With a degree in Forestry and Environmental Science, Vacchiano divides his time between research, teaching, outreach, and publishing, with numerous scientific publications to his name. He is a member of the Italian Society for Agriculture and Ecological Forestry (SISEF), for which he leads a team dedicated to communication, as well as the Ecological Society of America (ESA).

Vacchiano’s research focuses on understanding how trees and forests respond to climate change, how their benefits to humanity will be altered, and how to sustainably care for trees to ensure their conservation, resilience, and ability to combat the current climate crisis. He uses computer simulation models to predict how forests will grow and function in response to climate change, forest management, forest fires and windstorms. When not in the woods taking measurements or programming mathematical models of forest dynamics behind a computer, Vacchiano dedicates his time to scientific outreach, explaining the climate emergency in a straightforward and accessible way, showing its causes and effects, as well as possible solutions based in science.

His first novel, La resilienza del bosco [The Resilient Woods], was published by Mondadori in 2019.