After studying Physics at the University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, he continued his research in prestigious international institutions such as Yale University, the Lorentz Instituut in Holland, the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste and the CNRS in Paris. In 2004, he moved to the United States, where he founded the Center for Complex Networks and Systems Research at Indiana University, before moving to Boston in 2011. He is currently a Sternberg Family Distinguished University Professor at Northeastern University in Boston, where he is also the founder and director of the Northeastern Network Science Institute.

His research has had a significant impact on multiple fields, including physics, network science, and computational epidemiology, and he and his team have contributed to the international management of the H1N1, Ebola, and Zika epidemics. He has collaborated with the World Health Organization (WHO), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the White House and other national and international institutions in response to the Coronavirus.

He is an honorary member of prestigious scientific associations, including the American Physical Society, the Academia Europaea, the Network Science Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

In Italy he has published the nonfiction books L’algoritmo e l’Oracolo: Come la scienza predice il futuro e ci aiuta a cambiarlo [The Algorithm and the Oracle: How science predicts the future and helps us change it] (Il Saggiatore, 2019) and I piani del Nemico. Cos’è e come funziona la scienza delle previsioni in tempo di crisi [The Enemy’s Plans: What the science of forecasting in times of crisis is and how it works] (Rizzoli, 2022).

He speaks English fluently