My name is Pietro, I am a Pre Doctoral Researcher in Economics at the University of Rome Tor Vergata.
Premise.
I am jotting down this text on my phone as I ride in a train after a not so
great performance presenting my work. I have been thinking about the following stuff for quite a while, I hope
that it is useful for someone other than me to gather some thoughts on why I am doing this.
I decided to do the PreDoc experience before entering a PhD (still looking btw!) because I wanted to get a
hint of what it means to actually do research. I have the incredible fortune of working with Andrea, Francesca,
Federico and Vincenzo at Tor Vergata, they all have taught me so much in the almost year that I have been working
with them. They always treat me with kind suggestions and I care for them. They also allow me to conduct my own
research and do not limit my job to “clean this data for me”.
I am somewhat of an overflowing pool of emotions. While I appreciate this quality, which allows me to quickly
understand how an individual feels about something and empathise, it quickly bites me when stressful situations
arise.
Presenting is a challenging task that requires multiple skills working in harmony: thinking quickly on your feet, demonstrating deep knowledge of the literature, adapting your presentation to stay within time constraints even when questions arise, managing your emotions under pressure, and speaking clearly in fluent English.
Now, what follows are some key steps (in no particular order of importance) that with time I found very useful to
potentially prepare a better presentation:
-
Flexibility of your speech is fundamental. I found myself making better presentations without preparing and
memorising a whole script: it is time consuming, energy intensive for the brain and it gives you less wiggle
room to adjust your presentation. When making slides, start figuring out what you are going to say in that
slide.
-
Prepare additional slides to put at the end of the presentation and have ready-to-click links in the main
ones, so you have a support in case someone asks a hard question, plus you seem well prepared.
- Look for typos in your slides — I know it is obvious, but it makes the presentation look sloppy otherwise.
-
When someone asks a question, take your time to think before answering. I know it can seem impressive to
respond quickly to anything, but no one’s in a rush. To me, taking a moment to reflect shows that you care
about the question and want to give your best answer.
-
Do not be afraid to postpone the answer to after the presentation has ended. A good approach is to give a
brief answer and leave the rest for after your presentation.
-
Grab a friend/coworker (that kinda knows what you are talking about) to review your presentation beforehand.
Do not present to the aforesaid individual (you are already bothering another living creature enough), just
carefully review together your slides. This helps a lot: you inevitably build an idea of how the presentation
will flow, plus having other eyes look at your work can spot typos and useful questions.
-
Provide the whole context of your work, even if you think people in the audience are going to know what you
are talking about. At worst, they are going to tune out the first part of the speech. At best, you are going
to skip a round of questions and in the end you are going to save anyone’s time.
-
Do not present tables the size of Jupiter, or if you really feel the need to, please highlight the important
numbers you want to draw the attention to. My thumb rule is: if you have to squint to understand what is going
on in the table, you have to change the table format/layout.
-
A plot should:
- Be easy to read,
- Be beautiful (you have enough tools to make it so. Look for color palettes that match together),
- Not be the prettier version of a table — otherwise use that. Use a plot to actually convey a message.
Come up with more interesting measures to plot, e.g. O/E Ratios instead of plain simple disease prevalence
in population.
Final thoughts.
Presenting is hard, I know. I am still learning how to do it properly and I will probably never master it.
However, I believe that with time and practice anyone can get better at it. The key is to be kind to yourself,
learn from your mistakes, and keep pushing forward. Remember, every great presenter started where you are now.
If you have any questions or want to share your own tips on presenting, feel free to reach out to me!
Cheers,
Meet Pietro: part-time economics nerd, full-time overthinker of font choices. When I'm not pretending to
understand economics or making things look pretty through design, you'll find me hiking mountains to escape
research papers.
I also spend Sundays watching cars going in circles at 300kph like a completely rational adult.
I earned my Bachelor's at the University of Florence, developing a foundation in economic theory and
discovering that Python makes economic modeling very engaging. My thesis involved replicating a dynamic Cournot
duopoly with emission taxes – and yes, creating those visualizations was more fun than it probably should have
been.
My Master's from Tor Vergata specialized in health economics and econometrics, where I
learned that healthcare data tells some of the most compelling stories in economics. My thesis examined how
multiple chronic profiles influence healthcare utilization, combining my interest in both human welfare and
statistical analysis.
Beyond academia, I've remained deeply committed to community engagement and public discourse. In late 2022, I joined in founding "Nuova Energheia," an association dedicated to cultural promotion and public education in the Mugello region. The association emerged organically from several events we had previously organized in collaboration with local municipalities – we realized there was both a need and an opportunity to create something more structured and sustained. Our goal was to establish an organization that could work alongside local administrations to raise public awareness about pressing contemporary issues, particularly those touching on environmental and social themes.
My research integrates machine learning, econometrics, and optimization techniques to address complex questions in health economics and policy. I am particularly interested in developing and applying computational methods that can handle the multidimensional nature of health data, combining causal inference frameworks with predictive modeling to understand both what drives health outcomes and how we can forecast them. My work in computational economics focuses on building models that capture the economic dimensions of health decisions and healthcare systems, while my interest in environmental health connects these methods to understanding how environmental exposures—from air pollution to climate change—affect population health and economic outcomes. This interdisciplinary approach allows me to leverage the strengths of different methodologies: the predictive power of machine learning, the causal rigor of econometrics, the efficiency of optimization algorithms, and the comprehensive perspective of environmental and computational economics.
Growing up in Italy, one of the countries with the oldest populations in the world, I have always been fascinated
by the ageing process and its socioeconomic implications.
My research focuses on understanding how multiple chronic conditions interact and affect health outcomes and
healthcare utilization. Using advanced econometric and machine learning methods, I analyze large datasets to
identify patterns and relationships that can inform healthcare policy and practice.
I am currently involved in two European-funded projects:
STAGE
Stay Healthy Through Ageing
OBELISK
Tackling Childhood Obesity to Stay Healthy for Life
STAGE is a European Research and Innovation project studying healthy ageing and
multi-morbidity using a life-course approach.
OBELISK is a European-funded research project with the ambition of preventing
childhood obesity and promoting better health, quality of life, and longevity for individuals of all ages in
Europe.
In both projects I am tasked with conduct the main econometric analyses, using advanced statistical techniques to
uncover insights from complex datasets. My work involves identifying patterns in healthcare utilization,
understanding the impact of multiple chronic conditions on health outcomes, and providing evidence-based
recommendations for policy and practice.
The European Expotypes project:
I am also involved in the operationalization and implementation of Expotypes in Europe. Collaborating with
Imperial College London, I am working on the development of a comprehensive framework for Expotypes, which will be
used to identify and classify individuals based on their exposure to various environmental, lifestyle and
biological factors. This framework will be instrumental in understanding how these factors influence health
outcomes.
Current Research Interests:
- Econometrics and machine learning applications
- Computational and environmental economics
- Impact of multiple chronic conditions on healthcare utilization
- Data visualization and communication of complex economic concepts
Here are some of the conferences I have presented at or attended:
Jan 2026
ALP POP 2026 - DODENA, Bocconi University
La Thuille, Italy
Presenter
Dec 2025
XXX Italian Health Economics Association (AIES) NATIONAL CONFERENCE
Verona, Italy
Presenter
June 2025
OBELISK Project General Assembly
Berlin, Germany
Presenter
May 2025
STAGE Project General Assembly
Barcelona, Spain
Presenter
Dec 2024
XXIX Italian Health Economics Association (AIES) NATIONAL CONFERENCE
Naples, Italy
Presenter
Sept 2024
Exposome Analyitics Conference
Nice, France
Attendee