Fabrizio Catanese was born 16.03.1950 as second son of Enrichetta Laviosa Catanese and Luigi Catanese in Florence (Italy).High school degree (Maturita' Classica) in July 1968 at the Liceo Ginnasio Michelangelo, Firenze. Mathematiceski Olympiada in Moscow in july 1968. In october 1968 he won the concourse of admission to the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, and in the period 1968-1972 he studied mathematics at the Scuola Normale and at theUniversity of Pisa. Degrees obtained in November 1972 : Diploma di Licenza in Matematica della ScuolaNormale, Laurea in Matematica della Universita' di Pisa.December 1972 - November 1974 Post-Doc at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa.1974-1976 Assistant at the University of Pisa (tenured on june 1976).November 1976- october 1980: Associate professor at the University of Pisa (nontenured).November 1980 - March 1997 : Full Professor at the University of Pisa, with Chair ofGeometry.1977/78: Honorary Research Associate at Harvard University with NATO-CNR fellowship.Academic Year 1981/82 Member of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton.Visiting Professor at the University of California, San Diego in the Summersemester 1986.Visiting Professor at Columbia University in New York im the Summersemester 1987.Visiting Professor at the ETH Zurich in the Wintersemester 1990/91 ( holds Nachdiplom-Vorlesungen ).1994-1997 : Professore distaccato al Centro B. Segre della Accademia dei Lincei, Roma.April- May 1996 : Distinguished visiting professor at Stanford University (1996), holdsa graduate course.April 1997- august 2001: Professor on the Gauss Chair in Gottingen, Germany.January 2001: UNESCO appoints him Director of the School of Mathematics of the I.C.T.P . ( International Centre for Theoretical Physics), Trieste Italia. Visiting professor at Florida State University Tallahassee in the summer semester 2001, where he is oered the Eppes Chair in summer 2001.September 2001 : Professor at the University of Bayreuth , Chair VIII.November 2005 : he is appointed Director of the C.I.R.M. in Trento, Italy.January 2006: Fred Gehring distinguished visiting professor at the University of AnnArbor. Visiting professor or scholar for shorter periods (1-3 Months) at the following Universitiesand Research Institutes : Utrecht, Warwick, Bar-Ilan, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Caracas,Hannover, Bayreuth, Paris Orsay, Stanford; HKUST Hong Kong; Mittag Le er Institut(Stockholm), ISI Torino, CIRM Barcelona, MPI Bonn ('88, '93, '98), SFB Gottingen, InstituteH. Poincar e (Paris) ('95 , 2005), ICTP Trieste, MSRI Berkeley (1996, 2002, 2004,2009), RIMS Kyoto, M.I.T. ('96), Emmy Noether Institute ('99), Hong Kong University, KIAS Seoul, Harvard University (2000), Newton Institute (Cambridge , GB) ('94, 2002) I.H.E.S. (2006), Fudan University. Distinguished visiting professor at at U.C.I. (2001). Editor of the Journal of Algebraic Geometry (AMS), of the Rendiconti del Seminario Matematico di Padova, of the 'Rendiconti Acc. Lincei: Matematica ed applicazioni' (New series, Europ. Math. Soc. ), Portugaliae Mathematicae editor quondam, Associate editor of the 'Annales de la Fac. de Sciences Toulouse', Advisor of the European Mathematical Society Subseries of Springer Lecture Notes in Mathematics, Editor of the Italian Mathematical Society Subseries of Springer LectureNotes in Mathematics. He has been advisor and member in several international committees: Consiglio Scientifico del GNSAGA of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (1983 till 1997), Consiglio Scientifico of CIME (Italy, 1990-2001), Council of the European Mathematical Society (1992-1994), Council of Europroj (1991/92), Scienti c Committee of the MPI fur Mathematik in Bonn (1994-1999), Fachbeirat of the MPI fur Mathematik in Bonn (2000- 2006). Advisor of the Minerva Stiftung, for G.I.F., of the Simion Stoilow Institut in Bucharest (1999-), of the KIASin Seoul (2001- 2006), Peer Reviewer of NSF (1978-), of N.S.A., Referee of Italian MURST,Referee of Italian CINECA, of the German DFG, of the Portuguese National Science Foundation,of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, for the Newton Institute, ProgramCommittee of the European Congress of Mathematics, Barcelona 2000, Scienti c Committeeof the `Latin American Congress of Algebraic Geometry and its applications'(2009-).AWARDS:Prize of the Italian Mathematical Society (1974),Bartolozzi Prize (1984),Golden Medal of the Societa' Italiana delle Scienze (conferred by the President of theRepublic in 1993),Ordine del Cherubino of the University of Pisa (1995).ACADEMIES MEMBERSHIP :Became Member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in 1998,Mitglied der Akademie der Wissenschaften Gottingen in 2000.PLENARY ADDRESSES: CNR Congress Torino 1984, Congress of the Italian Mathematical Union, Catania 1991, Congress of the European Mathematical Society in Paris 1992, International Mediterranean Congress of Mathematics, Almeria 2005, Joint Meeting of D.M.V. and U.M.I., Perugia june 2007, and at many international Conferences and Congresses. Lecture Series: Institute for Scientific Exchange Turin 1984, INdAM 1983- 85, CIME 1985, Bayreuth 1992, ICTP 1992, Bochum 1995, Stanford 1996 (Distinguished Visiting Professor),Magnus Lectures, Fort Collins 1996, CIME 2003, School of the European Math.Society 2005, GAC Luminy 2005, Centre Emil Borel, IHP Paris, november 2005, KIAS and Sogang University (Seoul) february-march 2010.Organizer of a special Semester `Topology of algebraic varieties' at the MPI Bonn (summer 1998), of a special Trimester `Groups in algebraic geometry' at the Centro De Giorgi,Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (fall 2008).Organizer of over 35 Conferences, Summer Schools, Editor of 10 Books, author of over 110 publications, he has had more than 20 students who are currently active mathematicians and professors in several Universities in Italy, France, England (F. Capocasa, R. Pardini, A. Bartalesi, P. Oliverio, M. Salvetti, P. Cragnolini, A. Corti, B. Fantechi, M. Manetti, L. Ramero, F. Tovena, G. Casnati, F. Zucconi, S. Manfredini, P. Frediani, M. Grassi, R. Pignatelli, M. Franciosi, E. Rubei, C. Trifogli, A. Canonaco, C. Liedtke, F. Tonoli, C. Bohning, S. Rollenske, M. Penegini, M. Chan, W. Liu). Leader of the Research Project Algebraic Geometry" in Pisa and local leader of the EEC Network Algebraic Geometry in Europe (1990-1997), Codirector of the DFG Graduiertenkolleg "Gruppen und Geometrie", Gottingen, and then one of the 5 german Antragsteller of the DFG Schwerpunkt "Globale Methode in der komplexen Geometrie" (2000-2006), Coordinator of the Bayreuth node of EAGER (2001-2004), VIGONI DAAD Exchange Programs (1998-1999, 2005-2006).Coordinator of the DFG Forschergruppe 'Classi cation of algebraic surfaces and compact complex manifolds" ( 2007 - 2012).Research Fields: Algebraic Geometry, Complex Analysis, Complex Geometry and Topology, Differential Geometry, Commutative and Homological algebra.