Professor Cesare Montecucco studied chemistry and biology at the University of Padua, Italy, where he is currently Professor of Pathology and Deputy Director of the Scuola Galileiana. He also did research at Cambridge University in the UK, in the Dutch city of Utrecht, at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France, at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany and at the University of Costa Rica.
Professor Montecucco’s research explores the mechanisms of action of toxins as well as bacterial diseases, including tetanus, botulism, anthrax and Helicobacter pylori-associated diseases. He has published over 250 articles and edited three books.
He is a member of the board of various leading scientific journals and acts within the scientific committees of several institutes. In addition, he is a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization, the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere ed Arti, the Academia Europaea and the American Academy of Microbiology. For his contributions to the field of infectious diseases, Cesare Montecucco was awarded the Shipley Award of Harvard Medical School in 1993, the Prize of the Italian Consortium for Biotechnology in 1998, the Prize of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Hygiene und Mikrobiologie in 2000, the Prize of the Masi Foundation for Venetian Civilization in 2003, the Feltrinelli Prize for Medicine in 2004 and the Redi Award of the International Society on Toxinology in 2009. In 2011, Professor Montecucco was awarded the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Damstaedter Prize for his contributions to the field of bacterial diseases.
