Simona Bordoni is Professor of Atmospheric Physics at the University of Trento, Italy. From 2009 to 2019, she was first Assistant and then Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering at the California Institute of Technology. She received her PhD from the University of California Los Angeles in 2007 and then worked at the National Center for Atmospheric Research as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Advanced Study Program. Her research focuses on the role of atmospheric circulations in regulating surface climate and the hydrological cycle in areas highly sensitive to global warming, such as the Mediterranean and monsoon regions. She uses observations and models of varying complexity and emphasizes theoretically based approaches that support conceptual understanding. 

Her work has been recognised by a number of honours and awards, including the 2024 Bernhard Haurwitz Memorial Lecture from the American Meteorological Society, the 2014 ISSNAF (Italian Scientists and Scholars of North America Foundation) Young Scientist Award, and the 2009 James R. Holton Junior Scientist Award from the American Geophysical Union, 2009.