Luigi De Bellis received an honors degree in Agricultural Science from the University of Pisa (Italy) in 1981, and a Ph.D. in Crop and Fruit Trees Science (University of Pisa, in partnership with the Universities of Florence and Siena) in 1986. He worked as a graduate technician at the University of Pisa's Department of Agricultural Plant Biology from January 1, 1988, until October 31, 1998 (excluding periods outside of Italy). During this period, he earned postdoctoral research fellowships: Japan, Prof. M. Nishimura, National Institute for Basic Biology, Okazaki (30 months in two separate periods), and United Kingdom, Prof. S.M. Smith, Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology, The University of Edinburgh (12 months). In November 1998, he became an Associate Professor at the University of Lecce (now University of Salento), where he was promoted to a full professor in 2002. He was the director of the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Technologies of the University of Salento from March 2012 to March 2020, and he was on the board of the CMCC (Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Climate Change) Lecce, from May 2017 to May 2020. He is a member of the Italian Society of Plant Biology (SIBV) and of the Accademia dei Georgofili, Florence. In addition, he has recently been appointed President of the Academy of Mediterranean Biodiversity Sciences (ASBM - Bari). He also serves as the Editor in Chief of Horticulturae MPDI and a reviewer for other scientific journals.