Francesco Salese is an Associate Professor, with a PhD in Martian Sedimentology and Stratigraphy, at the Università degli Studi “G. d’Annunzio” of Chieti-Pescara and a Senior Scientist at the International Research School of Planetary Sciences (IRSPS). He is an Italian geologist (Ph.D.) with a postgraduate specialization in Space Institutions and Policies.

In 2018, he was awarded a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship (Grant Agreement No. 795192) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, hosted by the Faculty of Geosciences at Utrecht University.

From 2020 until his appointment at Università degli Studi “G. d’Annunzio”, he was based in Madrid as an Associate Researcher with the ERC Consolidator Grant project MarsFirstWater (Grant Agreement No. 818602), hosted at the Centro de Astrobiologia.

In 2024, he was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Staff Exchange grant – ArchiSpace (Grant Agreement No. 101183089), where he serves as the scientific coordinator for Università degli Studi “G. d’Annunzio”, a member of the European consortium. His research focuses on the use of in-situ resources for building sustainable habitats on the Moon and Mars.

His main research interests include sedimentology, stratigraphy, and hydrology of terrestrial planets—particularly Earth and Mars—using an integrated approach that combines orbital remote sensing data with field investigations at terrestrial analog sites.

He is actively involved in planetary exploration missions and currently serves as an Associate Scientist for the CASSIS-Exo Mars instrument aboard the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and also as a member of the Remote Sensing and Observation Working Group (RSOWG) of the ESA ExoMars mission, contributing to the study of the Martian surface. 

Francesco is a member of the International Association of Sedimentologists and of the Marie Curie Alumni Association.