Alberto Isidori, born in Rapallo in 1942, obtained his Laurea degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Rome in 1965 and the Libera Docenza in Automatic Control from the University of Rome in 1969. Between 1975 and 2012, he has been Professor of Automatic Control at this University, where he is currently Professor Emeritus.  He has held visiting position at various academic/research institutions which include: University of Florida (Gainesville) in 1974, University of California (Davis) in 1983, Arizona State University (Tempe) in 1986, University of Illinois (Urbana) in 1987, CINVESTAV (Mexico City) in 1987, University of California (Berkeley) in 1988, ETH (Zurich) in 1991, Universite Paris-Dauphine (Paris) in 1992, NASA (Langley) in 1996, Mittag-Leffler Institute (Stockholm) in 2003, Washington University (St. Louis) between 1989 and 2006, Zhejiang University (Hangzhou) between 2013 and 2016, ITMO University (St.Petersburg) in 2016 and 2017.
He has been President of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) for the triennium 2008-2011. He has been President of the European Union Control Association (EUCA) between 1995 and 1997.