He graduated in Engineering, at Pisa University, in 1969. He is a research manager at the Institute for Informatics and Telematics of National Council for Research (Pisa, Italy).
His interests in recent years are in the field of Internet technologies and governance. He is guest editor of the Special Issue of the Proceedings of IEEE "Evolution of Internet technologies" published in September 2004.
He is the Italian delegate in the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). In the framework of GAC he is the liaison with the Security and Stability Committee of ICANN.
He has been one of the pioneers for the introduction of the Internet in Italy; as Director of CNUCE institute of CNR, he has been instrumental for the establishment of the first permanent link to ARPAnet in Italy in 1986.
He has been the administrator of ".it" from its creation in 1987 through 1999; now he is in charge of the international relations of the registry; he is also member of the policy committee of the registry.
He brought CNR among the founding members of ISOC in 1992; he is the President of the Italian chapter of ISOC.
He has been the President of TERENA (Trans European Research and Education Networking Association) from 1995 to 1999.
He has been director of CNUCE, an Institute involved in informatics, computer services and networking from 1983 through 1996.