Ivano W. Aiello

Dr. Ivano Aiello is a marine geologist and Chair of Moss Landing Marine Laboratories at San José State University. He earned his Ph.D. in Sedimentology from the University of Bologna and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

His research examines how geological, oceanographic, and geochemical processes interact across marine and coastal systems. His work spans deep-sea sedimentation and silica diagenesis, hydrothermal and magmatic systems, submarine canyon evolution, coastal sediment dynamics, and the environmental consequences of industrial disturbances.

Aiello has participated in multiple international ocean-drilling expeditions (IODP) investigating subseafloor processes and hydrothermal systems. His current research includes studies of silica diagenesis and magmatic intrusions in the Guaymas Basin, high-resolution mapping of sediment transport and morphological change in Monterey Canyon, and the EMBER project, which investigates the environmental effects and longer-term fate of contaminants released by the 2025 Moss Landing lithium-ion battery fire.

At Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, he leads interdisciplinary research integrating marine geology, sedimentology, geochemistry, geophysics, environmental monitoring, and seafloor mapping. A central theme of his work is understanding natural systems across traditional disciplinary and environmental boundaries, connecting processes operating from the microscopic scale of mineral transformations to landscape-scale changes in the seafloor, coastline, and coastal wetlands.