Professor Carlo Rizzuto is the current Chair of ESFRI and Chairman of Elettra, Sincrotrone Trieste ScpA.

Graduating in physics in 1961, he became Associate Professor of Solid State Physics at the University of Geneva during 1963-5 and 1967-76, before becoming a full Professor in 1976, a position which he continues to hold. He has been a visiting Fellow at McGill University, Montréal; at Imperial College London; at the Universidad de Chile; Lausanne and at the Accademia dei Lincei. 

In addition to over 80 publications, he has been extensively involved in national and international bodies to promote and coordinate scientific development and frameworks for open and collaborative research, for example in China, India and the Ukraine.