• Partial view of Lake Faro from land

Alessandro Saccà

Microbial Plankton Ecologist

After a couple of years studying Electronic Engineereng at the University Politecnico di Milano, I got a diploma from the Faculty of Mathematical, Physical and Natural Sciences of the University of Messina (2000), where I later earned my first Ph.D. with a dissertation on the role of predation in the microbial food web of anoxic aquatic environments (2005). Then I specialized for teaching at secondary school, and subsequently I gained a second Ph.D., at the University of Messina, in the field of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (2011).
I carried out most of my research activities at the Institute for the Coastal Marine Environment of the National Research Council in Messina and at the Dept. of Biological and Environental Sciences (former Dept. of Animal Biology and Marine Ecology) of  the University of Messina. After a brief but fundamental experience at the Observatoire Océanologique de Villefranche sur Mer (France) under the supervision of Prof. Fereidoun Rassoulzadegan, I collaborated with Prof Carles Borrego Moré, leader of the Group of Molecular Microbial Ecology, University of Girona (Catalunya, Spain) and later with Dr. Michaela C. Strüder-Kypke and with Prof. Denis H. Lynn at the Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada).
Since September 2011, my primary occupation has been teaching scientific disciplines at the secondary school, but I have not abandoned research and publishing activities.
My scientific interests mainly focus on the carbon and energy flux through the microbial food web, especially in the plankton of chemically stratified aquatic environments characterized by bottom anoxic waters. Specifically, I am concerned with the role of photosynthetic sulfur bacteria as primary producers and of anaerobic or microaerophilic phagotrophs as grazers. I am also interested in the biology, ecology, phylogeny and biogeography of free living ciliated protozoa (particularly tintinnids), and in patterns of dissemination of invasive protist species. 
Besides the people mentioned above, my special thanks go to (chronologically): Prof Luigi Moio (University of Messina, Messina, Italy - retired); Dr. Tsuneo Tanaka (Observatoire Oceanologique de Villefranche sur Mer, France); Dr. Xavier Triadò (CEAB – Centre d'Estudis Avançats de Blanes, Spain); Dr. Eleni Gentekaky (Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada); Dr. Letizia Modeo (University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy); Dr. Ovidiu Rücker (Ludwig-Maximilian-University of Munich, Germany); Dr. Giovanni Giuffrè (University of Messina, Messina, Italy).

If you are interested in my research please also visit my ResearchGate profile: 

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