Born in Fiume (actually Rijeka, Croatia) in 1939, graduated in Medicine at the University of Padova Medical School in 1963; Specialist in Neurology in 1967. During the years 1967-1970 he was Research Fellow at the Institute for Neurochemistry, Columbia University, New York, USA.
Full Professor of Neurology from 1980 and then Director of the Department of Neurosciences of the Medical School of the University of Padova till 2009. He was the Founder and Scientific Director of the Research Hospital for Neurorehabilitation, IRCCS San Camillo, Venice, from 2005 to 2014.
He has been member of the Executive Council of the Italian Society of Neurology and the President of the Italian Society for Parkinson’s Disease; he was a member of the Executive Committee on Extrapyramidal Disorders, chaired by Melvin Yahr, and after by Donald Calne, and of the one on Dementia of the World Federation of Neurology and, in 2009, Chairman of the Research Group for Organization and Delivery of Neurological Services; he has been elected at the WCN in London Vice-President for Europe of the World Federation of Neurology for the years 2001-2005; also, he has been the President of the European Society for Clinical Neuropharmacology during the years 2000-2008; he is a member of numerous International Scientific Societies, and Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology. He has been also a member of the Editorial Board of international journals of neuroscience and clinical neurology.
He has organized various International Congresses and Symposia on specific themes of neuroscience; he was the President of the 11th World Congress on Parkinson’s Disease that was held for the first time in Italy, Rome, in 1994, and President of the 2nd World Congress on Neurorehabilitation held in Venice, in 2002, when the World Federation on Neurorehabilitation was founded; also, he has been the Honorary President of the XXV World Congress of Neurology held in Rome, Italy, in October 2021.
He has published more than 300 papers in various international and national journals and edited ten volumes on specific arguments of neurology; his main scientific interests have always been cerebral metabolism and function especially in degenerative diseases of the nervous system, like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease, as well as in cerebrovascular diseases and in neurorehabilitation.
