**About the Special Issue Editor**

**Sergio And `o** graduated in Geology with a Ph.D. in Sedimentology and he is teaching as an Associate Professor of Physical Geography and Sedimentary Petrography at the University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy. He is a researcher with a strong and genuine passion for sharing and promoting heavy mineral studies. He is the host and organizer of an International School for the study and recognition of heavy minerals, with a style built on creating a dynamic interaction with his attendees. He has been a Guest Editor for two Special Issues in preparation by Earth Science Review and Minerals. He has been a co-supervisor for different Ph.D. Students and with formal assignment of teaching at qualified universities in Europe, USA, and China. In the last 20 years, he has studied heavy mineral assemblages in different geological settings and depositional environments, applying this knowledge to the field of provenance studies, paleoclimate reconstructions, and source-to-sink investigations, from passive margins in Africa to orogenic settings in the Alps and Himalaya. He is interested in sharing his recent studies dealing with the application of classical and innovative techniques in silt and sand to identify the mineralogy of sediments. He has grown an interest in the exploration of sedimentary records stored in turbiditic deposits in the Indus Fan and Bengal Fan and in coastal sediments of the South Africa and Mozambique margin. With deep curiosity, he loves to explore the differentiation of heavy mineral assemblages during transport and burial, developing new protocols for the laboratory, applying classical optical microscopy and innovative Raman spectroscopy. He has devoted his research merging different techniques to allow the proper identification of each single mineral encoding a piece of our geological history in the sedimentary archive. Raman spectroscopy combined with polarizing microscope represent a powerful tool in provenance studies to reconstruct the possible source rocks in modern and ancient sediments and give us a chance to link the mineralogy of sediment with tectonic and climatic overprinting through time. Innovative protocols created to analyze such fine sediments will be of interest for future studies of the sedimentary record and for petroleum and gas exploration.
