nardi, F., Spinsanti, G., Boore, J.L., Carapelli, A., Dallai, R., & Frati, F. (2003). Hexapod origins: Monophyletic or paraphyletic? SCIENCE, 299(5614), 1887-1889.

Carapelli, A., Frati, F., Fanciulli, P.P., & Dallai, R. (2001). Taxonomic revision of 14 south-western European species of Isotomurus (Collembola, Isotomidae), with description of four new species and the designation of the neotype for I. palustris. ZOOLOGICA SCRIPTA, 30(2), 115-143.