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Aniello Murano is a Full Professor in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology of the University of Naples Federico II.
He got the laurea degree (cum laude) in Computer Science at the Università degli Studi di Salerno in November 1997 and, at the same university, the PhD in Computer Science (ranked as first of his class) in February 2003, working under the supervision of Proff. Margherita Napoli, Salvatore La Torre, and Moshe Y. Vardi. In 2001 and 2002, under the PhD program, he has been working at the Rice University of Houston (TX-USA), under the supervision of Moshe Y. Vardi. From October 2002 until March 2005 he has been a Post-Doctoral Researcher, initially at the Università degli Studi di Salerno, and then at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel), working with Prof. Orna Kupferman. Before starting the Phd, for six months in 1998, he has been working as a programmer and software analist at the software house Geepin Engineering S.P.A. Then, he has attended a one-year Master at the University of Salerno in the field of image processing and multimedia.
His research activities are rooted in the fields of Artificial Intelligence and Formal Methods. He has made notable contributions to the development of formal methods for knowledge representation and strategic reasoning of reactive and multi-agent systems. One of his most significant contributions in this domain lies in the development of Strategy Logic, a robust formalism that has risen to paramount importance within the field of symbolic AI research. Strategy Logic serves as a cornerstone, enabling sophisticated reasoning about the strategic capabilities of agents and game-theoretic scenarios, including Nash Equilibria in multi-agent systems. Within this comprehensive framework, algorithms and tools have been developed to specify, verify, and synthesize agents’ strategies, underscoring the pivotal role of Strategy Logic in shaping the landscape of artificial intelligence. He has published extensively in top-ranked conferences (A*/A) and journals (Q1/Q2) with awards and nominations for some of his papers. In details, he is the (co-)author of over 250 scientific publications, more than 140 appearing as conference papers, where 20 have been presented at AAMAS, 15 at IJCAI, 14 at KR, 5 at LICS, and 3 at AAAI. Many of his publications are highly cited. and some have received awards, such as the Best Paper at the conference PRIMA in 2015 and 2024, as well as the Best Paper nominations at FACS 2012 and AAMAS 2015. According to Google Scholar his h-index is 35, with about 4k citations. According to SCOPUS, his h-index is 29 with about 3k citations and he has been recognized as top author (41 papers) in Temporal Logic, Model Checking and Multi-Agent Systems (T.7402). According to AI 2000, his contributions over the past decade have earned him a place among the top 2000 AI researchers, and he has been honored with the KR Top 100 world researcher award. He is the editor of several scientific volumes.
He is the founder and the scientific director of the ASTREA (Automated Strategic Reasoning) Laboratory. Since its establishment in 2010, ASTREA has played a fundamental role in fostering dialogue between the communities of Formal Methods, Artificial Intelligence, and Game Theory, particularly concerning knowledge representation and strategic reasoning.
For over 20 years, he has been actively involved in research projects, securing funding from both national and international sources. For most of them he has served as main coordinator or principal investigator, personally attracting more than 100Milion euros. Among others there are university, regional, national, ministerial, PNRR, PRIN and FIRB, European FP6, FP7 and H2020 projects. In In 2021, he has got the JPMorgan Faculty 2023, he has got a Meta AI Research Project Award. Research Award, co-applicant with Giuseppe De Giacomo. In the years 2016-2019. he served as principal investigator for the Italian part of a bilateral project of the International Exchanges Award at the Royal Society in the United Kingdom (with Alessio Lomuscio, Imperial College). In 2019-2022, he has been the principal investigator for the Italian part of a bilateral project with the INRIA of France (together with Nicholas Markey). He actively collaborates with and visits research groups in Italy and abroad. Notably, in 2021 he has been a four-months invited researcher at Simons Institute of Berkeley in California, a one-month visiting researcher at the Imperial College in 2013 and a onemonth visiting researcher at the Hebrew University in 2006, 2008, 2010, and 2011. In January 2010 he was awarded with Orna Kupferman of the International biennial Vigevani Research Prize.
