Roberto Cingolani swore in as Minister for the Ecological Transition of Italy on February 13, 2021. He holds a degree in Physics and a PhD in Physics at Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa. In 2000 he was appointed Full Professor of General Physics at the Engineering Faculty of University of Lecce (Italy). In 2001, he founded the National Nanotechnology Laboratory (NNL) of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) in Lecce, one of the largest international nanotechnology laboratories. Between 2005 and 2019 he was the Scientific Director of Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia – IIT, where he launched the interdisciplinary program “Humanoid Technologies”. From September 2019 to February 2021 he was the Chief Technology & Innovation Officer of Leonardo, the Italian multinational company specialized in Aerospace, Defense and Security. Roberto Cingolani is author and co-author of more than 1100 papers on international journals and holds more than 100 patents in the fields of Materials Science, Semiconductor Technologies, Nanotechnologies, Chemistry of Materials, Sensor Technologies, Optoelectronics and Photonics, Robotics. He has served as technical advisor in different panels for the Ministry of Research and University, including the Commission for the Selection of Centers of Excellence and the panel of experts for the drawing up of the National Research Plan, as well as for the European Commission, especially in the field of Nanotechnologies, New Materials, and New Production Systems. 

He has received many national and international awards, including the honorific title of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic of “Commendatore della Repubblica” from the President of the Italian Republic.