Alberto Angela (; born 8 April 1962) is an Italian

paleontologist Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

, television host, journalist, and writer. Angela is a famous history and

science communicator Science communication encompasses a wide range of activities that connect science and society. Common goals of science communication include informing non-experts about scientific findings, raising the public awareness of and interest in sci ...

in Italy.

Biography

Angela was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, France, where his father worked as correspondent for RAI. He accompanied his father, Italian TV 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. After being a student in France, he enrolled in a course of Natural Sciences at the University " La Sapienza" of

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, finally graduating with 110/110 and a prize for his thesis. He also studied at multiple American universities, where he took courses of specialisation from

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

, Columbia, and

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

and further focused on

palaeontology Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geo ...

and

paleoanthropology Paleoanthropology or paleo-anthropology is a branch of paleontology and anthropology which seeks to understand the early development of anatomically modern humans, a process known as hominization, through the reconstruction of evolutionary kinsh ...

. Once out of university he started working in the research field participating in paleoanthropologic digs in various places in the world, among which

Zaire Zaire, officially the Republic of Zaire, was the name of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1971 to 18 May 1997. Located in Central Africa, it was, by area, the third-largest country in Africa after Sudan and Algeria, and the 11th-la ...

, Ishango,

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

, Olduvai, Laetoli,

Oman Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is a country located on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in West Asia and the Middle East. It shares land borders with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Oman’s coastline ...

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

, and the

Gobi Desert The Gobi Desert (, , ; ) is a large, cold desert and grassland region in North China and southern Mongolia. It is the sixth-largest desert in the world. The name of the desert comes from the Mongolian word ''gobi'', used to refer to all of th ...

. 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: ''La straordinaria storia dell'uomo'' (1989), ''La straordinaria storia della vita sulla Terra'' (1992), ''Il Pianeta dei Dinosauri'' (1993), ''Dentro al Mediterraneo'' (1995), ''La straordinaria storia di una vita che nasce - 9 mesi nel ventre materno'' (1996), ''Squali'' (1997), and ''Viaggio nel Cosmo'' (1998). As a journalist, he has collaborated with various daily papers and periodicals, among which ''

La Stampa (English: "The Press") is an Italian daily newspaper published in Turin with an average circulation of 87,143 copies in May 2023. Distributed in Italy and other European nations, it is one of the oldest newspapers in Italy. Until the late 1970 ...

'', '' Airone'', and '' Epoca''. On television programs, he has conceived and written together with his father ''Il pianeta dei dinosauri'', transmitted by

Rai 1 Rai 1 () is an Italian free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana. It is the company's Flagship (broadcasting), flagship television channel and is known for broadcasting ...

in 1993; he is one of the authors of a series of TV program(s), including ', ', and ' for Rai 1. He is also author of the afternoon documentary container-program ''Passaggio a Nord Ovest'', on the same channel. In 1998 he was a 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 RAI and the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

and for this program, he stayed in the reserve of Masai Mara, in Narok County, Kenya. Together with his father, Angela was the host of the program ''Ulisse'', from 2001 on

Rai 3 Rai 3 (formerly Rai Tre) is an Italian free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana. It was launched on 15 December 1979 and its programming is centred towards cultural a ...

, for which he won the Premio Flaiano for television. In 2002 he was attacked and robbed by bandits while filming a TV program, in the desert of

Niger Niger, officially the Republic of the Niger, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is a unitary state Geography of Niger#Political geography, bordered by Libya to the Libya–Niger border, north-east, Chad to the Chad–Niger border, east ...

. He received the America Award ( Italian: ''Premio America'') of the Italy-USA Foundation in 2017. In 2018, he received honorary Neapolitan citizenship. Angela is a member of the Italian Institute of Human Palaeontology (

) and of the Centro Studi Ricerche Ligabue (

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

Works

* Piero Angela, Alberto Angela, ''The extraordinary story of human origins'', Prometheus Books, 1993. . * Piero Angela, Alberto Angela, ''The extraordinary story of life on earth'', Prometheus Books, 1996. . * Piero Angela, Alberto Angela, ''Sharks!: predators of the sea'', photographs by Alberto Luca Recchi, Courage Books, 1998. * Alberto Angela, ''A Day in the Life of Ancient Rome'', translated by Gregory Conti, Europa Editions, Incorporated, 2009. . * Alberto Angela, ''The Reach of Rome'', translated by Gregory Conti, Rizzoli Ex Libris, 2013, New York. .

References

External links

*
"Alberto Angela racconta il suo "Ulisse"", ''RAI''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Angela, Alberto 1962 births Living people Scientists from Paris Italian paleontologists Italian television personalities Italian science communicators Italian science writers People of Piedmontese descent Sapienza University of Rome alumni