Vittorio Colicci

Bio

I am a doctoral candidate in the Earth and Planetary Surface Processes Group, where I study ancient windblown depositional systems on Earth and Mars and apply sediment transport relations to reconstruct the environmental conditions under which they formed. My dissertation focuses on three Archean successions thought to contain some of the oldest aeolian strata: the 2.64 Ga Vryburg Formation and the 3.22 Ga Moodies Group in South Africa, and the 3.43 Ga Strelley Pool Formation in Western Australia. In my research, I combine field-based sedimentological and stratigraphic characterization with remote sensing and laboratory techniques such as zircon microtextural analysis. Before starting my PhD, I worked on a range of aerospace engineering and physics projects, including materials development for spacecraft electrospray thrusters, nanofabrication for astrophysics instrumentation, and computational modeling for icy moon exploration.

Honors & Awards

• Graduate Student Research Grant, Geological Society of America (2026)
• Bob Compton Field Geology Research Grant, Stanford Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences (2026)
• Travel Grant, International Society on Aeolian Research (2026)
• Travel Grant, Stanford Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences (2025)
• Knight-Hennessy Scholarship, Stanford University (2024)
• Honorable Mention, National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (2024)
• Presidential Graduate Fellowship, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2023)
• Yngve Raustein Award for Scholarship, Teamwork and Community (Unified Engineering Class of 2020), MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (2020)
• Quest for Excellence STEM Award, QuestBridge (2017)

Professional Affiliations and Activities

• Member, International Society for Aeolian Research (2026 - Present)
• Member, Geological Society of America (2026 - Present)
• Member, American Geophysical Union (2023 - Present)

Education & Certifications

• S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Earth & Planetary Sciences (2024)
• S.B., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Aerospace Engineering and Physics with minors in Astronomy and Earth, Atmospheric, & Planetary Sciences (2022)

Service, Volunteer and Community Work

• Emergency Medical Technician, Stanford EMS (February 1, 2026 - Present)

  Location

  Stanford, CA, USA

• Workshop Instructor, The Lily Foundation (June 1, 2022 - June 30, 2022)

  Location

  West Bengal, India

• Workshop Instructor, Pestalozzi Education Center (January 1, 2022 - January 31, 2022)

  Location

  Lusaka, Zambia