Alessandro Vespignani is currently a professor of Informatics and Cognitive Science and adjunct professor of Physics and Statistics at Indiana University. 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 also scientific supervisor of the Complex Network Lagrange Laboratory (CNLL) at the Institute for Scientific Interchange in Torino, Italy.
Recently Vespignani's research activity 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, together with Pastor-Satorras, of the book Evolution and Structure of the Internet, published by Cambridge University Press. He was among the five scientists nominated for the Wired Magazine Rave Award in science for 2004.