Alessandro Vespignani is currently James H. Rudy Professor of Informatics and adjunct professor of Physics and Statistics at Indiana University where he is also the director of the Center for Complex Networks and Systems Research (CNetS) . He has obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Rome "La Sapienza." After holding research positions at Yale University and Leiden University, he has been a member of the condensed matter research group at the International Center for Theoretical Physics (UNESCO) in Trieste. Before joining Indiana University Vespignani has been a faculty of the Laboratoire de Physique Theorique at the University of Paris-Sud working for the French National Council for Scientific Research (CNRS) of which he is still member at large. Vespignani is an elected fellow of the American Physical Society and is serving in the board/leadership of a variety of professional association and journals and the Institute for Scientific Interchange Foundation in Turin, Italy. Vespignani research interests include non-equilibrium statistical physics, phase transitions and cooperative phenomena, material science, complex networks and systems, theoretical and computational biology. Recently Vespignani's studies focuses on the interdisciplinary application of statistical and numerical simulation methods in the analysis of epidemic and spreading phenomena and the study of biological, social and technological networks. Vespignani is author of more than 120 publications in peer reviewed journals and the monographic texts Evolution and Structure of the Internet and Dynamical Processes on Complex Networks, both published by Cambridge University Press.