PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Francesco Scarcello

Francesco Scarcello is a computer scientist whose research spans database theory, constraint satisfaction and answer set programming. He earned a computer science PhD from the University of Calabria in 1997; his coauthored work on acyclic queries led to hypertree-width, and he won research prizes in 1999, 2008 and 2009. He served as vice rector and teaching delegate at Calabria from 2020 through October 2025, joined EurAI's Fellows in 2023, and co-edited Green-Aware AI workshop proceedings in October 2025. As of October 2026, he is a full professor of computer science at the University of Calabria.

Timeline

  1. 1997

    A computer science PhD

    In 1997, he earns a PhD in computer science from the University of Calabria.

  2. 1999

    An LPNMR paper award

    He receives the Best Paper Award at the 5th International Conference on Logic Programming and Non-monotonic Reasoning in 1999.

  3. 2001

    Hypertree width for queries

    In 2001, he coauthors “The complexity of acyclic conjunctive queries” with Georg Gottlob and Nicola Leone. This database work leads to hypertree-width, a measure of hypergraph cyclicity that identifies tractable classes of hard problems.

  4. 2008–2009

    Two AI research awards

    He wins the IJCAI-JAIR Best Paper Prize in 2008 and the PODS Alberto Mendelzon Test-of-Time Award in 2009.

  5. May 2020–October 2025

    Vice rector for teaching

    From May 2020 to October 2025, he serves as the University of Calabria's vice rector and delegate for teaching.

  6. 2023

    A EurAI Fellowship

    He joins EurAI's Fellows in 2023. His research spans database theory, constraint satisfaction, answer set programming and algorithmic game theory.

  7. October 2025

    Editing Green-Aware AI proceedings

    In October 2025, he co-edits proceedings for the 2nd Workshop on Green-Aware Artificial Intelligence, held with ECAI 2025.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor at Calabria

    He is a full professor of computer science at the University of Calabria. In May 2026, he receives a seminar assignment for the third edition of the master's program in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science.

  1. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Our estimates of which organizations employed the most people shaping AI from 1961 to 2025, with a year-by-year chart.
  2. The United States employs an estimated 53% of people in our data with a known employment countryOur estimates of where AI careers are concentrated now and how countries’ shares of dated positions changed over time.
  3. 46% of living people in our data with known birth and employment countries work outside their birth countryOur estimate of cross-border careers in AI, from country of birth and the country of each current organization.
  4. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionOur estimates of where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led, from education records in cited biographies.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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  1. FRANCESCO SCARCELLO | ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE phd.uniroma1.it. Checked 19 October 2026.
  2. 2023-fellows | European Association for Artificial Intelligence preview.eurai.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  3. Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford: Publication - The complexity of acyclic conjunctive queries cs.ox.ac.uk. Checked 19 October 2026.
  4. Portale Trasparenza Università della Calabria - SCARCELLO Francesco unical.portaleamministrazionetrasparente.it. Checked 19 October 2026.
  5. CEUR-WS.org/Vol-4165 - Green-Aware Artificial Intelligence 2025 ceur-ws.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  6. Portale Trasparenza Università della Calabria - SCARCELLO Francesco unical.portaleamministrazionetrasparente.it. Checked 19 October 2026.