Maria graduated in Medicine in 1979 at the University of Palermo, Italy. Specialist in Cardiology (1982, University of Palermo), Specialist in Respiratory Medicine (1988, University of Pisa).
Full Professor in Respiratory Medicine, University of Palermo
Since 2006, Research Associate at National Research Council (CNR), Palermo, Italy
2005-2009: Director of the Residency Program in Respiratory Medicine, University of Palermo.
Is currently Director of the Pulmonary Division, and of the Cardiovascular and Respiratory Department, Ospedali Riuniti Villa Sofia-Cervello, Palermo, Italy,
Young Investigator Award, European Respiratory Society in 1991.
Fellow of ERS since 2018.
Sadoul Lecture, ERS Congress 2020
Keynote speaker at the British Sleep Society meeting, Leeds, UK, 2023
Keynote speaker at the next ESRS meeting, Seville, Spain, 2024
Has spent several periods abroad (1983-1986 University of California, San Francisco, USA; 1999 University of Toronto, Canada; 2001: University of Madison, Wisconsin, USA; 2009: sabbatical year at the University of Barcelona, Spain).
2004-2014: Italian representative in the Domain Committee Biomedicine and Biomolecular Sciences (BMBS) of the EU program COST. In 2005 started the COST Action B26 on Obstructive Sleep Apnea, currently continuing as the ESADA ERS Clinical Research Collaboration.
Author of 174 full papers on peer-reviewed International journals (Scopus H-Index 48, Jan 2024).
Active member of International (APS, ATS, ERS, AASM) and National (AIMS) Scientific Societies.
Past member of the Editorial Board of Chest, and current member of the Editorial Board of the ERJ and COPD Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, is reviewer for several journals in Respiratory and Cardiovascular Medicine and Physiology.