Modern science was born in Pisa with Galileo Galilei. Since then, the University of Pisa (founded in 1343) is one of Italy’s largest and most renowned institutions for scientific research, technology development and teaching. Famous alumni of the university include Galileo Galilei and Antonio Pacinotti, Nobel Prize winners such as Giosuè Carducci, Enrico Fermi and Carlo Rubbia, and Fields medalists Enrico Bombieri and Alessio Figalli, Special Breakthrough Price Guido Tonelli. 

The University of Pisa has always been a teaching and research reference for Life Science and Computer Science. In the sixteenth century Luca Ghini held the chair of “Semplici” (Botany) and was the founder of the world’s first Botanical Garden. Gabriele Fallopio and Marcello Malpighi lectured in Anatomy and Medicine. In 1949 the neurophysiologist Giuseppe Moruzzi found an internationally renowned Neuroscience school at the University of Pisa.

The University of Pisa collaborated with Olivetti in the 50s to develop the first Italian transistor-based computer, started the first computer science course in Italy in 1969, the first PhD program in computer science in 1983, the first Italian Internet node in 1986, the first Data Science degree in Italy (early 2000) and it is managing the national AI PhD School.

Bioinformatics education is spanning many different bachelor and master degrees.

The University of Pisa has about 1600 faculty members, 1570 staff members, more than 45k students, 1200 PhD students, 600 post-docs, 60 bachelor degrees, 82 master degrees, 72 executive masters, 50 residency programs, 25 PhD schools, 20 departments and 8 research centers, 17 libraries, 13 museums and a green data center with more than 400 servers, 9000 kilometers of optic fiber.

The University of Pisa stands every year in top 1-2% worldwide and in the top 10 universities in Italy. It has close collaborations with the internationally renowned Scuola Normale Superiore and Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, supported by the University of Pisa for teaching. Pisa also hosts the largest site of the National Research Council for physical sciences and engineering and life sciences. The concentration of public-sector researchers in Pisa is the highest in Italy (about 8 researchers per 100 inhabitants, 10 times more than the average concentration in EU). Pisa is also an active innovation environment with the largest number of patents filed and active spin-off in Tuscany, that in turn has the second highest number of active spin-off in Italy (11%) as of November 2021.