"Antonio Feltrinelli" prize for geosciences to Roberta Oberti

Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei awards the Antonio Feltrinelli prize for Geosciences to Roberta Oberti

Roberta Oberti

Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei awards the Antonio Feltrinelli prize for Geosciences to Roberta Oberti

On November 11th, during the opening ceremony of the 414° academic year of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Roberta Oberti was awarded the prestigious Antonio Feltrinelli Prize in recognition of her contributions to Geosciences.

Roberta Oberti, presently director of research at the Pavia unit of the CNR Istituto di Geoscienze e Georisorse, focussed her efforts on the crystal-chemistry of rock-forming minerals. Her work allowed both to define the correct criteria for mineral classification and to understand and model relationships between cation ordering and crystallization conditions and hence mineral stability. These results may have important implications for the study of geological processes. Working with innovative crystal-chemical databases (a long-term project of the CNR crystallographers in Pavia) she managed to use crystal-structure refinement as an efficient analytical method, even capable to detect structural signals of cation ordering of low-Z and trace elements. She always preferred a strongly interdisciplinary approach, both as far research targets and procedures are concerned.
Roberta Oberti has received many national and international awards, and served as president of the Italian Crystallographic Association (AIC) and of the European Mineralogical Union (EMU). She is presently commissioning editor of the EMU Notes of Mineralogy, a series of volumes addressing frontiers topics in mineral sciences.