Full Professor of General Linguistics and Vicarious Rector at the IUSS University of Pavia where he studies the theory of syntax for human and neurolinguistic languages. He founded and directed the NEtS, IUSS study center on neurocognition and theoretical syntax. Previously, he has been for a decade Full Professor at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University and associate at the University of Bologna.
Several times visiting scientist at MIT and Harvard University, he has held courses and seminars in Europe and the United States. Graduated in Pavia in classical letters, Fulbright scholar at MIT in Boston, holds a PhD in Linguistics at the Consortium of Padua and the Diploma d’études supérieures de théorie de la syntaxe et syntaxe comparative at the Université de Genève .
At San Raffaele, Milan, he was among the founders of the Department of Cognitive Sciences in 1993, a member of the authorizing committee of the faculty of Psychology and Philosophy of the emerging University and chair of the interdepartmental degree course in cognitive neuroscience until 2010. He studies theory of syntax and neurolinguistics.
He has published numerous articles in international journals including Nature Neuroscience, PNAS, TiCS and Linguistic Inquiry.

Among his books: The rise of predicates (Cambridge University Press, 1997) Dynamic Antisymmetry (MIT Press, 2000), The Boundaries of Babel (Il Mulino, 2015 -for Italy- and MIT Press) A brief history of the verb “to be” (MIT Press 2017, translated from Italian by Adelphi; 2010), I speak therefore I am, (Columbia University 2016, translated from Italian by Adelphi; 2012), The Equilibrium of Human Syntax (Routledge; 2013); Impossible Languages (MIT Press 2016; translated into Italian by Cortina; 2016).