SERENA C. TARANTINO (BSc in Chemistry - 1997; PhD in Mineralogy, Petrology and Crystallography - 2001) is researcher with habilitation for Associate Professorship at U. Pavia, Italy and Associate Researcher at the Italian National Research Council. She has been postdoc scientist at U. Cambridge, UK and visiting scientist at the South Australian Museum, Adelaide, Australia. She was awarded with Nardelli prize 2008 by the Italian Crystallographic Association (AIC) and with grants from Italian Society for Mineralogy and Petrology, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Royal Society and CNR NATO. She serves on the Commission on Crystallographic Teaching of the AIC and on the Council of the European Crystallographic Association as representative of Individual Members. Serena C. Tarantino has directed the International School "Polymorphism, stability and phase transitions in crystals" in 2016, has been chair of the organizing committee of the 1st European Crystallography School in 2014 and has participated in a number of scientific and organizing committees for several other international schools. She has published over 40 articles on international journals, 2 book chapters and has given several keynote and invited lectures and seminars.