Gian Paolo Accotto is a plant virologist and currently a Senior Scientist at the Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection (IPSP-CNR) based in Torino, Italy, which is a public research institute belonging to the Italian National Research Council. From 2011 to 2019, he served as a scientific and Managing Director at IPSP-CNR. He graduated in Agricultural Sciences at the University of Torino with specialisation in Plant Protection, later followed by a Master's in Bioinformatics. His expertise is in basic and applied plant virology, virus diagnostics, plant biotechnology, and gene expression studies in plant/virus interactions. He is currently in charge of the management of the Italian Collection of Plant Viruses (PLAVIT).