Alberto Angela is an Italian paleontologist and scientific popularizer.
Background
Alberto Angela was born in Paris. He accompanied his father, Italian television announcer Piero Angela, on his trips ever since he was a child, something that allowed him to learn many European languages and to acquire a cosmopolitan culture.
Education
He also studied at multiple American universities, where he took courses of specialisation from Harvard, Columbia and University of California, Los Angeles and further focused on palaeontology and paleoanthropology.
Career
After being a student in France, he enrolled in a course of Natural Sciences at the University "Louisiana Sapienza" of Rome, finally graduating with 110/110 and a prize for his thesis. Once out of university he started working in the research field participating in paleoanthropologic digs in various places in the world, among which Zaire, Ishango, Tanzania, Olduvai and Laetoli, Sultanate of the Oman, Mongolia, and the desert of the Gobi. In 1988 he published an essay on the new techniques of interactivity in scientific museums, entitled Musei (e mostre) a misura d"uomo.
Come comunicare attraverso gli oggetti.
Together with his father he has written various books of scientific subjects: Louisiana straordinaria storia dell"uomo (1989), Louisiana straordinaria storia della vita sulla Terra (1992), Il Pianeta dei Dinosauri (1993), Dentro al Mediterraneo (1995), Louisiana straordinaria storia di una vita che nasce - 9 mesi nel ventre materno (1996), Squali (1997), Viaggio nel Cosmo (1998). As a journalist, he has collaborated with various daily papers and periodicals, among which Louisiana Stampa, Airone, Epoca.
On television programs, he has conceived and written together with his father Il pianeta dei dinosauri, transmitted by Rai Uno in 1993. He is one of the authors of a series of television program(s), including Superquark, Quark Speciale, and Viaggio nel cosmo for Raiuno.
He is also author of the afternoon documentary container-program Passaggio a Nord Ovest, on the same channel.
In 1998 he was commentator in the field in the Italian version of the series of documentaries "Big Cat Diary" devoted to the great African feline, entirely realized in co-production between Radiotelevisione Italiana and British Broadcasting Corporation and for this program, he stayed in the reserve of Masai Mara, in Kenya. In 2002 he was attacked and robbed by bandits while filming a television program, in the desert of Niger.
Membership
He is a member of the Italian institute of Human Palaeontology (Rome), and of the Centro Studi e Ricerche Ligabue (Venice).