dr. S (Sergio) Mugnai

Biography

Dr. Sergio Mugnai is a (proud) Italian and passionate lecturer. He grew up in Pistoia, a beautiful medieval town in the heart of Tuscany, and then moved to Pisa where he obtained his Master degree cum laude in Agricultural Sciences and received his PhD in Horticulture. He then joined the University of Florence as Senior Researcher in Plant Physiology until 2011, where he conducted several researches in the field of stress physiology and plant-environment interaction. Then he decided to steer his professional life towards a new challenging adventure by moving to the Netherlands with his family.

Here he became Biology Project Scientist at the European Space Agency (ESA-ESTEC) in Noordwijk. His principal role was leading scientific manager for all the experiments related to Biology on the International Space Station (ISS).

After the end of this experience, he eventually joined EUC in 2015 as Senior Lecturer, where he initially developed courses in Plant Biology and Plant Physiology. Having a solid interest in food and in a sustainable environment, he also created a new course in Food and Nutrition, together with a solid curriculum in Sustainability by creating a EUC Minor and a Major in this topic.

Sergio always believed (and still do) that education is one of the main pillars of modern society. For this reason he has been attracted by the possibility to teach in a Liberal Arts and Sciences College such as EUC, which he considers at the forefront in terms of education method. He considers teaching at EUC a honour, a wonderful opportunity to give his contribute for the nourishment of the students.  He is eager to let them discover their surrounding environment, our complex world, with enthusiasm, sense of responsibility, curiosity and thirst for knowledge. And, at the end, he is also glad to see that he is succeeding in his job, as they are now looking at plants (his field of expertise) in a different, positive way.