Marco Scotti was born in Codogno, Italy, on 20 April 1978. He graduated in Environmental Sciences (2004) and received his PhD in Ecology (2007) from the University of Parma, under the guidance of Dr. Antonio Bodini. During the PhD, the focus of his research was on the application of network theory to ecology. He started working on food webs (the networks describing who eats whom in the ecosystem), but after spending three months as visiting scholar at the Collegium Budapest, Institute for Advanced Study (2006) he became interested in the application of network principles for modeling different types of ecological interactions (i.e., host-parasite, plant-ant, plant-seed disperser, plant-pollinator).

He worked as postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Balázs Vedres, at the Central European University, Center for Network Science (2008-2009). At the Center for Network Science (CNS) he explored potential links between ecological and social network analysis, by developing quantitative and interdisciplinary methods to study human society. In June 2009, Marco was co-organizer of an international Conference (“The Unexpected Link – Using network science to tackle social problems”) that served as opening event of CNS.

In 2010 Marco joined COSBI and started working as Junior Researcher by developing applications in the field of systems biology. In June 2011 he was in the Organizing Committee of the 7th European Conference on Ecological Modelling (“Ecological hierarchy from the genes to the biosphere”) – Riva del Garda, Italy. Since October 2011 he is Principal Investigator on network analysis and his research focuses on molecular nutrition, ecological networks, sustainability and energy security. Marco and Balázs Vedres are the Editors of the book “Networks in Social Policy Problems” (Cambridge University Press, September 2012), a volume presenting concrete case studies on the use of network analysis for tackling social policy problems.

During his career he gave a number of talks in different countries, and taught short courses on network science. He maintains a rich network of collaborators in different countries (Hungary, Mexico, US, Switzerland, The Netherlands, UK and Denmark).