About us

Hi! Here you can find out more about us. Click on our pictures to discover more..

Barbara

I'm Barbara (Maria) Mitta (or, in Switzerland, Guarino) and I was born on the 24th May 1977 in Sondrio (Italy). I lived there for two years, but then I've grown up in Lugano. However, I never lost track of my mountains, since I used to go back there every single weekend. I finished my education few years ago: I had my primary and middle school (where I first met Andrea) in Lugano, where I also attended the classic high school. Then I moved to Zurich to study Biochemistry at the ETH. I really liked it, thus I decided to make as well a PhD on the use of lentiviral vectors for the gene therapy. Since the very end of 2005 I've been working at Glycart. Beside biotechnology I like reading literature, and I do a lot of sport. I keep on running (since many years), do some gym, ride my racebike and, if we have time, we also go hiking with Andrea: he's my favourite sport companion, indeed! Finally, in some rare quiet moments, I enjoy the "housewife" life: cooking, sewing. I guess you got it: I'm always busy!

Andrea

I am Andrea Guarino, and I was born in Sacile (Pordenone, Italy) on June 13th 1977. I've lived in Switzerland for many many years. I attended the primary, middle and high (scientific) school in Ticino. I liked scientific subjects so I decided to study nuclear engineering at the Politecnico di Milano, where I started loving optics. I've come to Zurich to make a PhD in the nonlinear optics laboratory of the ETH, where my aim has been the realization of microring resonators in lithium niobate for photonic applications. After the PhD, I recently started working for Bookham, a company which manifactures laser diodes. I also like doing sports, specially riding my bike, running long distances, hiking (in the Dolomites, but not only there). Besides, I enjoy reading, listening to music, working with the computer (for instance to build up this website), cooking some desserts (and eat them as well, of course!).

We got married on the 4th of June 2005 in Torre di Santa Maria (Italy) in the small church of San Giuseppe. It has been a wonderful day, where we really felt the love of our relatives & friends. We have beautiful memories of that day, if you want to see some pictures...
Now we live in Zurich, where we enjoy funrnishing our flat. We really like the city (besides some language difficulty) since it offers a lot of activities, but it only takes minutes to be in the landscape and do our sports!