Massimo de Francesco

Massimo de Francesco has over 25 years of experience in the field of data and translational sciences, informatics, and bioinformatics. Massimo is currently working at UCB as the Head of Data & Translational Sciences. Prior to this role, they served as the Senior Director and Head of Informatics at UCB. Massimo also has extensive experience in the pharmaceutical industry, having held positions at companies such as Merck Serono and Serono. At Merck Serono, they were the Global Head of Drug Discovery Informatics and was responsible for bioinformatics and cheminformatics. At Serono, they served as the Global Head of Scientific Computing, where they managed research informatics, bioinformatics, and cheminformatics globally. Massimo also played a key role in building the bioinformatics and cheminformatics organizations and developing the core software environment for scientists. Massimo has also worked at GlaxoWellcome as a bioinformatics scientist and at IBM as a postdoctoral fellow. Prior to that, they worked as a research scientist at CPI, where they focused on research in the field of informatics.

Massimo de Francesco earned their MSc in Computer Science from the University of Geneva, where they studied from 1983 to 1988. Massimo went on to pursue a Ph.D. in Computer Science, specializing in Artificial Intelligence and Neural Networks, from the same institution, graduating in 1994.