PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Diego Calvanese

Diego Calvanese is an AI researcher whose work connects logical reasoning with data access. He received a Ph.D. from Sapienza Università di Roma in 1996. He coauthored DL-Lite, a tractable logic for ontologies, and helped initiate Ontop, which supports SPARQL queries over relational data. His career includes technology-transfer leadership in Bolzano, ACM and EurAI Fellow honors, a Wallenberg Guest Professorship in Umeå, and chairing the IJCAI-ECAI 2026 program committee.

Now at
NOI Techpark and Free University of Bozen-Bolzano
Works
546
Citations
21,022
h-index
64

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 14 October 2026.

Photo of Diego Calvanese

Timeline

  1. 1996

    A doctorate in Rome

    He received his Ph.D. from Sapienza Università di Roma in 1996.

  2. 2005–2021

    A tractable logic for ontologies

    Calvanese coauthored the 2005 AAAI paper “DL-Lite: Tractable Description Logics for Ontologies.” The logic was designed to capture basic ontology languages with low-complexity reasoning, and the paper received the 2021 AAAI Classic Paper Award.

  3. 2009–2017

    Connecting data through Ontop

    Calvanese and Mariano Rodriguez-Muro initiated the Ontop project in 2009. In 2017, he coauthored “Ontop: Answering SPARQL Queries over Relational Databases.” The framework supports SPARQL query answering over OWL 2 QL ontologies connected to external data sources.

  4. Since 2017

    Linking research to industry

    Since 2017, he has directed Smart Data Factory, the computer-science technology-transfer lab at NOI Techpark in Bolzano.

  5. 2019

    Recognition in data management

    The ACM named Calvanese an ACM Fellow in 2019.

  6. November 2019–October 2024

    A visiting professorship

    From November 2019 to October 2024, he held a Wallenberg Guest Professorship at Umeå University's Department of Computing Science.

  7. 2026

    Chairing IJCAI-ECAI

    At IJCAI-ECAI 2026, Calvanese served as PC Chair of the conference's Program Committee.

  8. As of October 2026

    Research leadership in Bolzano

    He is a full professor at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano and heads its Institute of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. He is also an EurAI Fellow.

Sources and credits

Photo: Horcrux, via Wikimedia Commons. License: CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: commons.wikimedia.org. Cropped to a square and resized. Ask us to remove or replace this photo.

  1. Diego Calvanese / Free University of Bozen-Bolzano unibz.it. Checked 14 October 2026.
  2. DL-Lite: Tractable Description Logics for Ontologies inf.unibz.it. Checked 14 October 2026.
  3. Professor Diego Calvanese appointed to lead one of the world's most prestigious AI conferences umu.se. Checked 14 October 2026.
  4. Research team | Ontop ontop-vkg.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  5. Publications | Ontop ontop-vkg.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  6. Diego Calvanese's Home Page inf.unibz.it. Checked 14 October 2026.
  7. Diego Calvanese Honored as ACM Fellow wasp-sweden.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  8. Program Committee – IJCAI 2026 2026.ijcai.org. Checked 14 October 2026.