He regularly participates to workshops and conferences. Also, he has organized several conferences, serving as organizing and scientific chair. Notably, he has organized and chaired GandALF 2012, GAMES 2012, ICTCS 2017, CILC 2017, EUMAS 2023, and CSL 2024, all held in Naples. In 2023 he has been Sister Chair for IJCAI 2023. Currently, he is area chair for KR 2024 and cochairing the international conference ECAI 2025, to be held in Bologna. ECAI is the Europe’s premier AI research venue and is supported by EurAI. In 2012 he co-promoted the workshops Strategic Reasoning (SR) and Highlights of Logic, Games and Automata. He has organized the annual editions of SR which took place in Rome, Greenoble, Oxford and Liverpool, whose best articles, selected and revised, were published in the Journal Information and Computation. In 2017, he was the promoter of the FMAI international workshop (formal methods in AI) and the co-organizer of most of the subsequent editions. In 2023, he co-promoted the workshops SPIRIT@AIxIA. He carries out editorial activities for several high-level journals. He is regularly invited to participate as a member of the program committee of the annual editions of the most important conferences of Artificial Intelligence and Formal Methods (more than 100, up to now), including AAAI, AAMAS, IJCAI, KR, ECAI, EUMAS, LICS, MFCS, FoSSaCS, CSL, and TIME. He is a member of the editorial boards of the several top-rated scientific journals, including Artificial Intelligence Research, Artificial Intelligence Review, Knowledge-Based Systems, ACM Computing Surveys, Intelligent Systems, Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence, Information and Computation, and Computer and System Sciences. He has previously been a member of the editorial board of Fundamenta Informaticae. Additionally, he is a member of various international scientific organizations including AAAI, IEEE, ACM, AAIA, Game Theory, America Mathematical Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and AISB in UK. In Italy, he is a member of AIxIA, GNCS, and CINI. In 2024 he has been awarded as EurAI Fellow and AAIA Fellow.
From 2000 to 2005, he served as a teaching assistant in Computer Science at the University of Salerno, where he assisted with several courses. Since 2005, he has continuously taught at the University of Naples for more than 60 courses in Computer Science, and specifically in foundational aspects of AI. At the same university, he has held teaching positions in at SICSI (enabling courses for teaching), to teach historical AI, Lifelong learning courses, and courses in e-learning modalities. On average, the university teaching commitment has been 4 courses/200 hours per year.
He actively fosters the growth and development of younger researchers through substantial mentoring initiatives, which have had a transformative impact on the professional and personal growth of his students. In the years, he has shown a great commitment in nurturing emerging talent and promoting an inclusive and collaborative learning environment. Since 2005, he has supervised and co-supervised more than 150 bachelor’s and master’s degree theses in Computer Science, with an average of 8 theses per year. He also participated in various commissions for PhD defences. He has been the member of the Erasmus Program for some years. In 2008, he joined the PhD board in Computer Science at the University of Salerno and in 2011 the one at the University of Naples. Since 2005, he has (co-)supervised 12 PhD students, many of whom have received awards for their research activities. He has supervised and coordinated 4 Marie-Curie H2020 fellows and supervised 25 postdoctoral researcher positions; most of the recipients are now holding professor positions in prestigious universities around the world. Several of his students have received prestigious prizes under his (co-)supervision and among the others 1 Best National Master student award, 2 Best National PhD student awards, and 2 International Early Research Carrier Awards. He also supervised 3 Erasmus Master students from France, two from INRIA and one from the University of Toulouse.
He has delivered numerous AI courses in PhD programs and organized many others. In 2013, he taught a course on Strategic Reasoning at the ESSLLI International School. In 2023-24 he has given a tutorial at the conferences AAMAS 2023, KR 2023, KR 2024 and at the European Summer School in Artificial Intelligence ESSAI 2024 held by EurAI.
He is strongly committed to scientific outreach. He regularly meets industries as well as teachers and students at public schools to discuss about artificial intelligence. Since 2000, he has given seminars and courses for an average of 200 hours per year to more than 50 schools of the Campania Region.
Over the years he has held various organizing (teaching, administrative, and professional) positions at the University of Naples Federico II. In 2008, for three years, he has been in the board of directors of the University of Naples Federico II. He has been served as member for several evaluation commission of the competition for assistant and associate professors in computer science for several university in Italy. He has served as external expert evaluator for many research project for the Campania Region and the Italian Ministry of Research. Since 2005, he has served more than 100 times on bachelor’s and master’s degree committees in computer science. For over 25 years Aniello Murano has been a consultant expert for companies throughout the Italian territory for technological innovation. Since 2007 he voluntary committed for the digital transformation of the Santobono-Pausilipon Hospital in Naples, the foremost medical institution in Southern Italy for pediatric tumor treatment.Through tireless efforts, Murano propelled the hospital’s digitalization forward, providing indispensable support to medical staff and patients, especially during extended hospitalizations. His decade-long personal crusade earned him numerous awards, including prestigious honors from the Italian Parliament and the Office of the Prime Minister. Since October 2024, he has been leading the coordination of a groundbreaking initiative to establish the Oncological Pediatric Network in the Campania Region. This high-impact project, backed by 6.7 million euros in funding, is set to revolutionize pediatric oncology care by enhancing accessibility, fostering collaboration among healthcare institutions, and improving treatment outcomes for young patients.
He is the co-founder of the ImApps academic spin-off at the University of Naples Federico II, to develop AI tools and methodologies for teaching. Since 2018 he has been appointed by the Italian Government as National Expert for IT as a member of the organizing and evaluation commission of the competition for school managers.
(last update May 2025)
