Roberto Danovaro is a full professor in Marine Biology and Director of the Department of Marine Science at the Polytechnic University of Marche (Ancona, Italy) as well as Professor of the Excellence Doctorate in Analysis and Governance of sustainable development (Venice International University). He has taught a number of international courses and masters and at the International School of Biophysics.
Since 2003 he has been the President of the European Federation of Marine Science and Technology Societies (EFMS) (http://www.efmsts.org/). He is also a member of the scientific council of the CoNISMa (Consortium Inter-universities for marine sciences). Roberto is a member of the board of the International Association of Meiobenthologists (IAM), and Italian Society of Ecology (SItE) and is member of the Concil of Presidence of the Italian Association of Oceanology & Limnology (AIOL).

Since 2002 he has been the Editor in Chief of Chemistry and Ecology (Taylor & Francis, London), and is also member of the Editorial Board of Oceanologica Acta (Elsevier). He has been a partner in several EU funded projects: HERMES, REEFRES, CORALZOO, MEDVEG, INTERPOL, ADIOS, MATER, BENGAL and CINCS. His research is focussed on the functioning of marine systems, with special reference to deep-sea ecosystems and the relationhsips between microbial and macrobial diversity. He has over 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals and published two books on Ecology of coastal marine environments and Environmental recovery.