ROBERTO DI PIETRO 

​KAUST - King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

He is Full Professor in Computer Science at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia, living in the ME (Saudi, Qatar) since 2017. Prior to this, Dr. Di Pietro was the Global Head of Cybersecurity Research at Bell Labs (Alcatel-Lucent/Nokia), with a focus on strategic alignment between innovation, business, and research. His professional journey began in 1995 in the military sector as a senior technical officer within the Italian Ministry of Defense, where he served for a decade. His expertise has also been recognized through long-term consulting and institutional roles at international organizations, including the United Nations (New York – UN HQ), EUROJUST (The Hague), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA, Vienna), and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO, Geneva) and visiting renowned research institutions, such as: EURECOM, University of California Irvine, George Mason University.

He holds two master’s degrees—one in Computer Science and another in Informatics—from the University of Pisa. He also completed a two-year post-master’s specialization diploma in Operations Research and Strategic Decisions (focus on economics and game theory), followed by a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Roma “La Sapienza.”

He was elevated IEEE Fellow, ACM Distinguished Scientist as well as foreign member of Academia Europaea. He has founded a start-up (exited) and he is a board member of research organizations and start-ups. His research interests other than cybersecurity for critical infrastructures include Data Science and AI, with applications to On-line Social Networks, distributed ledger technologies, and cryptocurrencies.