David Giovannetti-Nazario

David Giovannetti-Nazario was born and raised in Puerto Rico. Ever since he was a child, he was always fascinated by books, comics, films, and TV and the stories they told. Later he realized that studying science is essentially asking big questions to tell a compelling story that would help us understand our world.

Giovannetti-Nazario attended the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez and majored in English (linguistics). Having taken an introductory geology course as an elective, he immediately fell in love with geosciences and chose it as a second major. In his final year as an undergraduate, Giovannetti studied massive magnetite deposits in an iron skarn as part of a research project. In continuation with his undergraduate project, he began his graduate studies in 2020 focusing on garnet chemistry and studying skarn formation processes.

Giovannetti's interests lie in various geology subfields focusing mainly on using the geochemistry and geochronology of mineral and rock samples to understand how geologic systems and deposits form and evolve throughout time.

Giovannetti-Nazario's research will use petrography, geochemistry, and geochronology to understand paleolake deposits in Antarctica. Additionally, outcrop-scale observations will help identify these deposits' diagnostic features, aiding the Mars rover missions in identifying similar deposits on the Red Planet.